On Instagram, Mario McKnight’s home is a grey, white and shiny palace with a candle in every corner. There are luxe knitted throws, coffee table books and a sparkly organiser full of remote controls.
In real life, it’s exactly the same. I can see most of it when he throws open the front door to welcome me in.
The 36-year-old greets me with: “Hello my lovely,” which is enough to make any fan of his Instagram account Cleaning With Mario call for the smelling salts.
Mario is a cleanfluencer. For those who don’t do social media, that’s a person who posts pictures of their vacuum cleaner, dish sponges and shiny sink on Instagram.
They might film themselves making the bed or “chopping” their cushions. (All cleanfluencers have chopped cushions – it means they have a dent in the middle, not that they have been cut up into little pieces.)
The most famous cleanfluencer is Mrs Hinch , aka Sophie Hinchliffe. Her 3.2million followers are currently following every development in the purchase of a new storage rack for eggs.
She bought this on eBay for £9. One has now been spotted for £159.
Mario, with 86,000 followers, is not at Hinch levels of fame. This is his choice.
He fell into online Hoovering by accident and is still nervous about his “journey” in this crazy world of Hello My Lovelies candles and free toilet cleaner.
But despite his caution, he has gone from Instagram newbie to being a brand ambassador for a wax melt brand and getting a million page views for the reveal of his Christmas tree. All in 18 months.
Before this all started, he wasn’t that bothered about social media. He said: “I had a personal page on Instagram but it was always private. I was a big make-up lover so it was images of me, selfies with make-up on.
“I could see there was a make-up world out there but it never gave me the courage to do things I liked. You open that page and it’s for everybody to see.
"That scared me to death.”
It was his brother Johnny, an actor and panto star, who thought the cleaning tips Mario posted on Facebook deserved a wider audience.
So on September 6, 2018, his wee brother took a picture of three of his favourite sprays and a folded duster, added #cleaning and off he went.
He soon found Mrs Hinch, who was also just starting out and followed her.
She followed him back. (They still check in and chat online, although they’ve never actually met.) Thousands of others followed him too – turns out the online queens of clean were delighted to have a nice young man join their ranks.
Mario recalled: “I didn’t know how they would react with a boy being a bit obsessed with cleaning.”
But not only did they rate his mop technique, they loved him too.
He added: “When I came on Instagram it was purely meant to be cleaning. But after a couple of weeks, they wanted to see me in front of the camera. They didn’t just want to see cleaning, that was already happening, Mrs Hinch becoming Mrs Hinch.
“There are a lot of male influencers now, it’s opened a door, it’s not just me any more. It’s lovely to see. It’s cleaning, we all have to do it.”
But with the followers came the haters and trolls. Mario knew to expect it, although it didn’t make it any easier to deal with.
He said: “It baffles me, I’m never going to know why people do it. You can’t justify hate but it comes with the territory.
“I’ve had homophobic comments – that’s inevitable, I’ve had that all my life. Others pick away at personal things, how I look, how I live, where I live, because this is a council estate. They are nitpicking to get a reaction.”
They are the minority. Most of #mariosmafia want to know all about his teeth, his eyebrows, his fiancé Derek.
Every time he puts up a picture of his sofa or his new vanity unit he is bombarded with questions about each tiny item in the shot, from the floral arrangement to the hairdryer.
Fans work out his shift patterns from his Instagram stories – where he films himself talking directly to his followers, or lovelies – and then turn up at Debenhams, where he works.
“People found out where I work and started coming in to get photos. At first, I didn’t like it, it was so awkward. They used to hide and take pictures.”
He’s got used to the attention, as well as learning a few Instagrammer tricks along the way. At first he was spending hours every day replying to the 2000 to 3000 messages generated by each post.
Now he tags everything – thousands of questions are just asking where to buy something – as well as adding swipe-up links so that his followers can buy the same storage baskets as him.
He and Derek have no plans to move out of their Paisley council flat, even though it is not the ideal base for a cleanfluencer. It’s so small that it does not take much actual cleaning.
There is so little cupboard space that he has to store the vacuum cleaner in the living room and has a cupboard of shame, that never appears in photographs, hidden in the bedroom.
He turns down most of the free gifts he’s offered – partly because he has nowhere to keep them. “It’s got to be meaningful for my life and my home.
“People think I get hundreds of gifts but I turn down 90 per cent. I’m offered so many wonderful things but they don’t fit. We’re a one-bedroom flat.
“It can also look extremely greedy and I don’t want to come across like that.
“I don’t have the money to live like a millionaire and even if I did – why would I? I get enjoyment out of a bargain and it can look the exact same.”
