Brogan Chambers’s videos of her cleaning homes for free have gained her millions of followers between Instagram and TikTok.John Morris/The Globe and Mail
The easiest way to tell that I am massively stressed out or feeling down is by looking at my apartment.
Cleaning is one of the first things to go during depressive periods. It’s an easy situation to snowball. A week or so of putting things off and suddenly my home is in shambles. What would have been some quick tidying now requires a half day of scrubbing and organization.
That bigger task weighs heavy on the mind, the constant reminders of what I “should” be doing manifested in stacks of dirty dishes. Piles of laundry. A grimey bathroom. Overwhelmed by the sheer amount of cleaning, I end up doing nothing. Feeling too anxious to get started and too weighed down by the guilt of procrastination to rest. It’s not great. But I’d wager that for anyone who’s ever experienced depression or other mental-health challenges, the feeling isn’t unfamiliar.
“I have ADHD and know first-hand just how strong the correlation is between mental health and cleaning,” said Brogan Chambers, a content creator for her social-media channel @nottheworstcleaner_.
Based in Halifax, she’s racked up more than 6.3 million followers on TikTok and 1.4 million on Instagram. Chambers’s videos document the free cleaning services she offers to folks struggling with their mental health.
“I think it’s a topic that is very taboo and a lot of people don’t even realize the connection between the two. … I wanted my content to be able to normalize real life, let people know that they are not alone and also show others that they are one struggle away from needing help.”
Chambers didn’t set out to build a large social-media following. Three years ago, the creator posted a cleaning schedule to TikTok, breaking down weekly chores around the house and an eight-week deep clean. The schedule gained nearly 200,000 views and an outpouring of messages asking for a copy of the schedule and general cleaning advice.
Chambers helps folks struggling with physical and mental health whose living accommodations have become challenging.John Morris/The Globe and Mail
Cleaning wasn’t Chambers’s profession. It wasn’t even something she particularly liked. But the tone and tenor of the messages touched on some of her bigger interests. The creator studied psychology at university. She started thinking more about the intersections between cleaning and mental health.
Wanting to keep the momentum of her channel going and recognizing an opportunity to share her knowledge, Chambers started discussing mental-health advice alongside her cleaning tips. Within a year, she had reached the three-million-follower mark. With that massive following, she started looking for ways to give back.
“I had people reaching out to me for help every single day. Sending me photos. Showing me that they were living in unlivable hoarder-like environments and didn’t know how to get out of the situations that they ended up in.”
Wanting to help, Chambers first used her platform to fundraise. She’d pay cleaning companies to come into the homes needing the most help. But the majority rejected the jobs, letting Chambers know they’d “require hazmat biohazard cleanup crews which can cost tens of thousands of dollars minimum.”
Still, not helping wasn’t an option. Applying the same cleaning strategies she’d been advocating in her videos, Chambers offered her services for free. Investing in cleaning supplies and putting in a lot of time and care, the impact was immediately clear. After cleaning the home of a woman living in her area, she knew that cleaning was changing lives.
“It was being able to see the excitement and joy on her kids’ faces that made me realize I never wanted to stop doing these. Over three years later and I have been doing free cleanings weekly ever since.”
Chambers’s videos often deal with people in critical situations. Folks struggling with physical and mental health whose living accommodations have become challenging. Living rooms that have built up layers of waste. Fridges with spoiled food. Infestations of rodents or bugs. To protect her own well-being, the creator often uses a respirator and disposable coveralls. The pro-bono services are offered without judgment, putting empathy at the forefront while offering practical advice to viewers.
The approach is a nice contrast from other “CleanTok” social-media videos, which some experts believe create unrealistic expectations for everyday people.
“Some people see these TikTok videos or Instagram reels of perfectly clean homes with everything organized and labelled and use that as a marker for normal. It’s something they do not believe that they can attain,” said Dr. Natasha Williams, a registered psychologist based in Toronto. “It ends up being more of a hindrance than a help.”
Those are sentiments Chambers sees reflected in the comments and messages she receives.
“Creators are very quick to show their perfect, spotless, clean homes, but never the actual mess,” says Chambers. “Whenever someone mentions it, I always say: You’re watching someone else’s highlight reels. You don’t get to see the lows. You don’t get to see the struggle. You never see the mess.”
For anyone looking to tackle their own home cleaning and stressed about where to start, Chambers suggests breaking things into the smallest steps. Does 10 minutes of folding laundry seem possible? Twenty minutes of dusting? Once people get started, they often find they want to do more. But giving yourself permission to tackle the bare minimum is often a great way to overcome the anxiety of a task that can feel insurmountable.
“It is all about progress and not perfection. Everything does not have to be done all at once, baby steps add up faster than no steps. If you have that preconceived idea of how hard it’s going to be or how long it’s going to take you to clean up, you’re just making it easy for your brain to talk you out of doing it.”
Brogan Chambers’s trusted cleaning tools:
Scrub Daddy Sponges – A constant in Chambers’s videos, these sponges are durable and change texture based on the temperature of water you use.
VIM cream – This multipurpose cleaner is great for a variety of different surfaces. It’s a go-to for the versatility of the product, from the bathroom to the kitchen and beyond.
Therapy Clean Stainless Steel Cleaner – Chambers uses this on metal surfaces. The creator says she’s “yet to find anything like it!”
