The Parenting Hangover: Cleaning hacks with TikTok star Brit Cunningham

Cleaning the house can be a hassle. That's why The Parenting Hangover hosts Jordan Watson and Clint Roberts sat down with TikTok star Brit Cunningham to learn more about how she keeps cleaning fun in her family. Photo / Getty Images

Join hosts Jordan Watson, aka How to Dad, and ZM’s Clint Roberts every week for The Parenting Hangover podcast, where the two dads talk about everything involved in raising their respective families in a modern, changing world. From tackling the big topics like the birds and the bees to talking about intimacy after kids with a qualified sexologist — these 21st-century Kiwi dads aren’t afraid to go there.

If you’ve got little ones, you’ll know the near-impossible struggle to keep your house tidy amid the chaos that is raising children.

Everything is sticky, there are raisins smashed under every seat in the house and you can’t seem to remember what colour your carpet is under the mountain of toys and playmats.

Enter this week’s guest of The Parenting Hangover - viral Kiwi TikTok star Brit Cunningham.

Cunningham sat down with hosts Watson and Roberts to discuss her rise to fame and her top tips for keeping it clean.

Cunningham saw herself first go viral when a video of her steam cleaning gained more than six million views and was the apparent catalyst for a nationwide shortage of Karcher steam cleaners.

Speaking about the video, Cunningham shared the reason behind it’s creation: “I was like, I’m just going to clean my bathroom for the first time because it’s had other people’s filth in it, because I don’t know about you, but that makes me deeply uncomfortable.”

She originally didn’t like the video, yet she joked that “of course that’s the one that goes viral”.

Cunningham also shared how she uses cleaning as a mental health outlet.

When she and her partner moved into their first home at 20 years old, she realised how much it mattered to nurture her surroundings.

Living in an old house that needed a renovation, Cunningham shared that cleaning, “was what I could do for my own sanity - clean and organise”.

With young ones thrown into the mix, how does Cunningham navigate the balance of clean, and a house that feels like a home?

“With kids I always have something to clean. And I think that that’s the perspective - it’s actually joyful because it means that they’re happy and they’re healthy and they’re playing and they’re making a mess,” she said.

Although she admitted she does set boundaries on how messy her kids can be, Cunningham emphasised the importance of not using cleaning as a “punishment” for kids.

“For example, I never want to be like ‘go to your room, go clean your room’. I try and bring them in on the satisfaction of cleaning.”

Cunningham also shared some hot tips for people who feel overwhelmed by the mountain of work involved in keeping a house tidy.

“My top tips would be to try not to pressure yourself into needing to have it all done all at once. I feel like nobody has all of their sh*t together all of the time.”

@brit_cunningham

Part one 👉 @Brit Cunningham let’s clean the dirtiest bathroom ive ever seen 🫠 as we try get this room finished on time. Follow along for the update! #cleantok #cleanwithme #deepcleantok #bathroomdeepclean #deepcleanwithme #cleaning #cleaningtiktok #deepcleaning #cleaningmotivation #cleaningbeforeandafter #satisfyingcleans #projecthouse #renovatewithme #roomrenovation #roomrenovationinprogress #roomrenovations #bedroommakeover #guestbedroom #diy #tiktokdiy #renovation #renovationseries #renotok #diytok #mumswhoclean #guestroom #honestmom #relatable #cleanignmotivation #nzmum #momtok #nztiktok #newzealandtiktok

♬ Cute Girl - EXJUNE

• To hear more and Cunningham’s surprising cleaning hacks and tips, listen to this week’s episode of The Parenting Hangover below.
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