GraveTok vs. Reality: The Ethics and Economics of Cleaning Headstones for Pay

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many unusual pastimes exploded in popularity. Millions of people found themselves looking for ways to distract themselves and find a little peace amidst the chaos.

While many found solace in conventional hobbies like baking, crocheting, or gardening, others unexpectedly turned to grave cleaning.

Some participants didn’t just clean graves. They created online content about the process. This sometimes went viral on Instagram and TikTok with the hashtag #gravetok.

Physical cleaning vs. content creation: where’s the money?

Grave cleaning itself is a niche job.

There isn’t any government data on the number of people making money from cleaning graves in the US. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t track grave cleaning as a distinct job category, instead bundling it under broader roles like grounds maintenance and stonemasonry. 1 2

While there are examples of people who have been able to net a decent amount of money from grave cleaning alone, this is relatively rare, and many choose to do it on a purely volunteer basis.

As it turns out, when it comes to actual income, the real growth is largely happening in the realm of digital content about grave cleaning and not the graveyards themselves.

#gravetok

On TikTok alone, the #gravetok space has received over a billion views. 3

This content introduced grave cleaning to a huge group of people, some of whom eventually picked up this type of work themselves. That included Allyson Stephenson, who now goes by the online moniker Crazy Cemetery Lady.

Stephenson told Side Hustles that she’s had a passion for genealogy and family history since she was 9 years old. When she came across videos of people cleaning headstones during the pandemic, she was immediately interested.

She often drove by a local cemetery. Its graves were heavily stained by biological growth, and she told us she remembered thinking, “Maybe this is a way I can help.”

She ended up cleaning the entire cemetery that summer.

That experience eventually led her to co-found GraveGeeks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, repairing, and cleaning gravestones. Now, she primarily does this on a volunteer basis, documenting the process online.

Although Stephenson does her actual grave-cleaning for free, she earns money from her online content, which she then reinvests into her preservation work.

Educational grave cleaning content

Drawing on her background in genealogy, Stephenson researches the lives behind the markers she cleans and shares their stories with her viewers.

That focus on human connection has drawn in nearly half a million followers (as of August 2026) across her TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.

Stephenson believes her fans are moved by discovering the lives behind the gravestones she restores. They are meeting “someone who lived, worked, raised a family, served their country, or made a difference in their community, just like so many of us hope to do.”

“When you tell someone’s story,” she added, “the headstone becomes much more than a monument. It becomes a reminder that every life mattered, even if history forgot their name for a while.”

@crazycemeterylady 🪦 Headstone Cleaning & Storytime Thank you to everyone who helped research Anna this week! She outlived most of her family, left an estate to her niece, and yet—for reasons we’ll probably never know—her death date was never carved onto her headstone. Thanks to this amazing community, her story is finally being told. #GraveGeeks #HeadstoneCleaning #Cemetery #TikTokCreatorSearchInsightsIncentive #storytimesvideos ♬ original sound – CrazyCemeteryLady

Entertainment-oriented grave cleaning content

There are other grave-cleaning creators who lean into more offbeat, entertainment-oriented content.

Stacey Habecker, who is known online as “The Clean Girl,” is one of these. Sporting a signature pink-and-black outfit with pigtails in most of her videos, she built a large following by cultivating a bubbly persona that contrasts sharply with the somber graveyards she films in.

Ethical controversy

In one of Habecker’s viral grave-cleaning videos, which has amassed over 173.7 million views as of August 2026, she throws a spiky, bright-pink ball into a cemetery to randomly pick a grave to clean.

What follows is, essentially, an ASMR video. Accompanied by upbeat commentary and crisp scrubbing sounds, it shows Habecker cleaning the grave and its surroundings with a vacuum cleaner, a leaf blower, and her own bright-pink “Magic Foam” product. She ends by revealing the name and life story of the deceased.

This performative style sparked conflicting feelings among her viewers. “This is, like, respectful, but also not,” one user commented.

“When I die, keep her away from my grave,” wrote another.

@_the_clean_girlI Cleaned a Random Grave!♬ original sound – Clean Girl

Viewers questioned whether Habecker had asked for permission from family members or site caretakers, a practice that Stephenson told us is a must. “I never recommend cleaning a headstone without first getting permission from whoever is responsible for the cemetery,” she said.

Stephenson said this could be a town, municipality, cemetery association, or a church. While some caretakers allow her to clean the entire ground, others restrict her to specific plots.

“If you’re unsure who owns or manages a cemetery, a good place to start is the town or city clerk where the cemetery is located,” Stephenson said, adding, “Just because a cemetery appears abandoned doesn’t mean no one owns it or that permission isn’t required.”

Technical concerns

Many viewers and preservationists have also raised eyebrows at the techniques and cleaning products entertainment-focused creators like Habecker use.

For instance, the viral ball-throwing video shows Habecker yanking a line of plants from the grave. This almost always damages the stone, according to the Chicora Foundation, a nonprofit heritage preservation organization.

The Chicora Foundation explained that the proper way to remove plants without pulling away loose stone fragments is to slowly clip or pull each section.

Some preservationists are also skeptical about Habecker’s cleaning product, Magic Foam, which her website describes as a “pink foaming multi-surface cleaner.”

NBC News approached Jason Church, chief of technical services at the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, and asked whether Magic Foam was safe. He declined to comment directly, as it wasn’t clear exactly what it was made of.4

However, he noted that “aside from a few approved stone cleaners and tools, many substances can cause graves more harm than good.”

“Yes, that stone is going to get clean instantly, but what you’ve done is, realistically, probably 50 to 75 years’ worth of natural weathering in an instant,” he added.4

Stephenson concurred, saying that, “If someone jumps into grave cleaning without proper training or uses the wrong cleaning products or techniques, they can damage a headstone in ways that simply can’t be repaired or undone.”

According to Spade & the Grave, an academic blog focused on archaeology, death, and burial, amateur gravestone cleaning that caused irreplaceable damage to the stones and local ecosystems surged during the COVID-19 lockdown.

To prevent further harm, Stephenson’s recommendation is simple: “If you’re unsure, don’t touch it.”

Stephenson said she thinks there’s a “real need and demand for properly cleaning and preserving headstones.” However, it’s difficult to turn this into a career “unless you live in a very large population center.”

Experienced headstone preservationist Justin Frost agrees. He told Side Hustles that it’s nearly impossible to make a profit from cleaning headstones alone.

In addition to creating online content, something that he also does, he told us that another path to profitability is to learn to do more intensive work than cleaning, such as actual restoration.

“The only way you can make any kind of profit in this business is if you also repair headstones,” he said.

Other compatible jobs

If you’re interested in grave cleaning but don’t want to get into full-on restoration, you may still be able to earn enough to meaningfully supplement your income, but depending on where you live, you may be competing with volunteers who will do the work for free.

It’s best to keep your expectations modest and treat this side hustle as exactly that—something you’ll do along a more reliable main job.

This approach is how Shaun Tookey, who launched his grave-cleaning side hustle in 2023, makes it work. A full-time tree surgeon, he got the idea for his new side gig while working high up in a tree in a cemetery, when he suddenly wondered who was taking care of the headstones below. 5 6

Tookey told the New York Post that while his cleaning business wasn’t lucrative enough to replace his job, it had boosted his income enough for his family to afford to buy a home, something that previously was out of reach.

For now, he plans to keep grave cleaning as a side hustle, but confirmed he’d ideally like to do it full-time someday.5 6

While grave cleaning can be a rewarding gig, it isn’t easy. As Stephenson pointed out, if you become a cleaner, your clients will be trusting you with irreplaceable monuments.

If you’re interested in getting into this side hustle, here’s how people who have been there and done that say you can do it responsibly.

1. Learn about the craft

Stephenson advises newcomers to start by absorbing resources from reputable preservation organizations, attending workshops, and gaining hands-on experience under professional preservationists.

Stephenson herself did a great deal of research on proper preservation techniques before ever touching a headstone.

Unable to attend workshops or shadow professionals during the COVID-19 lockdown, she had to rely on online information, which was easier said than done. She spent hours parsing out which information was actually legitimate.

She said this was part of why she helped start GraveGeeks—to bring resources together in one place for aspiring cleaners. Newcomers can also check out the National Park Service’s Cemetery Preservation Course.

Stephenson told us that the single biggest mistake she sees people making is assuming they can clean all stains on headstones with scrubbing.

“Most of the dark staining people see is actually biological growth that has penetrated the surface of the stone,” she said. “You can’t scrub that out, no matter how hard you try. All aggressive scrubbing does is increase the risk of damaging the monument.”

Learning to properly clean a grave requires either training or dedicated research, and that’s something you’ll have to do before you try to charge for the service.

Safety concerns when cleaning graves

Cleaning graves without receiving proper training puts you at risk of not only permanently damaging the headstones, but also harming yourself.

“Harsh chemicals can cause serious injuries, including chemical burns,” Stephenson said. She went on to say that some people who didn’t know how to assess a monument’s condition have been seriously injured by toppled-over headstones.

Many people don’t think of these safety concerns when they start cleaning graves. That’s why thorough research and training needs to come long before stepping into a cemetery with supplies.

Of course, accidents can still happen (and not just to yourself) even when you’ve done your due diligence. To protect yourself, you may want to consider getting liability insurance.

2. Price your services

Setting rates for grave cleaning isn’t straightforward, as no two monuments require the same amount of cleaning products and level of care.

Stephenson said that D/2 Biological Solution, an industry-standard cleaner, usually runs around $50 per gallon, including shipping. In her experience, that amount can usually clean up to 20–30 average-sized headstones, but you may use it up much faster if the headstones are very large or heavily covered in biological growth.

In addition to the cost of cleaning products and the stone’s size and condition, you also need to factor in travel time and job duration, she added.

Tookey, who’s based in the UK, charges between $187 and $312 (converted from British pounds) for a deep clean. He raises those converted rates to $437–$562 when clients require add-ons like repainting letters and decorative chippings. 6

According to Grave Listings, a Canada- and US-based cemetery brokerage, a deep cleaning in the US often costs between $150 and $250. 7 However, it emphasized that prices will fluctuate based on the factors that Stephenson noted. 7

It’s a good idea for prospective cleaners to research local competitors’ rates to keep their pricing reasonable and competitive.

3. Find clients

In addition to traditional advertising, such as word-of-mouth, posting leaflets and cards, and running ads in local newspapers, professional grave cleaners now use social media to promote their businesses.

That is, after all, at the heart of the GraveTok phenomenon.

This is a big part of how Tookey lands his clients. He regularly shares detailed before-and-after videos of jobs to showcase his craft and expand his client base. Doing so also allows him to generate an extra income stream through platform ad revenue.

Most of Tookey’s clients find him through social media, he said, adding that improving the quality of his videos also helped his reach. 5

It’s up to you to decide which advertising route you want to take. However, as Tookey’s experience demonstrates, combining traditional local outreach with digital storytelling is a good strategy, as it allows you to reach clients across all demographics.

Grave cleaning isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme, but if you’re willing to take the craft seriously, get the proper training, and promote yourself, you may be able to turn this unusual service into one of your income streams—although unless you’re one of the lucky few to have your content go viral, it may also remain a relatively modest one.