The ‘queen of cleaning’ is coming to Texas and looking for its dirtiest homes

She calls herself the “queen of cleaning.” With over 4 million subscribers on YouTube and more than a billion views, Finnish cleaner AuriKatariina is coming to Texas in January and February and is looking for the dirtiest houses in the state to clean – for free.

With the permission of the person living there and keeping them completely anonymous, she films herself cleaning – traveling the world and tackling one messy home at a time.

To see if a place you live is a good fit for AuriKatariina – “the messier the better,” she says – you can send her an email, visit her website or send her a direct message on Instagram.

She spoke with the Texas Standard from Finland on why she loves dirty homes and how she hopes to give peace of mind to the folks who live there.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: For folks who have not seen your YouTube channel, can you just give us a quick explanation of what it is you do?

AuriKatariina: Yeah. So I deep clean people’s homes for free around the world. And for me, the dirtier the better, because I love, like, dirt, mold, a lot of trash.

I always clean for free, because people are struggling and they can’t clean their homes by themselves. So I like to help with that.

People might have a picture in their head of the types of houses you clean. And I would tell them to picture something 10 to 20 times dirtier than that, whatever the picture. I mean, really, truly nothing seems to be too messy for you. Why is “the dirtier the better” true in your case?

Usually, houses are way too clean for me. I don’t like cleanliness. That’s boring. I like challenges. Like my favorite houses are like, there has been mushrooms growing in the kitchen sink. Or, like, rats, cockroaches. So much trash that you can see the floor. That’s the houses I love.

Imagine a thick layer of dust, like years of dust, and you get to wipe it away. Isn’t that, like, satisfying? I love to do that. That is my passion. Cleaning is my passion. But you need some grime to get satisfaction from it, you know? So if you have a dirty home, I can travel anywhere to clean it, basically.

But next, I’m coming to Texas because everything is bigger in America, even the messes. And I love that. I love that.

How can folks get in touch with you if they know of a house that they think would be a good candidate for you to clean?

By the way, I do all the cleanings anonymously, so there’s no names, nothing. People can’t see where where the house is located or anything like that. So that’s good. So you don’t have to be ashamed or anything like that.

But you can send me an email or then my Instagram, aurikatariina, you can send me pictures or messages there.

You mentioned that this is an anonymous service and that that way it avoids some of the shame that folks may feel. Could you talk a little bit about the mental health aspect of this service that you provide and how this can help alleviate perhaps some of the strain that people are feeling?

So usually it’s depression or some type of mental illness, what has happened. Or some traumatic event like some of these people have lost their child, their husband, their wife. Something has happened, and these people feel like they are trash. So their home starts to look like that, that they feel so bad.

And that happens all over the world. I mean, you shouldn’t be ashamed of that. But of course, I know, because nobody wants to live in a filthy home. Nobody wants that. But before I started doing these free home cleanings, I was volunteering work in a suicidal hotline or a crisis line. So I know what mental health issues can do.

But there’s always hope. There’s always hope. So that’s why I want to keep doing these free home cleanings, to help people. Because it feels so much better when your home is clean. Your mind is clear, you know, after that.

What do people tell you about what this gives them – you know, coming home to a house that is transformed, having a clean slate, all of a sudden.

They usually say like it’s a fresh start. And for example, many, many of these people tell me that after me, they start to do their laundry. They start to organize their stuff.

It gives them energy and hope, especially hope that if you have a problem, they are fixable. Everything can be fixed. So it gives so much hope that something better for future.

Courtesy Aurikatariina

Are you surprised that there is a following for this, that people are interested in watching you clean dirty houses?

Yeah, kind of. And kind of not, because cleaning is a universal thing. Everybody has to clean or almost everybody has to clean. So it’s something pretty normal. But I feel like my goal at first when I started doing normal cleaning videos was to show people how fun and sexy cleaning can be.

And then when I started doing these normal cleaning videos, people started to ask for my help. So that was kind of surprising that there is so many houses that needed my help and that people let me into their home to clean.

Because it’s not easy. It’s not easy at all, because people are so ashamed about their homes. But then I feel like many people like to watch my videos because they haven’t seen anything like that before.

And that’s why I like to tell stories, how things like this happens, you know? Because it’s interesting. And people love to see something transform. So, yeah, there’s many aspects.

It feels like maybe the service you’re providing, as much as the cleaning, is approaching these people’s situations without judgment. Does that feel correct?

Yes, that’s so correct. And it helps people all around the world because there are so many people in a similar situation. And people also send me before and after pictures when they have cleaned their homes by themselves. So it helps in many ways, and it’s perfect.

And then people say after they’ve watched my videos that, “oh, my home isn’t that bad at all.” Like, it’s really relieving, you know?

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