Can a drill help get rid of soap scum? ‘Cleantok’ offers the sparkling clean answers

Sherry Kuehl
·3 min read

I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of something called “cleantok.” These are videos on TikTok that focus on the whole scrub-a-dub-dub of keeping your house pristine.

It’s enthralling viewing if you like to watch people use drill attachments to attack the soap scum in their tubs (you want the 5-inch surface power scrubber brush) and get goosebumps when you see a mop bucket filled with water so dirty that it looks like liquid tar.

Yes, I know that for most people this doesn’t sound the least bit entertaining, but for me, it’s educational and relaxing. As in, who knew you could use your drill for soap scum remediation? Mind blown.

My love of all things cleaning started at young age with Spic and Span. Do you remember Spic and Span? Orange box, bright blue letters with the slogan “so clean it shines.”

It’s the origin story of my obsession. I remember my grandma Stella singing its praises as she mopped her linoleum kitchen floor in Logan, West Virginia. My grandfather was a coal miner and according to my grandma, nothing got rid of coal dust and dirt like Spic and Span.

One of her favorite sayings was to yell at my grandpa to “quit bringing the entire coal mine home with you.”

One day when I was about 7 years old my grandma entrusted me to go to town, so to speak, on the coal dust. She gently handed me her mop and a box of Spic and Span and right then and there, a clean freak was born.

There is nothing more fun for me than making dirt disappear. As for Spic and Span, did you know it’s still being made? I had to Google it but the classic Spic and Span powder is still around for “commercial use only.”

When I found that out it made me almost want to start a janitorial business just so I could be reunited with Spic and Span. Ahh, the memories.

Now, being a clean freak also comes with a downside. There was a time when I developed what I’m just going to be blunt and call a rather passionate love affair with Johnson Paste Wax.

I realize the smell of carnauba, microcrystalline and paraffin wax, along with a soupcon of deodorized naptha (mineral spirits for the unenlightened) isn’t for everyone but oh, for me, it’s magical.

Sadly, for wood furniture everywhere, it was recently discontinued. Luckily, I have a significant inventory of the wax, and before anyone asks — no I will not share.

All of the above is why “cleantok” is so appealing to me, but also dangerous — especially during Amazon Prime days. Last month I bought a new carpet shampooer, a vacuum and a whole spinning mop bucket thingamabob. When my purchases arrived I told my husband I would be busy all weekend with my new “toys.”

What is shocking is even though I’m a freak about cleaning, when I used my new and improved tools the amount of yuck that came out of my area rugs was staggering and my mop bucket could have been on TikTok.

This has led me to a conspiracy theory that there must be a dirt detonator put in new vacuums and mops that are released when you first use them. This makes you think you were living in filth before you embraced the power of the “Duoclean” or “SmartWash” technology.

It’s the only rational explanation I have because I know my house couldn’t have been that dirty. It’s either that or I need to get my hands on some Spic and Span, stat.

Reach Sherry Kuehl at snarkyinthesuburbs@gmail.com, on Facebook at Snarky in the Suburbs, on Twitter at @snarkynsuburbs on Instagram @snarky.in.the.suburbs, and snarkyinthesuburbs.com.

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