Homeowner Sums Up Her Third Month in the House in 23 Seconds of Cleans, Scrubbing Grime Off the Garden Gate, Rust Off a Radiator and Cloudy Residue Off the Fireplace Glass

Three months into life in her house, @jottiesjournal has boiled the whole month down to 23 seconds of scrubbing. The reel opens with a line of text over the first shot, “our third month, in this house in cleans,” and then moves through six different jobs so fast that each one gets only a few seconds on screen.

Her caption supplies the list. “Skirting boards, the garden gate, radiators, rust removal, greasy build up, and the fireplace, it’s been a bit of everything!” she writes. She also explains why these particular clips made the cut: “These were the cleans you loved most this month, so I’ve put them all in one place.”

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The first job is the skirting board. A pink handled scrubbing brush loaded with foam runs along the bottom edge where the board meets a dark tiled floor, and a cloth follows behind to wipe the suds away. Then the camera is outside at a cream painted picket gate with a row of houses behind it. The top rail and the pickets are speckled with dark grime. She works along the rail with a soapy brush, and the foam turns gray as it lifts. A yellow cloth wipes the rail back to clean paint.

Back indoors, a small brush with a leaf print handle flicks a clump of dust away from a radiator valve. The next shot is the rust. The bottom edge of a white radiator shows a strip of orange, and she goes at it with a red scouring pad until rusty residue streaks down the panel below.

The “greasy build up” turns out to be a black oven tray covered in burnt on residue. She pushes a metal scraper across it and the baked on bits lift off in flakes. The tray then goes into the sink, where a scrubber works up a thick lather before it is rinsed under the tap.

For the fireplace she pulls on bright pink gloves. She cleans around the knob on the front of a cast iron stove, sweeps the hearth with a hand brush, then opens the stove door. The glass panel is coated in a cloudy film. A round pink sponge cuts through it in circles, and a final wipe with a cloth leaves the glass clear enough to see straight through.

The reel ends back at a radiator, this time underneath it. A hand brush sweeps out from below the panel and drags thick gray rolls of dust onto the floor. A vacuum nozzle comes in to collect them.

The caption places all of this in a bigger picture. “We’ve loved our first season in this house, and now we’re moving into the autumn,” she writes. “We’re hoping to do more projects in the house now, nothing huge but little things to add our stamp.” She closes by asking her followers a question: “What do you want to see next month?”

None of the six jobs is glamorous, and that is what makes the list worth borrowing. These are the spots a normal weekly clean skips, and every one of them can be done with tools already under the sink.

Start with the radiators, as she does twice. The dust that collects underneath and behind a radiator has been sitting there all summer, and it is far easier to pull it out before the heating goes on for autumn. Do it in her order. Brush the dust out onto the floor first, then vacuum it up, so it is not pushed further back. A long thin brush or a hand brush turned on its side will reach under most panels.

Rust along the bottom edge of a radiator is worth catching early. A scouring pad will take off surface rust, as her clip shows, but the bare spot needs to be dried thoroughly afterward and touched up with radiator paint or it will come straight back. If the rust keeps returning in the same place or the metal feels damp, check for a slow leak at the valve or the seam.

Painted wood outdoors, such as a gate or fence, collects grime over a damp season. Warm soapy water and a stiff brush, followed by a wipe or a rinse, is usually enough to bring the paint color back. It is also the easiest moment to spot flaking paint or soft wood that needs attention before winter.

For a burnt oven tray, copy her two steps. Scrape first while the residue is dry so the worst of it lifts off in pieces, then wash with hot soapy water. Scrubbing a tray that still has thick residue on it mostly spreads the grease around.

Stove glass should only be cleaned when the stove is completely cold. Wear gloves as she does, sweep the hearth before you start so you are not kneeling in ash, and use a damp sponge with a cleaner made for stove glass. Dry the glass with a clean cloth to avoid streaks.

Skirting boards are the quickest win of the lot. A soapy brush along the top edge and the floor line, followed by a dry cloth, takes minutes per room.

The monthly roundup itself is a habit worth stealing, with or without a camera. Picking one overlooked job a week adds up to four or five by the end of the month, and keeping a simple list of what got done makes progress in a house visible in a way a daily tidy never does. Her list for month three ran to six.