MANILA, Philippines — It's cool to go down and dirty these days. All over social media, there is a group of online personalities that draw in millions of views just by getting their hands dirty, literally.
Piles of dirt and layers of grime usually turn people off, but all over the Internet, there are some who find it therapeutic to scrub clean a place that could be a pigsty for many people.
Such is the case for Auri Kananen, known on TikTok as the 30-year-old Finn "cleanfluencer" who travels the world and cleans some of the most unkempt spaces ever seen with her signature pink gloves.
"I love cleaning, I love dirt," said Kananen, one of the growing number of "cleanfluencers" on TikTok.
As the name suggests, these are people who make videos of themselves cleaning and have massive number of views and followers.
"I remember when I had 19 followers. Even then it felt really cool to have 19 strangers wanting to see me clean," said Kananen, or "aurikatariina" as she is known to her nine million followers on TikTok, with two million on YouTube.
It might be a squemish job for most, but the Finn strikes as someone who enjoys what she is doing. While cleaning, she appears upbeat, vibing with pop music as she cleans every nook and cranny until the space is clean to her liking.
"Usually people have some mental health problem or other tragedy that has happened in their lives," Kananen told AFP.
The flat in Helsinki where she cleaned, for instance, is the home of a depressed young man whose brother suffers from multiple sclerosis, she explained.
The Tiktok personality said she can relate to people living in miserable conditions because she went through a period of depression herself, she said.
"I know how overwhelming it is," she said.
Another "cleanfluencer" said it came naturally for her to film herself cleaning as she thought it was part of her daily routine.
"I was watching videos and I thought, that's what I do at home, I can just film myself doing it," recalled 27-year-old Abbi, known as "cleanwithabbi" to her two million followers.
The English single mom shared cleaning has always been an important part of her life as her youngest son Billy lives with sensory processing disorder.
"He really loves his routine and he does like things to be clean," she said.
She said to AFP that brands sponsor her to use their products, and she earns between $720 and $1,200 a video.
"It relaxes me, it's like therapy," she told AFP. "For me it's like an escape from any worries I've got."
Pest control convention
Over here in the Philippines, a group of people who have a similar interest — of keeping houses free from pests — are celebrating their 61st year with a national convention on overcoming challenges in the pest control industry.
The Pest Control Association of the Philippines (PCAP) will be holding its national convention today, March 24, at the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) in Tagaytay City.
It is expected to bring hundreds of participants from the pest control industry and features distinguished speakers from various industries.
With the theme, "Overcoming Challenges in the Pest Control Industry," the convention will focus on addressing the issues and challenges faced by professionals in the field.
Speakers such as Philippine Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Sec. Bienvenido Laguesma, Philippine Food and Drug Administration director general Dr. Samuel Zacate, Sen. Joel Villanueva and chairman of the LEADS Group of Companies, Fernando Malveda, will shed light on the significance of pest control in the country and the impact of CAP's work in the industry.
For details on PCAP and its initiatives, visit www.REap.ph. — With reports from AFP
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