What woman does before leaving the house goes viral: “Genius”

A woman has gone viral for showcasing her ritual before leaving the house, which resonated with millions of people.

Sarah Lauren Semkowski, 24, is a content creator living in Toronto, Canada, whose posts generally focus on “advice, lifestyle, fashion, and beauty.” But a slightly different video has recently gone hugely viral on her TikTok account, @sarahlauren71, racking up over 1.4 million likes and almost 14 million views since being posted on December 21.

It shows Semkowski’s moves before she leaves the house: recording herself checking that all the lights and electrics are switched off, and the door is locked, to have proof and avoid any anxiety later.

Semkowski explained to Newsweek: “I’ve always been an anxious person, and growing up, my mom would always ask before we left the house, ‘Are all straighteners and curlers off?’ or ‘Make sure the candle is blown out before we leave, please.’ Those little reminders became ingrained in my routine.”

In the clip, Semkowski, dressed for a night out, checks the oven and hob, and tells the camera: “Every single stove is off.”

“Candles are fully blown out,” she says after checking — and then realizes her Christmas tree lights are still on, which is “a problem,” until she records herself turning them off.

She touches her straightener and confirms it’s unplugged, and after leaving her apartment, checks the door and confirms “it’s locked.”

“Recording for later is genius,” she wrote across the video, and asked in the caption: “Is it just me or?”

And it was immediately apparent that she was not, in fact, alone.

“I’m convinced the knobs will turn themselves on as soon as I leave the house. Can’t tell me otherwise,” one admitted.

“My entire camera roll is videos of me locking my door,” another wrote, while one shared they “take a picture of my heater at work every day before I leave.”

And one said: “I thought I was the only one. Wow.”

Others were concerned a ritual like this could cause more anxiety, or be a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

One symptom of OCD is doubts about whether you have locked the door or turned off the stove, but the Mayo Clinic stresses OCD is not “simply excessive worries about real issues in your life or liking to have things clean or arranged in a specific way.”

In Semkowski’s case, she said it was “wild to see how many people related to such a small habit of mine—it’s such a reminder of how much we all share the same day-to-day concerns.”

Saying she is “so happy so many people related,” she added: “If this helps save someone time or eases their mind before leaving the house, then my job here is done.”

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