6 million people have seen this former housekeeper's viral hack for quickly cleaning their homes, and honestly, it made a huge difference to me.

Hi! My name is Ashley and I just moved into my first apartment in LA, so there is constant chaos around me.

My apartment is larger than a typical studio—about 650 square feet—so in theory it should be easier to keep clean than most one-bedroom apartments. But because it's still a huge space, any small mess makes the whole apartment look chaotic. So I feel like I'm constantly cleaning, and the space never looks neat and tidy.

And apparently I'm not the only one who struggles to find a cleaning routine for their house or apartment after moving or even settling into a new place. A 2023 SWNS Digital survey asked 2,000 Americans about their cleaning habits. It found that 68% of respondents took about six months to develop a cleaning routine. However, 16% of respondents admitted to never finding one.

Luckily, TikTok has a section full of people like Cindell Kimbrough, who goes by @cindellkimbrough on TikTok. People like Cindell clean for fun and film it so the rest of us can learn. Kimbrough is a 37-year-old content creator living in Tennessee. She also used to clean houses for a living and shared this now-viral TikTok with more than 6 million views, in which she explains step-by-step how she cleaned huge houses in record time.

TikTok: @cindellkimbrough / Via tiktok.com

“I think the biggest house I've ever cleaned was about 5,000 square feet, and I did it in under five hours… so it works,” she said.

To begin with, Kimbrough explains that we will tackle one room at a time.

Then choose the room you'll start in. Choose carefully, because you won't leave until it's clean. Cindell starts in her children's room.

“The next step is to pick a corner and work your way around the room,” she said.

“Now we're going to dust.”

“Now all that’s left to do is do the floors.”

After you're done with the room, repeat the process in each room or part of the house that you've sectioned off as a room until the place is spotless.

“This is how you get things done quickly and efficiently,” she said.

The part of this method that resonated with me the most was dividing my apartment into small rooms and then gradually tackling smaller areas of the space. The epiphany was NOT leaving the room to put things away. I definitely get distracted and clean somewhere else, then no particular area gets completely clean.

It also helped me to move from corner to corner in each room and focus on one task at a time.

Now, I'll be honest and admit that I didn't clean everything in one day. When one room was clean, I would pat myself on the back and promise to tackle another room the next day. However, that's more my problem than a criticism of this cleaning method.

In an interview with BuzzFeed, Cindell confirmed that my (our) ability to get distracted so easily is the most common mistake people make when cleaning their homes. “The mental aspect of cleaning is by far the biggest hurdle. I've been using this method of focusing on one section at a time for over 10 years and I still have to constantly check in with myself and actively bring my attention back to the task at hand.”

I asked her what advice she has given friends and family when it comes to the obstacles they face when cleaning. “I often hear from friends and family, 'I just have a hard time getting started,' especially when they're faced with a major cleaning or decluttering task… when the chaos seems overwhelming, it can seem impossible to take the first step yourself.”

“I always recommend watching videos that directly relate to your situation… These videos can be game-changing because they not only give you practical ideas and strategies for your own space, but also serve as visual proof that a transformation is possible.”

What is the biggest hurdle for you when cleaning your home? Let us know in the comments!