I recently got to chat with Torontonian Melissa Maker about her wildly successful Youtube channel that shares cleaning and organizational tips for the household. Clean My Space currently has over 600,000 subscribers who follow Melissa as she walks viewers through new cleaning products, cleaning tricks and tips as well as videos on how to keep the home organized.
I thought the channel was a great idea so I wanted to learn more.
What made you want to make videos about cleaning?
It’s a funny story, and I certainly didn’t make the videos because I like to clean. I started a cleaning service here in Toronto in 2006, called Clean My Space and prior to that I knew nothing about cleaning (aside from the fact that I didn’t like it and found it hard to do and feel motivated about). After five years in the cleaning business and a lot of research, testing and practice, I decided to create YouTube videos – which was a relatively novel idea back then – about cleaning tips and tricks and share it with people like me. This was all in hopes of getting more attention for the cleaning service company here in the city. However, YouTube being global, the videos took on a life of their own and we now have an audience with over 600,000 subscribers all over the world and almost 90 million video views!
Where do you come up with all of the ideas?
We do a lot of social listening; what questions are the audience asking us over and over again? What do we find interesting and new that we think would benefit the audience. We can’t be too specific with our videos or else they won’t have a broad appeal, so something like ‘How to clean a Coach purse’ wouldn’t fly, but something like ‘How to clean your handbag’ would. We then keep a running tally of these ideas, vet them with our team, and decide what to shoot for the coming month.
How many videos have you made to date?
There are just under 500 videos at current count and to see the evolution in production value, presentation and content delivery is astonishing. That’s the cool thing about YouTube, you can see a creator’s evolution and as a creator, I can’t have an ego about that. It’s really humanizing.
How often do you release new videos?
We release a new video every Saturday! Occasionally we will do 2 a week.
What is the most popular video? Why do you think that is?
How to clean your mattress, which has almost 11 million views on it. It’s an informative video, it has done well because it was picked up by a few sharing sites, and it just got shared again and again. Various media outlets picked it up and kept sharing it – it went viral!
What are some easy tips to keeping a clean house?
Be good to yourself! You probably live a busy life and don’t have time to do everything all the time. Pick the things that matter to you most (what I call the Most Important Areas, or MIAs), and just clean those. Make sure you have a good selection of cleaning products and tools at your disposal, because nothing is more frustrating that cleaning with the wrong stuff – talk about a waste of time! I also like the idea of creating a loose schedule. That way you know roughly when each major task will be completed as opposed to sporadic cleaning marathons which arise out of stress and overwhelm; those are never fun.
Another biggie, learn how to do the task well so that you don’t waste time! I’ve got a book coming out on March 7th, called Clean My Space: The Secret to Cleaning Better, Faster, and Loving Your Home Every Day (Penguin Random House) (you can preorder now, here), which is a simple, fun read that goes over scheduling, products, tools, techniques and essentially helps you live in a space you love.
Finally, if you don’t have time to learn how to clean but still crave living that clean life, hire a cleaning service like Clean My Space!
What is the best part about doing business in Toronto?
It’s the biggest city in Canada, which makes it perfect for a thriving business; both in finding clients as well as employees. I also love our clients; we really service the kindest people, and I think that says a lot about our great city.
Pay It Forward: Do you have another Toronto business that you think we should know about?
I do – there is a company called Cilque which makes the most luxurious bed sheets and eye masks. I’ve been sleeping on their sheets for years and they are truly the most comfortable sheets I’ve ever slept on. My body misses them when I am travelling. http://www.cilque.com
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Follow Melissa through her channels.
