Women in the traveller community are known for being house proud, and now they have revealed the unlikely secret to keeping their homes pristine.
Hundreds from across the UK and Ireland have taken to TikTok to reveal how they wrap all their fixtures and soft furnishings – down to cushions and bathmats – in plastic.
Videos of traveller women demonstrating how to perfectly wrap settees, kitchen tops, tables, rugs, and upholstered headboards have become increasingly common on TikTok, where their painstaking cleaning rituals continue to spark curiosity.
In one video, Natalie – who also sells the plastic on her TikTok shop – showed her followers all the ‘dust collectors’ in her house that she covers in plastic to keep it looking neat.
‘Obviously, I’ve got every single pelmet in my home “plastic-ed”; they are dust collectors, so [putting plastic on] them just makes it so much easier to wipe over.
‘My front doormat also, as you can see there, is also “plastic-ed”…also my headboard and my island in my kitchen,’ she said.
Whether they live in a trailer, caravan, or traditional house, traveller women are very particular about cleanliness, as TikTok influencer Charlotte-Ann Maguire called it ‘the one stereotype that is actually quite true’.
Explaining why so many swear by the cleaning hack, TikTok star Cuzinsuzy told her followers: ‘This plastic just protects the top of tables, you can put it on seats, in your kitchen. We just put it on the furniture so it doesn’t get destroyed.’
‘It’s also good if you’ve got children,’ she added.
The 33-year-old traveller said she knew of women who kept their rugs wrapped in plastic to keep them completely clean. ‘I even know girls that plastic the front of their fridges,’ she continued.
In one video, she filmed herself putting ‘plastic on my tables’ to keep them looking ‘like new’ and ‘save you a lot of bother in the long run’.
Afterwards, Cuzinsuzy said ‘you can’t really tell the difference’ as she showed off her shiny-looking round table.
Big sofas and kitchen islands, as well as dining tables, are the most common furniture items that travellers will cover in plastic.
Content creator Lucy (who goes by @lucy_bx on TikTok) recently documented the process of covering a large grey settee with plastic, as she revealed she stayed up until 1am to finish the task.
The clip, which has nearly 14,000 likes at the time of writing, included footage of Lucy individually wrapping up every part of the sofa set before calling it a night.
‘Didn’t finish until 1am this morning [and still] have the pillows to plastic in the morning,’ she captioned the clip.
The video divided opinion among her followers, several of whom pointed out what they believed were logistical challenges of sitting on a sofa covered in plastic.
One person wrote: ‘Gunna be stuck to that settee in summer.’
Another admitted: ‘I don’t understand this, why be uncomfortable, and it’s so noisy when you move about. plus sticking to it in the summer. Why not enjoy your sofa?’
Lucy replied that she would be too worried about staining to enjoy the sofa, if it wasn’t covered in plastic.
‘I’d just be panicking that my children would stain or mark it so when it’s wrapped in plastic I can relax knowing anything spilled I can wipe it clean,’ she wrote.
The TikToker also clarified that the plastic doesn’t make the sofa any less comfortable.
In another clip, Lucy compiled footage of plastic-covered bar stools and carpets and wrote that ‘nothing beats fresh plastic’ because it ‘keeps everything so clean’.
She also broke down the steps involved in covering a rug with a specific kind of plastic in a separate video.
‘This isn’t the sticky back plastic that’s on TikTok shop; this plastic can be bought from most traveller fairs, and most women on Facebook are selling this,’ she said.
The process begins with hoovering the rug to ensure ‘there are no bits or fluff’ that can get stuck on the plastic before measuring the plastic and cutting it like wrapping paper.
‘And then you’re just going to wrap it like an ordinary present, like you would at Christmas,’ she continued.
Secure the edges are ‘stuck down properly’ by using duct tape or strong cellotape, Lucy advised.
Finally, TikToker @diane_k93 said videos of her plastic-covered bed had ’caused quite a stir’ before clarifying she only wrapped up the headboard.
‘I love plastic, I just think it gives it a nice shine,’ Diane said, before adding: ‘I don’t get why people are so against it.’
Addressing criticism that all the plastic would end up in landfills, Diane explained that ‘if this gets plastic-ed once, it will last over a year’.
She felt the benefits far outweigh the negatives of having plastic-covered furniture, as Diane told her followers: ‘It’s so easy to wipe over, it stops dust, it’s perfect for anybody with asthma.’
‘It stops discolouration from the sun on fabric, and it’ll give me longer wear,’ Diane continued, as she revealed her last bed frame was in pristine condition – despite using it for a decade.
