Woman starts new 'clean a grave for free' TikTok trend, sparking a heated debate online

A bizarre "cleaning a grave for free" trend has taken over the internet, with many experiencing FOMO and starting to chase it. It all started with a woman, @_the_clean_girl, on TikTok. The content creator, who wittily asks people to follow her in order to get their toilet cleansed, went to a cemetery and started sanitizing a tidy burial site. And she does all of it herself with her “magic foaming cleaner,” sparking a debate online.

In the widely circulating video, the woman shows the entire act of cleaning a random grave. “Who do you think is buried here? Let's clean it and find out,” she said as she began her self-initiated sanitation drive. The influencer throws a loofah in front of the dirtiest burial site in the entire graveyard before washing the crosshead stone with her magical “pink” cleaning spray.

“How old is this grave?” she asked her 2.8 million followers, adding that, “It (the burial site) looks like it's been here for 500 years. How does this grave get so dirty?” Following this, the woman rips off what appears to be grass coming out of the grave’s edges. “Look! There's a tree growing out of it. I love plants,” the influencer said, making the difficult task look like a cakewalk for her.

The woman in the later part of the footage, admitted that she initially found the transformation “extremely hard.” She went on to claim that after some digging (not literally), she caught up with the information that the site belongs to a woman who, according to the influencer, deserves a “beautiful grave.”

“Just like me, the woman has two brothers. I need to make her family proud,” the woman added. While indicating that the cleanup was satisfying for her, the influencer wished she could move to a graveyard. Furthermore, she provided details of the woman buried there as she was about to wind up the sanitation drive. “Are you ready to find out who's buried here?” she asked the viewers, revealing the name of the person who died on the 19th of January, 1990. The footage, with over 127 million views, sparked a widespread debate on the random act of kindness shown by the woman.

Among the reactions, @camsqs shed light on their dilemma: “Cleaning a grave feels so wrong, but it's also so nice.” Adding to it, @myah0341 wrote, “It might seem disrespectful, but imagine being a family member visiting and arriving at a beautiful, clean grave. I’d feel so happy.” On the other hand, @user554276597 reflected, “I don’t think it’s okay to switch the flowers because they are from a loved one as a symbol of love.” Meanwhile, several other content creators, including @ladytaphos and @manicpixiemom, jumped on the bandwagon by creating similar videos.

Another professional grave cleaner, @manicpixiemom, chose to tackle her largest stone yet, following the bizarre trend. “I know some of you might say you like the mossy look on this particular stone. The issue with moss and large stones like this is that it can weaken the connection between the obelisk and the base,” she explained, hinting at potential damage if the cleaning isn’t done in a timely manner. On the other hand, Alicia (@ladytaphos) chose to do the sanitary work in honor of the memory of a car crash victim.

Finding them to be extremely distasteful, another influencer, Andra (@hopeyoufindyourdad), responded to the grave cleaning trend by stating, “Every single one of these women’s clickbait grave cleaning videos is extremely disrespectful to these graves and their loved ones.” Additionally, a Reddit thread by u/PeregrineTangerine alleged that The Cleaning Girl's "magic" spray and other women's household cleansers include chemicals that could possibly harm the burial stone.

You can follow @_the_clean_girl), @manicpixiemom, Alicia (@ladytaphos), and Andra (@hopeyoufindyourdad) for more clean-up and lifestyle content.