A top class lady explains how to remove stains: the latest Spanish editorial phenomenon

Begoña Pérez Díez de los Ríos, nickname Bego, Regularis the latest publishing phenomenon in Spain. His book has been on sale since last September 7 Cleanliness, order and happiness (Planet) he has topped the nonfiction bestseller list It is a fact that has surprised both the author and the industry for days. “It was so unpredictable”recognizes the resources in the industry. “But there was a similar phenomenon in the UK, Miss Hinch, who sold 160,000 copies in the first three days and broke records.” Both Hinch and The Orderly come from being famous on Instagramwhere they created an account with cleaning tricks He has hundreds of thousands of followers. exalted above both marie flatHis at-home made-to-order works have sold over eleven million copies worldwide.

At the time of writing these lines and according to the sales data accessed by EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, La Ordenatriz has sold 15,000 copies and is still in the weekly nonfiction ‘top 3’. The week analyzed was passed only by psychiatrist Marian Rojas, the daughter of psychiatrist Enrique Rojas, who wrote her books. How to do good things to you (Planet, 2018) and Find your vitamin person (Planet, 2021) They have sold over half a million copies between them since their release. they are normally self-help phenomenon those who reach these enormous figures are even superior to fictional books. Peace Padilla sold about 250,000 copies humor of my life (Harpercollins, 2021) recounting how she got over her husband’s death and angel martin going towards 200,000 If the sounds come back (Planet, 2021) “a first-person account of what it means to be lost and rebuild from scratch”. For comparison, the novel that won the Planeta award in 2021 —Creature of the Carmen Break– the second best seller in fiction and at 235,000.

Because of how it developed and according to the referenced sources, Hz. Bego, Regular on the way for 50,000 copies sold. It costs 16 euros, so the author gets 1.6 euros per copy (10% of the price, market standard). With these data, Pérez 24,000 Euros in less than two months. The book contains a descriptive list of: Cleaning products —from a mixture of vinegar and bicarbonate to the lacquer that acts as a descaling agent—, stain dictionary (mud, blood, wax, sweat marks, oil, etc.) and a section about it How to clean every room of the house.

Two years ago, while he was still not very well known, Pérez was interviewed on the Montealto School’s Association of Former Students’ blog. Special education center linked to Opus Dei in the wealthy Madrid district of Mirasierra where did he study? In the interview in question, he said that some people suggested writing books, but that these sounded like “big promises.” Today, in a phone call with EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, he said that he never dared to go to a publishing house alone, but that several people contacted him and He decided to launch himself when he got an offer from Planeta in September of last year.

“I have a restless ass and I found that I couldn’t do it. It also seemed unnecessary to me since all the material was on Instagram. When Planet called me I thought: they might know a little about the books. And that’s how it was,” he admits. He continues after good sales figures, “ “I wasn’t expecting it at all. But above all because of the love and gratitude of the people. Because this is so important. When one is grateful, one does not accept things as they are and lives more in the present.“.

From home ordering to removing stains

Pérez was born 48 years ago in Madrid. His family owned a franchise in Ciudad Real that he managed, and now, according to Trade Registry data reviewed by this newspaper, its owner a small real estate asset management company. She studied Advertising and Public Relations and worked with her husband at an architecture and interior design studio she owned until she became famous. is defined as “professional organizer” Y “mother of seven”. He has the youngest son eight years; the oldest, twenty-three. He became involved with the organization when his father died, as he describes in the book’s only self-help chapter. “The house collapsed on me. It’s a slow process that I realized a year or so later. My house was messy because my mind was messy. I hit rock bottom and I said: This is it. I wanted to help myself and I got Marie Kondo’s book. I saw that it could be learned and then taught to others.”

After discovering Marie Kondo, beg started following her alias Vanesa Travieso to orderother influential giving order and motivational speaker in Galician “professional organization” workshops. “A student of Marie Kondo. She did her professional organizer course abroad. I couldn’t leave but I saw her courses and said: this is me. every client… All this is new in Spain, but They’ve been doing this in the United States for forty years“.

Like Marie Kondo or like the Americans in the show Home Edit On Netflix, Pérez finds himself arrange houses. He continues, “Above all it’s well-known people’s homes, which doesn’t mean friends. People need a certain amount of trust because they’re going to make a person touch their stuff, so word-of-mouth in this kind of profession is extraordinary,” he continues. . “It may seem like an unnecessary task, but there are people who are crazy and don’t know where to start“.

The organization of houses explains the author, paid much better than your cleaning. When determining the minimum wage for domestic workers 7.82 € per hour and denounced all forms of worker disgrace from their own groups—employers who cut informal work, wages below the legal minimum, and Social Security costs—“professional organizers” 40 and 50 Euros per hour. “You charge four to five times more per hour than cleaning. People are a little shocked. Complicated. The price per hour is determined by each, but we must not forget that we are self-employed. You have to calculate how many hours you have to work to pay the quota, the gas… It also depends on the fame. I used to get 40, but now it’s 50 with the increase in prices,” he adds. beg.

The Orderly opened his Instagram account in 2019 while working as an organizer, but didn’t step up until his 2020 confinement. “I had a thousand followers. They locked us up and I said, ‘I’m going to start counting the cheats,’” he continues. beg It started with some publications on the organization of spaces. In November of the same year they gave him a weekly slot called Cadena Cope. From chaos to order. And three months later, in January 2021, he dedicated this radio intervention to talking about it. the dots, the content that made him famous.

“All my success comes from stains, so to speak. People don’t know how to remove the stain and they say: This solves it for me. These are the tricks I’ve tried. When it’s not mine, I put them on and when they ask me to do the book, they suggest I do it on stains“Then they asked me to add a little layout so people would know how to organize themselves.” influential Of the stains, “It was half luck and half wisdom that I didn’t know I had. I thought the bicarbonate and vinegar thing was a lie.but I saw that it worked with time and patience in the pandemic and I started to tell. I think we emerged with the pandemic.”

Cleaning content wins

Begonia Perez not the first person Content creator on cleaning and stains in Spain. Many media have been taking advantage of this niche for some time, which, like recipes, works particularly well in search engines and social networks. “And there are a lot of TikTok and Instagram accounts that share the cheats. Most cleaners are Latin women who usually clean like real machines. The so-called CleanTok [contenido de limpieza en TikTok] he moved not only to the United States, but also to Spain”, explains the young Murcian Galicia Méndez. has its own cleaning practice. Other popular accounts are Vanesa Amaro, a professional cleaner in Texas who creates Spanish content, or Carmina Vidal, a Spanish professional cleaner who went viral describing how she cleaned her house.

Contacted by a major publisher to write a book on cleaning, Méndez still doesn’t know if he can. She worked as a house cleaner for six years. “I guess the difference is that my mom and grandma, who dedicate their lives to cleaning houses, gave me, the girl who cleaned her house, and her OkDiario cleaning supplies,” she says. “Cleaning is getting professional but with a different profile. For me, like when guys get into programming or cooking, this gave it a serious tone and started charging decently. It’s a kind of gentrification.”

despite being at home organised he is currently the person responsible for organizing all the tasks – this means that he agrees, a certain mind load-, received “help” in earlier times. “In home organization,” he says, “You need to consider whether a person’s help will bring peace. And if we can afford it, welcomeThe author is of the opinion that “housework is not valued because it is not paid” and “until now it has not been given importance”. When asked if cleaners should be paid more, as organizers do, he said, “This is a professional issue. Too often people believe it’s unprofessional and ignored. It should be professionalized, but everything should be consistent: salaries, training and working hours. I think the salary as a cleaner is not the same as being self-employed, the salary I have to pay is not the same. [la Seguridad Social] I”.

Méndez said that the cleaning sector “very atomized and messy that it is very difficult to transfer information from one person to another. Remember that when a lower class doesn’t know what to do and there is no way out, they have two choices: prostitution or cleaning. Many people go into the cleaning business without knowing what they are doing and learn from their mother and her experiences. When someone absorbs this information, it outlines and makes it clear, well, great.‘, he concludes. ‘But perhaps cleaned the toilet once in his life“.

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