To find the trend for cleaning on social media equally horrifying and fascinating?

[Rabbitjam]

Apologies if it has been brought up before.

I'm finding myself scrolling through instagram looking at hinchers and zoflora addicts. All these identical grey and silver houses. Everything bleached within an inch of its life. Some women (they are predominantly women) spray their beds with dettol every day. Furniture sprayed with zoflora and fabric conditioner (which apparently can make it less flame retardant). I don't live like this, my house is clean and fairly tidy but hardly on that scale. I simply don't have the time for a start.

I can't imagine the impact on their health breathing in all those cleaning products, but also on their mental health- it seems obsessive for some, taking over every aspect of their lives.
It also irks my feminism.

Of course though it is instagram so not necessarily "real life".

What are your thoughts on this?

Zoflora is a strong disinfectant it should be used down your drains and washing out your bins the trend of buying it to douse(sp) about your house is awful all those lavendery fumes I caught my dd getting over excited by a christmas zoflora she went to 3 differe nt shops to find it!

Honestly? I think it’s all fake.
My mum is a cleaner, has been for the last 19 years and is amazing at what she does. Her house is always always spotless, you could eat your dinner out her loo seats and even the dogs bowl is thoroughly cleaned and anti-bacced. You can’t put a mug down without it being whisked away to be washed up and literally everything has its place.
Then my kids come around and trash it in seconds. My mum laughs at the sticky jam fingerprints, she loves the toys everywhere and finds it hilarious that there’s always a piece of food put in one of her shoes.
Everyone who’s got a perfect “greige” house on insta or Facebook is a big fat liar. They shove all the crap into the next room, hoover, pick the best corner and photograph that, with a huge pile of shit behind them.
That’s also what this Mrs hinch does: she’s a total fake too. They over use zoflora and fabric softener so it “smells clean” when someone visits so they think it’s clean and don’t go wandering upstairs where there’s piles and piles and piles of shit just out of sight.

I don’t get it, I really don’t. My house is clean enough - no one has ever physically recoiled, anyway - but I can think of so many better things to do with my time than dousing everything in Febreeze. Read books. Do some yoga. Cook. Lie on the sofa with a glass of wine while listening to the radio. Sleep. There is so much more to life than a spotless home.

Quite aside from the harm done by filling your living environment with a fug of chemical crap, and using endless plastic bottles that it inevitably comes in, if you need to clean to deal with anxiety you’d be better off spending your money on therapy rather than Zoflora.

My gran had a bottle of zoflora under her sink for years she would use it to scrub her front step or if anybody had been ill in the bathroom, she used a splash of it in hot soapy water. Now people who follow these cleaning instagrams have a zoflora collection

Ooohhhh ‘greige’ I’ve never come across that before... I like it!

In fairness if Kim and Aggie had been popular when social media existed everyone’s house would have been shown off stinking of vinegar. There’s always a fad.

Was out with a friend over the weekend and she was telling me that her granddaughter is obsessed with Mrs Hinch. Granddaughter is early twenties, single mum, low income. She spends £s every week on cleaning products, has them all stored in colour co-ordinated baskets. But doesn’t really clean anything................

DFriend has tried to talk to her about it, but she just gets huffy and quotes Mrs Hinch.

I agree with pp on the environmental issue, it's awful. It really creeps me out how everything is synthetic, plastic grass, artificial flowers, artifical scent from wax melts.

And it definitely seems like some sort of contagious mental health condition.

Not wanting to sound snobby ( I am piss poor so fall into this bracket) there is a correlation between this trend and low income people. My dh very cynically pointed out it has probably been contrived that way by the likes of zoflora who pay instagrammers to promote it, and sell their products through places like b&m. Seems like a cheap "thrill" at the time but gets out of hand.

I hope pp are right that they don't actually spend all of their time cleaning!

It really doesn’t surprise me to learn that one of these social media cleaners has been in and out of hospital with health issues - her home must be toxic with the amount of chemicals she uses and mixes.

Yabu today 'within an inch of its life' I hate it. All the flipping people people on these groups that I'm also in clean things to within an inch of its life, ffs stop it, it makes me cringe

It’s an ecological and health (and aesthetic) catastrophe to live the way Mrs Hinch and her followers live.

I read once that the introduction of labour saving devices like washing machines did not reduce the amount of time women spent doing laundry as much as we might think, because instead of spending less time doing laundry we all started washing clothes more frequently instead!

I think this current trend is that phenomena taken to extremes:
Technology and new cleaning chemicals mean it is no longer necessary to spend hours a day doing housework.
Yet some people (mainly women) feel they still should, for whatever reason.
So they raise their standards to fill the time they have available.

Can't understand it myself!

There's also a tribal element to it.
Humans like to think we're one of a pack, and that's a lot to do with how the whole hinch army thing came about. It's a sense of being connected or part of something.

I don't use half as many chemicals and I'm having to use even less due to allergy prone DCs (Eczema, asthma etc.)
I think some of them smell nice but my house has to be wet dusted, well aired and minimal chemicals used instead.
I can't use Lenor only the baby comfort etc. I can't imagine spraying it on my bed.
But I can get my home gleaming with a little bit of fairy liquid, some cif cleaner and a little lemon bleach in under an hour (with some reusable cloths and elbow grease). I can't work out the need for more cleaning products than that really. It's madness

It’s an interesting phenomenon. I expect it’s to do with exerting control in an uncertain world or similar.

I agree about the environmental impact though, it’s not necessary to clean tonthat degree and ultimately bad for health as well as the planet.

Nothing on earth would make me purchase zoflora though, I’m clearly not the target market.

I also think it says a lot when someone with a sparkling silver house is seen, and comes across as 'common'. Like you've gone too far then surely.

Most people have clean if not slightly untidy houses. Because it's a home.

It's not a 'home' when it's a sparkling showhome from a cheap catalogue and covered in fake velvet (velour 🤮🤢) and plastic rugs soaked in zoflora and phthalates.

It's grim, then, not a home. Just grim.

I wonder if this phenomenon descends from the tradition of proud working class women who kept their front steps, houses etc clean as a new pin despite living in mill/pit towns with filth all around. It would be interesting to carry out a bit of cultural anthropology.

The people you follow is not all of social media

@DulcieRay have a look at the eco range new in Wilkos. Might be even better for you for the kids allergies. You shouldn't be using bleach anywhere with asthma btw. Or anywhere in general tbh, it's bad for everyone.

1950s chav, five? Wow, nice.

@Skiptheskip instead of speculating on someone's health, if you actually watched her stories you'd know she's got long standing health problems nothing to do with cleaning or being pregnant.

There are some useful and interesting Instagram cleaning accounts such as the organised Mum method (TOMM) and the secret cleaner who does science club explaining the science behind cleaning products.

I love the thought of cleaning but in reality I do the bare minimum.

@Fiveredbricks I only use it on the toilet and with the window wide open and extractor on tbf.

That I'm also in

Then the next breath "stop it it makes me cringe"

You do know you don't have to follow if it makes you cringe, right?!
That's what's more bizarre. People hate following then running off to bitch and moan lol