Who is Auri Kananen?

Auri Kananen, aka Aurikatariina, is a 28-year-old from Pirkanmaa, Finland, with a cleaning YouTube channel and social media accounts dedicated to helping others. She began looking at cleaning as a career choice in high school and started studying people in the cleaning industry, especially their tips and tricks for cleaning faster and better. 

This passion led Auri to pursue a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management, which gave her additional education and experience in cleaning. 

“I’m the world’s best cleaner, so I have been studying cleaning and also I have been in [the] cleaning industry over 10 years, and I started posting cleaning videos.”

She began her social media accounts as a passion project. After posting a video showing her cleaning a friend’s kitchen on Instagram, she quickly saw some success. This post got about 300 views, 19 likes, and one comment, which immediately excited her. She continued posting and fell into a rhythm quickly.  

Her goal?

“I want to show the whole world that cleaning is fun and sexy and that it’s fun, so that was my first goal.”

In the beginning, her biggest challenge was not being familiar with social media and not speaking English. 

“I didn’t know how to use TikTok. I didn’t know how to speak English, like my friend translated everything for me. The only thing I knew was cleaning.”

Going Viral

After six months of posting, she went viral and received many positive comments about her cleaning. Soon after, a follower of hers reached out to her for help cleaning her home after her husband committed suicide and she was left alone with several children. 

Auri Kananen cleaned her home for free, and after posting a video showing the process, many others reached out to her for help. This viral video led her to create her famous series showing her deep cleaning her followers’ dirty homes for free.

“Back then, I was still working. I was still super busy in the cleaning company [and] I had like 30 or 40 employees, like cleaners, so I was doing that as my day job.”

Around six months, sponsors began contacting her and giving her money for creating content. 

To date, her most viral video is on TikTok, with around 88 million views. In the TikTok, Auri is cleaning a really dirty sink. A similar viral video shows her cleaning a dirty home. 

When asked why she thinks these TikToks went viral, Auri shares, “They are so satisfying to see, when the scene, transforming and the home makeover, of course, is satisfying to see.”

She notes that you can never know when something will go viral, but she was pleased to see these helpful cleaning videos go viral. 

Auri’s Biggest Project Yet

One of Auri’s followers recently reached out to her about a cleaning project. The woman from Switzerland had a beautiful bathroom, but it was extremely dirty. 

However, for Auri, “The dirtier the better, so if I see something really dirty I’ll love it.”

So, Auri Kananen took on the challenge and contacted her sponsor, Scrub Daddy, to help her fly out to Switzerland and clean her follower’s home. 

She shares that she typically takes her fiance or a friend but does the cleaning herself without a cleaning team. 

Sponsorships as a Cleaning Influencer

When she works with a sponsor, the products are included as part of her cleaning in her videos. 

For example, she frequently uses Scrub Daddy’s products in her videos. However, she won’t work with sponsors who insist she exclusively uses their products or constantly talk about them. 

She also shares sponsor links in her linktree, and her followers will often buy cleaning products, like Scrub Daddy, after seeing how effective they are in her videos. 

Auri Kananen shares, “When I started in here in Finland, only one store carried Scrub Daddy… but when I started to sponsor them, it exploded. Like, now you can buy Scrub Daddys everywhere.”

In return, they continue to sponsor her and cover the costs of flights and hotels for her cleaning videos. 

Her approach to sponsorships is very natural. Instead of directly talking about products, she shares them in her videos while she’s using them. Her viewers trust the products she uses because the homes she cleans are very dirty, so any products she uses are highly effective top-of-the-line products. 

“If the product isn’t good, I don’t care what they are going to give me or how much they would [pay me.]” 

The second thing Auri Kananen looks for is a product that makes cleaning easier. 

Auri’s Creative Process & Fun Experiences

Auri Kananen keeps her creative process simple and streamlined by doing what she loves: cleaning. 

“Many people send me emails and ask me for my help, so I just go there and clean, and then I film it.”

Auri also uses pink as her signature color for her brand. The previous company she worked at had pink aprons, so the color stuck with her channel when she started cleaning in her work apron. 

“I think pink is kind of like sexy and fun and I love it.”

Her funniest experience so far has been when Good Morning America contacted her. Auri had just started learning English, so being on their live show was nerve-wracking for her. She had never been interviewed in Finland before, so to be contacted by a large American company first felt very funny to her. 

Future Plans & Goals

“My dream is to clean houses all around the world.”

Currently, she doesn’t offer merch but is working on launching that in the near future. Auri wears pink in her videos, so she’s planning on launching a pink apron and pink glove merchandise. Some of her merchandise will also feature iconic quotes from her channel, like “trashes,” which she frequently says in her cleaning videos. 

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Auri is also launching a cleaning app featuring a year-round cleaning schedule and tips for how and when to clean things. Many of her followers had asked about a cleaning routine, so this app is her way of answering that. Part of the proceeds will also be donated to a mental health charity.