Making a tidy sum from social media
There are fortunes to be gained from being good at cleaning – and telling others online exactly how to go about it
ROLLING T-shirts, spraying cushions with Dettol and fiddling about with the rubber seal of the washing machine have made several very smart people a lot of money.
Cleanfluencers – Instagrammers who post about housework, tidying and organising their homes – have found a way to monetise mundane chores that the rest of us consider unpaid labour.
Thanks to social media, this germ-free and perfectly ironed elite are in huge demand to promote everything from cloths and dusters to high-end vacuum cleaners.
As their homes are their showcases, they are also on the receiving end of gifts and freebies, from carpets and curtains to personalised baby wipe dispensers.
Scotland’s king of clean, Mario McKnight, may not be in the same league as Mrs Hinch, but with 80,000 followers, he’s on his way to the toilet-scrubbing big league.
Here are the biggest earning cleanfluencers on Instagram.
GEMMA BRAY, 174,000 FOLLOWERS, £539 PER POST
The Organised Mum’s theory is, once a house has been decluttered and deep cleaned, it’s possible to keep on top of chores in 30 minutes a day, with weekends off.
She has sheets of tasks to print out just in case you forget that this week’s Friday focus is degunging the shower curtain.
Her book was a best seller and she also has an app in case printouts stuck to the fridge go against the principle of a pin-neat house. Her followers are already following her countdown to an #organisedchristmas.
LYNSEY CROMBIE, 163,000 FOLLOWERS, £504 PER POST
This Morning’s cleaning guru, known as “The Queen of Clean”, appears on the show to discuss cleaning and household products. So, it’s hardly surprising that companies want her plugging their goods on Instagram.
She also writes books and has a festive dustathon planned with her latest, How to Clean Your House at Christmas.
It’s not all about the bleachscented dollar – she advocates DIY cleaning sprays and advises her followers on how to do clever things with bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar.
BECKY RAPINCHUK, 386,000 FOLLOWERS, £1100 PER POST
The Instagrammer known as Clean Mama is the closest the US gets to a Mrs Hinch. She’s one organised lady, dispensing tips that reflect the work that goes into keeping enormous American properties social-media perfect and dust-free.
In Clean Mama world, the house is always “guest-ready”. Beds always made and children trained early in how to load a washing machine and use a dustpan and brush.
She is very big on routines and lists – and on keeping the weekend housework-free.
MELISSA MAKER, 57,000 FOLLOWERS, £242 PER POST
The Canadian social media star has yet to give herself a catchy cleaning name.
Her main source of social media income is from her Clean My Space video channel on YouTube, posting helpful and down-toearth tutorials.
She demonstrates how to get rid of cat hair using a window squeegee, a DIY tumble drier ball made of tin foil and uses a laundry bag in the dishwasher to deep clean her kids’ germ-laden plastic figurines.