Watching people clean things can be as effective at reducing stress as doing it for real, a Cambridge University study found last year. That is no surprise to the legions of people who watch videos and TikToks, known as “Clean Toks”, of people shovelling rubbish from hoarder homes, revealing pathways concealed under overgrown lawns or hosing grimy rugs back to pristine condition.

For some people, the ritual of imposing order on their home environment is an important way to maintain good mental health. That might explain why cleaning and decluttering content has become a significant category in recent years. There are almost 530 million Clean Toks and Google Trends shows searches for cleaning have always been high. But the COVID-19 lockdowns, unsurprisingly, triggered an uptick in interest that is still higher than before the pandemic.