Hello people of the internet, I’m Ross and I should probably be doing some sort of “work” as I actually have stuff that needs sorting. Yet here I am, about to talk bollocks about cleaning accounts on Instagram.
HOLD UP THOUGH!
This isn’t going to be me sat here slagging people off and all that jazz - don’t panic Rachel! To be honest, it’s more of an email about comparison and all that shit, but I didn’t know what title to give it. So I just went with “My Thoughts on Cleaning Accounts”.
After all, they do say you should write a title that draws people in to want to open the email. So maybe I should change my email titles in the future. I wonder what the open rate would be if it was “Here’s Ross Getting Bummed by a Goat”.
Imagine doing that one as a joke and it ends up being someone’s first email!
Anyway…
My Thoughts on Cleaning Accounts...
Yeah, so I’m talking about this mainly because I think it’s good every now and then to try and add some perspective to the shit we might all see on social media. I dare say you all know the crack by now. It’s the old saying of…
“Stop Comparing Your Behind-The-Scenes With Everyone's Highlight Reel”
But I want to add a little more to it and remind everyone that the accounts you often see on Instagram are also people who run it as their ACTUAL JOB. Or they at least run it as a “side hustle” or hobby that they wish to grow. How does that change things? Well it changes things drastically.
Part of running a social media account is producing content. Well… That’s literally THE only job of running a social media account really. Without content it’s just… Well… It’s just white space I guess.
And in order to produce content, you need things in order to produce content around. No matter what your niche is, you need to make content.
If you’re a parenting account, you produce content geared around parenting. If you’re a stand-up comedian, you’re likely to be producing content geared around comedy. And if you’re a cleaning account, you’re naturally going to produce cleaning related content.
BUT… here’s the slight issue that can arise with that.
To create content for a cleaning account, you need to find shit to clean.
You basically need to go around the house and go “I’ll do a floor mopping tutorial, then a time lapse of doing the windows and maybe a video on how I organise my cupboard”.
Basically, you get to a point where you’re trying to FIND content rather than naturally producing it. And if these accounts start feeling the pressure to produce more - there’s always an element of pressure to keep producing - then they have to go deeper and deeper and almost become a bit excessive.
This then leads people to cleaning everything mostly for the sake of content. They then post it to people who often barely have enough time in the day as it is.
Like I’m genuinely happy if the clothes are IN the wardrobe, let alone hung up. So be fucked am I getting a mop and cleaning the ceiling, or pulling the fridge out to clean behind it, or any of the other things people might do when content is needed.
This need for content can create insecurities in the people who see it
So that’s my problem with it.
The average mum or dad that sees these over-the-top cleaning videos end up spiralling down the thought process of feeling like they have to do that too.
But they’re also trying to juggle a full time job and 4 kids.
Then they flick on social media and see a tap that’s been wanked off until it’s gleaming and they feel shit about their tap that’s maybe rubbed off once a year.
I’m not having a go at anyone who produces this content. I genuinely get it. I have to produce content too.
But I’m just trying to put it all into perspective.
Heck, Rachel even sometimes watches these sorts of videos and then feels a bit shit that our house isn’t glistening. And I have to remind her that with all things considered, the house is alright. Are there toys everywhere? Yes. Do we put them away every night. Usually. But that doesn’t make a blind bit of difference because we have 3 kids. If your house isn’t at least 50% trashed with 3 kids then WTF are you doing!? Like how?
And speaking of kids… the same shit goes for parentings accounts. You’ll see people do all sorts of wicked crafts and stuff with the kids, and then you feel like shit because you struggle to find the time to do that too.
The same shit often applies.
More often than not, the people who are producing the content are doing so as it’s their actual job in some way.
Like you wouldn’t watch our content and go “fuck sake, haven’t poured a wax melt today” now would you? So don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t reorganised the cupboard and cleaned the oven to the point where you may as well just eat your dinner directly off it too.
To be fair, that might save on dishes.
Anyway…
So there’s a shit little ramble about stuff I guess.
I have no idea if there was any point in me writing that, or any point in you reading it. I know there’s a lot of merit to a lot of cleaning - and parenting - accounts, and often they simply give people good time saving tips and hacks. But due to the nature of what they’re doing, they can also over do it and make people feel like they have to too.
I’m not trying to be a dick. I just am a dick.
But yeah… thank you for reading and hopefully the next email will be super cool and full of interesting content. Or it’ll be more of the same shit. Either way.
Much love,
Ross & Rachel x
Well this is a bit freaky! Not your email, but the fact that today I started doing The Organised Mum Method app for cleaning. With 3 kids and running a business, our house is a shit hole. Ok, that might be exaggerating somewhat but it’s not far off. Suffering with depression has me having days when I literally can’t be fudged to do anything which doesn’t help. Everything just seems so overwhelming. Washing baskets over flowing despite doing a load or 2 everyday, stuff everywhere: toys, books, things that don’t really have a place but can’t throw away etc. I generally do the bare minimum of a tidy round downstairs and a quick hoover. Upstairs is lucky if it gets hoovered once every 2 months. Gopping I know. I felt completely overwhelmed thinking I had to clean the house in one go, then getting all upset when I could only manage to clean the bathroom or the kitchen or just hoover downstairs. I felt I HAD to do the whole house in one go and was an absolute failure as a mum, wife and human when I couldn’t. I only came to the realisation today that I don’t have to do it all in one go. How mad is that? Why haven’t I thought like that for the past god knows how many years? It took a bloody app to tell me what to do! Today, I spent 15min giving the bathrooms a quick wipe over, making the kids beds and putting on a load of laundry (actually did 2). Then about 40min tidying and dusting the living room, giving the window a clean and hoovering through downstairs (except my office) then mopping the living room floor. And that was it for todays jobs on the app. Tomorrow will be the same 15min jobs, then 30-40min on the bedrooms. Having it broken down for me like this and being told this is what I need to do, doesn’t feel so overwhelming and makes me feel like I can get on top of things again for the first time in years. It might not seem like much time spent on cleaning, but you can focus on different jobs each week. I won’t go into details of the app workings, as I don’t want to bore anyone reading (if I haven’t already bored the pants off you thus far).
You’re completely right in saying that some random things are done purely for content. I suppose that is their job after all. And once you’ve shown someone the ‘right’ way to clean something, that’s kinda it so you have to find the next thing, then the next and before you know it, it’s videos on washing down your garden fences or cleaning brick pointing with a toothbrush 🤷🏻♀️
I guess my point is that even though some things on the cleaning accounts, be it on Instagram or TikTok, might put pressure on people who are already struggling with keeping on top of things to do jobs that you wouldn’t necessarily say are part of a ‘normal’ cleaning routine, wade through and there’s actually some really helpful hints and tips for people to manage their time better and get them into a routine to even just do the bare minimum. If once they feel better able to cope and the task isn’t so daunting anymore, then they can add in shite like pulling out the fridge or sorting out the junk draw!
I’ll shut up now. I’ve not even had any gin so can’t blame my rambling on that!
xx
I work a 50 hour week and have four children, my house will NEVER look like those houses and I definitely don’t have time to hoover the ceiling! It does smell nice though, cheers mucker, that one is down to you! 🤣