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cleaning

Joy

Man parodies wife's frantic cleaning 10 minutes before guests arrive and it's so relatable

"The quick mental break sitting on the toilet and staring into space just makes this a relatability masterpiece."

Photo credit: Canva

You can't let company know you actively live in your home, of course.

Unless you're someone who manages to keep a perfectly neat, tidy and sparklingly clean home every minute of every day, you're probably familiar with the mad-dash-to-clean-before-company-arrives. You know, when you start shoving random piles of things into drawers and closets and bedrooms, simultaneously dusting and vacuuming while yelling, "OMG, WE LIVE IN A PIG STY! DOES ANYONE EVER CLEAN THIS HOUSE?!?"

If that drill sounds familiar, wait til you see this parody video from online creators Micah and Sarah Wallace.

Micah shared a reenactment of his wife greeting guests at the door and "apologizing" for the state of their objectively clean house, claiming it's "a little messier than usual" and that they "have just not gotten around to cleaning it."

Lies. All lies, as evidenced by his reenactment of his wife 10 minutes before those guests arrived. That you just have to see.

Watch:

"WE NEED TO SET UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS OF HOW WE LIVE!"

Feel that one? Yep.

"There should be NO TRASH in the TRASH CAN! I want them questioning if the bin is even real!!!"

Umm, ouch.

It's exaggerated for comedic effect, but it's actually not that far off of how many people panic imagining all of the imperfections someone might possibly judge them for when they come over and frantically clean accordingly.

"I DON'T APPRECIATE THIS ACCURATE IMPERSONATION OF MY HUSBAND'S WIFE!"

"Bro you took me out running the vacuum on the ceiling because it’s literally what I feel like I had to do‼️🤦🏾♂️😂😂😂🫠"

"The quick mental break sitting on the toilet and staring into space just makes this a relatability masterpiece."

"'There should be no trash in the trash can!!' 😂😂 I feel attacked!"

"She’s 1000% correct bc why is there Trash in the Trash can 🫣🤯🤯 Thats Honestly a serious violation in “Guests are coming Over 101” in my House 😂😂"

Some commenters added things he left out, many of which had to do with what the husband would be doing during the frantic clean-up.

"Forgot the part where you pretend to be a guest.. you go outside and come in the front door to make sure everything looks good!"

"You forgot to light the scented candles and make sure the wall flowers are full."

"Now make one where the wife needs assistance making the house presentable and the husband does some nonsensical unrelated chore like cleaning out the gutters."

"Meanwhile the husband is doing something completely useless like using the leaf blower on the roof 🤣"

"Every single time when we expected guests my husband do some nonsense stuff...like organizing his screwdrivers or something like this."

Some shared that guests coming over is the only thing that gets them to clean the house.

"Guest coming over is my biggest motivation for clean up the house within a day😎"

"Yes!!, for normal days, it feels like why the housework got no ending…
Before the guest coming over, oh so it’s possible to clean the whole house 😂"

"I only invite guests to finally be able to enjoy my clean home 😂"

"I invite friends so I clean the house 🤣🤣🤣🤣"

There's nothing wrong with wanting to provide guests with some nice, clean home hospitality, but there's also nothing wrong with letting people see that you actually live in your home. Micah and Sarah clearly hit a nerve with this one. You can follow them for more comedy on Instagram.


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Community

The reason Japanese fans clean up after World Cup matches boils down to one word—'atarimae'

Imagine if the whole world adopted this concept.

Photo by Jaleel Akbash on Unsplash

Japanese soccer fans explain why they clean the stadium after a match.

Japanese fans at the World Cup tournament have been receiving praise for their admirable habit of cleaning up the stadium after their team's matches. It's commonplace to see Japanese fans, blue garbage sacks in hand, hanging back after the game to pick up the trash everyone has left behind in the stadium.

It's not the first time Japanese cleanliness has made headlines. Some schools in Japan don't even hire janitorial staff, as the students clean their schools themselves. Other than in specific educational programs such as Montessori (where practical skills and habits like cleaning and organizing the environment are incorporated into the pedagogy), that idea is practically unheard of in the U.S. But watching the Japanese fans picking up after a game, the automatic assumption that someone else is going to clean up after us feels like a mistake.

So what is it that compels Japanese fans to clean the stadium at the World Cup, despite the fact that there are people hired to do it already?

It generally comes down to one word: "atarimae."

Atarimae isn't easy to directly translate into English, but it basically means "natural" or "obvious" or "the norm." Japanese fans may be getting a lot of attention for their cleaning habits, but they're not trying to make some grand statement or gesture—for them, it's simply a matter of course that one would clean up mess wherever they are.

Al Jazeera's Sandra Gathmann interviewed several Japanese fans after their team's 2-1 victory over Germany to ask them about their stadium clean-ups. It was explained that the idea of cleaning and tidying up is ingrained as a part of Japanese culture from a young age and that it's atarimae—obvious, natural, the norm—to leave a place cleaner than they found it.

Watch:

@aljazeeraontiktok

Why do Japanese football fans clean up after a match? @Sandra Gathmann asks the fans #QatarWorldCup2022 #FIFA #WorldCup #Qatar #Football #Qatar2022 #WorldCup2022 #Japan #cleaning #fans

Imagine if everyone thought of cleaning up as atarimae. Wouldn't that be something?

Having lived in Japan myself, I can attest to how clean Japanese cities there are—despite being densely packed with people—due to this concept. The contrast between an average Japanese city and an average American city in terms of cleanliness is quite remarkable.

But being an American raising kids in the U.S., I can also attest to the fact that it's much easier to ingrain those automatic cleaning habits into kids when the entire society is living this concept. Parents in the U.S. are in an uphill battle trying to train kids to take responsibility for cleaning up in a someone-else-will-do-it society, and it would take a major cultural shift to make automatic cleaning a matter of course for Americans. I would certainly love to see it, though.

In Qatar, the Japanese are showing what's possible when a habit is culturally embraced and are setting a wonderful example the whole world can follow. Perhaps before the World Cup is finished we'll see people from all nations taking trash bags into the stadium and running with the idea that cleaning up after an event without being asked is simply … atarimae.

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Health

2 photos of a woman's bedroom reveal just how powerful depression can be.

"We need to be able to talk to each other about our feelings, even the bad ones."

Photo via Jonna Roslund, used with permission.

Dealing and not dealing with a messy room

This article originally appeared on September 7, 2016

Jonna Roslund is a 26-year-old from Sweden who lives with depression.

Living with a mental illness affects many areas of a person's life, including one annoyance most of us can relate to: the dread of household chores.

But for Roslund — and many people living with depression — the process of cleaning can be about so much more than simply tidying up.

"I suffer from severe depression and have a really hard time with cleaning and doing other kinds of household work," she wrote in a post on Imgur.

household chores, suicide, Jonna Roslund

Selfie taken by Jonna Roslund.

Photo via Jonna Roslund, used with permission.


"My room [has] been this messy for several months [because] I can't push myself to take care of it," she explained. "But this Friday I decided to finally do it!"

She posted two photos of her bedroom — one before cleaning up, and one afterward.

This was Roslund's bedroom before she cleaned:

self care, positive attitude, cleaning

This can be considered messy.

Photo via Jonna Roslund, used with permission.

And after she cleaned:

mental health, household chores, motivation

What a difference some elbow grease can make, huh?

Photo via Jonna Roslund, used with permission.

"You can finally see that I have a floor!" she wrote. "Say hi to my teddy Nalle on the bed!”

"I know it's not a big victory, but for me it means the world to just be able to have my door open if people come over. I feel so at peace right now ... Me 1 — Depression 0!”

The comments on Roslund's post are filled with words of encouragement, as other users expressed how relatable it is to see a messy room so perfectly symbolize their own form of mental illness:

"I too suffer from depression and I know how hard it is to function. You rock and you're an inspiration!"

"I've been suffering from bouts of depression and dealing with an eating disorder and my place is in disarray. This is inspiring."

"Good on ya! Cleaning is the first to go when my depression flares and cleaning is one of the things that can feel good in the depths."

"Good job, [Roslund]. 1 step at a time, 1 small victory after another, is what will get you through this (: I wish you the best.”

Roslund's experience with depression and struggling to stay on top of household chores isn't all that unique.

Feeling as though you have little energy and motivation is a common characteristic for those living with depression. Everyday tasks — from the bigger things like staying productive at your job to the smaller (but still important) things like completing household chores — can feel impossibly difficult at times.

depression, mental illness, suicide prevention

Dirty kitchens happen.

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

That no-energy feeling is one that Roslund knows all too well.

"When you're depressed, it's a struggle to just get out of bed," she explains over email. "It makes other things that other, healthy people do, so overwhelming. It's like trying to run a marathon when you've been in a coma for years."

That's why Roslund's post resonated so widely. It touches on an important point: Sometimes small victories aren't so small after all.

Roslund wants the world to get better at how it addresses mental illness — and that starts with all of us.

"We need to be able to talk to each other about our feelings, even the bad ones," she writes. "And we need to be better at listening when someone is trying to talk to you about it, even though it's hard to hear."

It's a vital message to remember, especially since it's National Suicide Prevention Week. Depression and the risk of suicide are closely related.

"Be patient with yourself or the person you know who is going through a hard time. And it's important to remember that there is help out there!"



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Wellness

Watching this kind woman clean homes for free is its own form of therapy

TikTok

The Queen of Cleaning improves people's lives, one kitchen at a time.

Ever watched a cleaning TikTok? Man, are they satisfying. There’s nothing like seeing the grubby bathroom getting scrubbed and buffed into something spa worthy. It’s just so cathartic. Is there such a thing as visual ASMR?

Not to mention that having a clean home just feels so good. Having things tidy makes the daily stressors of life seem more manageable.

But for many of us, this basic comfort is an impossible luxury. Things pile on, both literally and metaphorically. Being a single parent, having depression and illness are among the many obstacles that can drain someone of their time and energy to really take on a thorough cleaning. And once things spiral out of control, it can be very hard to get back on track again.

Cleaning enthusiast Aurikatariina proudly describes herself as “The Queen of Cleaning” on TikTok and YouTube. Yes, the transformations are wild. Yes, she has some great tips and tips. But the truly remarkable thing is that this woman uses her passion to help others: by offering to clean their homes for free.

Her free home makeover videos not only feature the Queen of Cleaning doing what she does best, they also share the stories of those she’s helping. And watching them feels like a good soul cleansing.

@aurikatariina

This lovely was crying from happiness 🥺👵🏻🙏 I just LOVE to help people ❤️ ##elderly ##helping ##homecleaning ##takecare ##satisfya ##satisfyingvideo

♬ Home - Edith Whiskers

Like when she helped an 80-year-old couple who had no support to manage their home. So Aurikatariina got to work, and made the kitchen immaculate (in the video above).

Her caption reads “my heart melted when this lovely lady was crying from happiness.”

I mean, it’s one thing to get this much joy from cleaning your own home. But for a stranger? That’s next level. And it really goes to show that giving to others rewards everyone involved.

@aurikatariina

One of the saddest but the best cleaning ever 🥺👩‍👧‍👧❤️ ##cleaningtiktok ##cleaning ##makeover ##oddlysatisfying

♬ Survivor - 2WEI & Edda Hayes

In another video, Aurikatariina helps out a single mom. She explains that the father left her alone with two kids, and (understandably) the home had gotten in bad condition.

What seems like a million toys litter the floor. A Coke can in the medicine cabinet. An ironing board that’s become a table for junk. Yeah, it’s bad. But Aurikatariina cleans it all, staying kind and compassionate the whole way through.

Her video ends with “if there is a mother struggling I‘m here to tell you that you are not alone.”

One person commented “as a single mom of 4 thank you for helping her. These messes get outta hand so quickly when you’re the only one doing literally EVERYTHING.”

@aurikatariina

The reaction of the cat at the end 😭😻👏🏻 ##story ##storytime ##touching ##forfree ##happycat ##homecleaning ##homemakeover

♬ Home - Edith Whiskers

Aurikatariina cleaned the home of a cat owner, who was really sick. Both kitty and the young girl were swimming in mounds of food packaging and cat hair. But with Aurikatariina’s help, along with some generous donations of supplies from her followers, the home became spotless.

You’ll wanna stay for the end of this one if you want to see one happy cat lounging in a pristine bathroom sink, after being thoroughly confused to see his new home.

As many people noted in the comments, the cat was also clearly healthy and well loved. This woman was able to take care of her cat, just not herself.

@aurikatariina

Hope is the best medicine of all 🙏 ##forfree ##homecleaning ##satisfying ##hope ##cleaningtiktok ##deepcleaning ##kitchen ##kitchencleaning

♬ Summer - Instrumental - Devinney

Aurikatariina captions this one with “hope is the best medicine of all.”

As she declutters and scrubs, Aurikatariina explains that this homeowner suffers from anxiety, depression, a physically demanding job and financial problems. Yeah, that’s a lot.

“He didn’t have the strength to put effort into his home…so here I am,” she writes.

@aurikatariina

THE MOST AMAZING TRANSFORMATION EVER!! 😍😍 ##forfree ##cleaning ##clean ##beforeandafter ##motivation

♬ Cinematic Trailer - Saltonbria

This home was labeled “dirtiest house in Europe.” A cleaning job this massive would have cost about $15,000, Aurikatariina tells us. And she did it for free.

She even flew from Finland to Switzerland to do it. Cleaning brand Scrub Daddy paid for her plane ticket and hotel. But still, that kind of generosity is beyond inspiring.

Aurikatariina is offering people not only a freshly cleaned home, but a fresh start as well.

As the saying goes, “helping one person might not change the world, but it could change the world for one person.” And that matters.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go organize my closet.

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