Any task involving physical or mental effort is, by definition, work. So why shouldn't you treat the more mundane tasks of housework like they're part of a shift job that results in a paycheck? That’s the thought process behind the new TikTok trend in which people describe their cleaning habits as "doing the closing shift" or "working the opening shift."
In retail, closing shifts are the hours employees work after a store is closed to prepare for the next day. During closing shifts, employees count the money in the cash register, put clothes back in their proper place, and sweep the floors. But not everything has to be perfectly spotless—in an hour or so before the store officially opens, opening-shift employees come in and pick up whatever work the night-shift employees didn’t finish.
Thankfully, most of us don’t live in retail stores where strangers come through and make a mess on a daily basis. But like a retail store, our homes are likely to get a little (or a lot) cluttered throughout the day—and instead of beating yourself up about it and trying (and failing) to clean as you go, take a cue from this concept and simply do what you can for an hour in the morning or night.
Most of the closingshift (over 334 million views) and openshift (over 153 million views) cleaning videos depict montages of homeowners and apartment dwellers picking up around their homes—wiping down countertops, putting away the dishes, finishing up the laundry, and, of course, setting the scene with a lit candle.
In one viral video explaining the joys of completing closing shift at home, creator @hummusbirrd (aka Brigette Muller) took viewers through her tidy apartment.
“I’m pretty sure this is my first morning in my two years of living here that I’ve woken up to not only no dishes in the sink but no dishes on the counter drying," she narrated. "So I get to enjoy this beautiful view, and I’m just, like, 'Is this what all of you Sunday-reset people and closing-shift people get to enjoy every single day?'"
Another TikTok features the creator picking up her living room with text that reads: "me doing the opening shift at our house every day so I can exist peacefully and productively bc my roommates both work early jobs and I work from home." This goes to show that sometimes your cohabitants and schedule determine whether you have the opening or closing shift.
While some prefer wake up a bit earlier to get their chores done and others like to tackle them before going to bed, most people typically do a little bit of both: At night, you may load and run the dishwasher; in the morning, you empty it. At night, you could put your laundry in the dryer; in the morning, you fold and put it away. Whether you're one or the other, the point of this approach is to avoid stressing all day about achieving an unrealistically glistening clean home by 1 p.m. Just pick a shift—and even though you don't get a paycheck for cleaning your apartment, you do get to reward yourself with relaxation.