NBC once had a block of programming called “Must See TV”. Friends, Seinfeld, and others made Thursday nights incredible. You know what I find myself watching on a Thursday night in 2022? Video of a carpet cleaner giving a deep clean to a rug that was left outside for five years.
Welcome to the gross, yet satisfying, world of rug cleaning videos on YouTube.
Like watching a cabinet get made on New Yankee Workshop or a 10 year old make a masterpiece in Minecraft, these videos give you all the sense of accomplishment of a job well done, without doing a damn thing.
This… is a thing?!
This is an entire category of videos on the streaming platform that have several different cleaners taking part. Creators from around the world are uploading the work they were already planning on doing, and racking up tens of thousands of views. One of the biggest creators actually has over 1,000,000 subscribers.
This video explains the art pretty well, but the actual videos (the biggest of which you’ll find below) are 20 plus minute thrillers. You are introduced to a piece of floor art that looks like it’s been through a war – something you’d certainly throw out. Then, slowly and methodically, the person behind the cleaning wand starts soaping, scrubbing and squeegeeing until you get an incredible surprise ending. ASMR meets This Old House meets Bob Ross.
Beautiful on the inside but having been through so much in its life it is almost unrecognizable from its former self. So battered by the hand life dealt it that many had given up on it. But someone took the time out to care, work through clearing out the abuse of years past and help it show its amazing and colorful self for the whole world to see and appreciate.
Maybe it’s not about the rug. Maybe I see something deeper. Regardless, if you’re feeling down, watch some of these and your soul will be as renewed as the carpets themselves.