How He Got Started
Based just south of Green Bay in Appleton, Wis., Brandon took over his family’s decades-old cleaning business about 10 years ago. In March 2020 Brandon made the choice to shut down for four months. “As a business owner, I was freaking out,” he said. “My escape was to start posting silly, kind of crazy cleaning videos on the internet.” One of the first videos he posted was of a post-carpet cleaning technique called carpet grooming. After it received nearly 40K views, Brandon thought he might actually be onto something. “I was like… whoa, that’s wild. I didn’t think people would care about a janitor from Wisconsin.” Questions began pouring into Brandon’s inbox, and his platforms have steadily grown ever since. We asked Brandon to share his top-performing TikTok cleaning videos, as well as his personal favorites. As for the pillowcase, this is really Brandon’s only hack… for now. They’ll occasionally use them as drop cloths, but when it comes to fan blades, they’re your best bet for trapping the dust. Fun Tak, it turns out, is a common item in Brandon’s cleaning arsenal, because it’s perfect for anything you don’t want to stick a brush into. “Some people feel it gets caught in the grill, so just don’t get it too warm. But I use it when I want to grab dust and pull it out but a brush or vacuum would be too aggressive.” “I usually test on my own carpet, especially when I definitely know I can get it out!” When it comes to creating new content, he really lets his followers lead the way. “My audience goes in waves of needs. Spring cleaning was recent, and we’re still kind of in that, so there are a lot of spring cleaning and deep cleaning-related questions. As the year progresses, the audience’s needs and questions change. I build my content around them to be helpful.” And if you’re in the market for a new vacuum, Brandon swears by Hoover. “My family has literally been using Hoover for forty years now." But while TikTok is where Brandon got his start as an influencer, it’s not necessarily where he sees his content thriving. Over on Instagram, his account has seen steady growth, amassing 50k followers over the past 30 days—bringing him to just over 100k. “I can have more of a connection with my audience [on Instagram]. TikTok casts a wide net to a wide audience, but Instagram is a place where I’m able to share stories throughout my day and really connect. They work well together. TikTok kind of gets you out there, and Instagram allows you to really help people.” His next move is to branch out even further onto YouTube. “I want to have longer-form videos where we can really talk about processes and proper techniques.” And when it comes to coming up with new content, Brandon is sure he’ll never run out. Whether he’s testing out hacks other cleaning creators have shared or coming up with a solution for a follower in need, Brandon sees no shortage of opportunities for the world of cleaning online. “There will always be dirt and dust and things to clean. [People ask] if I’m ever going to run out of things to clean and I’m like… probably not! Dirt and grime aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.”
