An upper-class woman explains how to spot clean: the latest Spanish editorial phenomenon

Begoña Pérez Díez de los Ríos, alias Bigo, the organizer, is the latest publishing phenomenon in Spain. On sale since September 7, his book Cleanliness, order and happiness (planet) he has Topped the non-fiction bestseller list For several days, a fact that surprised the author herself and the industry. ‘It was very unpredictable’, Identify sources in the sector. “But in the UK they had a similar phenomenon, Mrs. Hinch, which sold 160,000 copies in the first three days and broke records.” Hinch and The Orderly both come from existence Instagram Famouswhere they created accounts with cleaning tricks They have hundreds of thousands of followers. Above both He is the Almighty Marie’s apartmentwho have sold more than eleven million copies worldwide of their work on demand at home.

At the time of this writing, according to the sales data EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA has access to, La Ordenatriz collects 15,000 copies sold and is still in the weekly “Top 3” of non-fiction books. In the week analyzed, she was bested only by psychiatrist Marian Rojas – the daughter of fellow psychiatrist Enrique Rojas – who wrote his books How to make good things happen to you (Planet, 2018) and Look for the person with the vitamin (Planet 2021) They have sold over half a million copies among themselves since their publication. they usually Phenomena of self-help Those that reach those colossal numbers, are even superior to those in fiction books. Peace Padilla It has sold nearly 250,000 copies of joke of my life (Harpercollins, 2021) where she recounts how she overcame her husband’s death, and Angel Martin He’s on his way to 200,000 with In the event that the voices return (planetAnd the 2021) “A first-person account of what it means to get lost and have to rebuild from scratch.” For comparison, the novel that won the Planeta Prize in 2021-the monster From Carmen MolaIt is the second bestseller in fantasy novels with a price of 235,000.

Because of its development, and according to the sources that were referenced, the book Bigo, the organizer On track to sell 50,000 copies. Its cost is 16 euros, so the author earns 1.6 euros per copy (10% of the price, market standard). With this data, Perez had entered 24,000 euros in less than two months. The book includes a descriptive list of cleaning products – From a mixture of vinegar and bicarbonate to paint, which acts as a descaling agent —, stain dictionary (mud, blood, wax, sweat marks, grease, etc.) and an oath about How to clean Every room in the house.

Two years ago, when not yet well known, Perez was interviewed on the Montelto School Ex-Students’ Association blog, A private education center linked to Opus Dei in the affluent Mirasierra district of Madrid Where did he study? In the said interview, he said, some people suggested writing a book but it sounded like ‘big words’. Today, in a telephone conversation with EL PERIDICO DE ESPAÑA, she explained that she would never have dared to go alone to a publishing house, but was contacted by several people. He decided to launch himself when, in September of last year, he received an offer from Planeta.

“I’m a restless donkey and saw that I wouldn’t be able to do it. Also, it seemed to me superfluous because all the material is on Instagram. When Planet called me, I thought: maybe they know a little about books. And that’s what it was like,” he admits. “Amazing,” she continued, after the good sales figures. “I never expected it. But above all because of people’s love and gratitude. This is very important, because When one is grateful, one does not take anything for granted and lives more in the present“.

From arranging homes to removing stains

Perez was born in Madrid 48 years ago. Her family had a selling agent in Ciudad Real where she was a manager, and currently, according to data from the Mercantile Registry reviewed by this newspaper, she owns A small real estate wealth management company. She studied advertising and public relations, and worked until fame in an architecture and interior design studio with her husband. known as “Professional Organizer” s “mother of seven”. He has his youngest son Eight years older, twenty-three. When his father died, he became interested in the organization, telling in the only part of the book about self-help. “The house fell on me. It’s a slow process that I realized after a year or so. My house was disorganized because my mind was disorganized. I hit rock bottom and said, ‘So far,’ she said. I wanted to help myself and Marie Kondo’s book fell into my hands. I’ve seen that it can be learned and then taught to others.”

After discovering Marie Kondo, Peugeot He started by following Vanessa Travieso, the alias place orderelse influential For Galician motivational speaker who gives Professional organization workshops. “She is a student of Marie Kondo. I studied the professional organization course abroad. I could not have left, but I saw her courses and said: This is mine. Every client … It all looks new in Spain, but In the United States they’ve been doing this for forty years“.

Like Marie Kondo, or like the Americans who participated in the series Edit the home page On Netflix, Perez has devoted himself for some time Arranging homes. “Above all, it’s the homes of famous people, and that doesn’t mean friends. People need a certain confidence because they’re going to put someone to touch their things, so word of mouth in this kind of profession is exceptional,” he continues. . “It may seem like an unnecessary business, but There are people who are crazy and don’t know where to start“.

Organizing homes, the author explains, It pays much better than your cleaning. While the minimum wage for domestic workers has been set 7.82 euros per hour From their groups they denounced all kinds of assaults on work – informal work, salaries below the legal minimum, employers who cut the cost of Social Security – “professional regulators” move between 40 and 50 euros per hour. “You charge up to four and five times more per hour than cleaning. People are a little shocked. It is complicated. The hourly rate is set by each person, but we must bear in mind that we are self-employed. You have to calculate how many hours you have to work to pay the quota, gasoline… It also depends on the fame. I used to charge 40, but now with higher prices it’s 50″, adds Peugeot.

The Orderly opened her Instagram account in 2019, while working as an organisation, but it wasn’t until 2020 that she accelerated that account. He continues: “I had a thousand followers. They locked us up and said: I’m going to start counting tricks.” Peugeot I started with some posts about organizing spaces. In November of the same year they gave him a weekly slot at Cadena Cup titled From chaos to order. And three months later, in January 2021, he dedicated this wireless intervention to talk about Sites, the content that propelled her to fame.

“All my success, to call it that, comes from stains. People don’t know how to remove a stain and they say, ‘This fixes it for me. These are the tricks I’ve tried. When it’s not mine, I put it on. And when they ask me to write the book,’ They suggest I do it on the spots’,” he says, “and then they asked me to add a little order so people would know how to organize themselves. ” influential He explains, “It was half luck and half wisdom I didn’t know I had. I thought bicarbonate and vinegar was a lieBut in this pandemic, with time and patience, I saw it working and started explaining it. I think we’ve come with a pandemic.”

Content cleaning wins

Begona Perez Not the first person who creates content about cleaning and stains in Spain. This niche has been exploited by many media for some time, which, like cooking recipes, does particularly well on search engines and social networks. And there are a lot of scams that TikTok and Instagram accounts are involved in. Most of them are cleaners, usually Latina women who clean like real machines. The so-called CleanTok [contenido de limpieza en TikTok] Not only did she move to the United States, but she also moved to Spain,” explains Galicia Mendes, a young Murcian He has his own cleaning practice. Other popular accounts are those of Vanessa Amaro, a professional cleaner in Texas who creates content in Spanish, or Carmina Vidal, a professional Spanish cleaner who has gone viral explaining how she cleans her house.

Mendes – who was approached by a major publisher to write a book on cleaning still doesn’t know whether or not he will – For six years I worked as a house cleaner. “I think the difference is that my mother and grandmother gave me the tricks, who devoted their lives to cleaning houses, the girl who cleaned in her house and her OkDiario cleaning supplies,” he says. “Cleaning became professional but with a different profile. For me, It’s like guys are into programming or cookingWhich gave her a serious tone and she began to make accusations appropriately. It’s a kind of improvement.”

Although at home regulator She is currently responsible for organizing all the tasks – which means, she admits, a certain thing the burden of the mind– In earlier times she had “help”. “In the organization of the house,” he says, “You need to think about whether helping a person will give peace. And if we can afford it, you’re welcomeThe author considers that ‘since there is no wages, the household chores are not valued’ and that ‘it has not yet been given importance.’ Asked if the cleaners should be charging more, as the regulators already do, they replied ‘is an issue’ Vocational. People often think that it is not a professional thing and is not given importance. It should be professional, but everything should be consistent: salaries, training, working hours. I think the wages of a cleaner is different from the self-employment that I have to pay [la Seguridad Social] I”.

For his part, Mendez explains that the cleaning sector “Very scattered and scattered It is very difficult to transfer knowledge from one person to another. Keep in mind that when a lower-class person does not know what to do and has no way out, he has two options: prostitution or cleaning. Many people clean up without knowing what they are doing and they learn from their mother and from experience. When someone absorbs that knowledge, they define it and put it clearly, well, it’s cool.“, concludes.” But maybe it’s a person He cleaned the bathroom once in his life“.

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