We all love a good satisfying TikTok cleaning video, wonderfully categorised by the “CleanTok” hashtag. The ones where they soak a grey rug and it turns out to be white in the end? Perfection.
@kimber.key Sometimes mustering the energy to do the task takes more effort than the actual task. #mopping #steammop #bissellpowerfresh #cleantok ♬ original sound – Kimber Key
Unfortunately, most of what these popular CleanTok accounts use are professional-level tools that are too expensive to buy and too large to store. However, that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. Here are some consumer-grade alternatives that can give you your own satisfying before and after photos with a little elbow grease.
Hoover Cleanslate spot cleaner
Most fancy spot cleaners cost around $100 to rent and will give you great results. But if you spill stuff on your couch all the time, or have a lot you need to deal with, the Hoover Cleanslate ($349) is super effective with a little effort. Just fill the clean water tank with water and a little of the included solution, use the trigger to spray the liquid onto the affected area, and scrub hard.
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Hoover CleanSlate Pet Carpet & Upholstery, Powerful, Stain Remover Multipurpose, Portable Spot... |
$ 276.19 |
Buy on Amazon |
The way it works is the detergent starts to shift the stain, you agitate it with the brush, and you avoid mould growing because the vacuum attachment sucks up all the extra water. After about an hour of work, I managed to make my dad’s extremely gross, 20-year-old couch go from looking almost black in places from years of skin grease, to being bright red and looking about five years old. It’s still gross, but touching it no longer fills my body with horror, and that’s pretty good for one hour’s work. Another treatment made the main cushion look almost new.
The big lesson from this is that you can go expensive for a quick, low-effort option, but saving some money can get you the same CleanTok-worthy result and a top-notch strength workout.
You can get the Hoover Cleanslate from Godfreys or Amazon to get you started on your CleanTok journey.
Tineco Carpet One Pro shampooer
Carpet shampooers can be rented at most major supermarkets for a hefty fee, but for an even heftier fee ($999), you can keep this carpet shampooer that I swear has actual magic powers. It’s got a fully digital screen with a built-in tutorial and talks you through how to use it, so it’s super easy to operate.
Basically, you take out the water tank, put in the solution, put it on auto mode to shampoo the carpet, and then switch to dry mode when you want to dry it. There’s also an attachment you can plug in if you want to do smaller spot cleaning, or really get into a stubborn stain. The Carpet One Pro is what you jump to if you have bigger problems than the more affordable Hoover Cleanslate can handle.
I tested this on the carpet at my dad’s entryway and managed to get out stains that had been there for almost 30 years in just five minutes. It required almost no effort, and while it is tiring to treat a whole room, the results are so stunning that I’d say it’s worth every penny.
Before I used the Tineco Carpet One, I thought my parents would need new carpet, or maybe an exorcist to get all these stains out. Now? They practically look like new. The shampooer even got out a year-old red wine stain. Glorious.
Godfreys stocks the Tineco shampooer if you’re keen to make your carpets look the cleanest they’ve been in years.
Dyson V15 Detect
Dyson vacuum cleaners are extremely expensive, and massively overhyped, but completely worth it. If you’ve never vacuumed your mattress, put on either the hair screw tool, or the fabric and mattress tool, vacuum, and reel back in horror at the amount of skin and dust you get out of it. The suction in the new model is much stronger than even last year’s V11, and you can really see the difference. This doesn’t so much transform the appearance of stuff you have, but seeing that dustbin after vacuuming areas you wouldn’t have looked at twice before is so disgustingly satisfying that it basically counts.
Other satisfying areas to vacuum are that weird no-man’s-land behind various furniture with the Awkward Gap Tool, and you can even vacuum your dog before they shed with the Pet Grooming Kit.
You can regularly find the Dyson V15 Detect on sale at the following online retailers:
Philips Sneaker Cleaner
The Philips Sneaker Cleaner ($49.95) is basically just a giant electric toothbrush for your shoes, and I was originally sceptical about how much of a difference it would make over just using a regular brush from a Crep Protect Sneaker Cleaner Pack. However, I used the Sneaker Cleaner to clean a pair of my favourite sneakers that were so caked in mud after a bike ride, I was pretty sure I was going to have to throw them out, and they now look like nothing ever happened.
They don’t quite look like new, because they were my everyday sneakers for over a year and this sneaker cleaner isn’t a miracle worker, but the before and after was so impressive (think this video, which is representative of the CleanTok trend) that it definitely seems worthy of inclusion.
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Philips Sneaker Cleaner GCA1000/60 |
$ 39.00 |
Buy on Amazon |
I also used them on a pair of white UltraBoosts and it took off all that city grime that had them starting to look grey. To really get that satisfying before and after video, you can also get white Boost paint to touch up the soles.
Bissell Powerfresh Lift-Off Steam Mop
If your tiles or wooden floor is starting to look a bit dull and sad, it could be that time has wearied them, or that they’re just lightly encrusted with tiny dust that’s discoloured it. Or stubborn stains have settled in.
This steam mop has the least user-friendly user interface I’ve seen, but once you get it working, it can work magic. I’m not sure if it’s worth owning one of your own unless you have a particular use for it, but having a communal one shared between a few households, or borrowing one from somewhere can make a huge difference to the cleanliness of your flooring, particularly if you have babies (of the fur or skin varieties).
Even if you have no aspirations of being a CleanTok creator, these devices all yield incredibly satisfying results and help clean your home.
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