As the spring-cleaning time of year comes fast upon us, we thought it would be interesting to share some handy tips for cleaning the house that were used, almost exclusively, by very hard-working housewives and servants in the Victorian and Edwardian period. We should hastily add, that at Plymouth Cleaners at least, these methods have for the most part been surpassed – in fact we are extremely grateful for the advances in cleaning technology that make our work possible. So this is merely a matter of record.

Firstly, the Victorians had a very high regard for soap, and most often the soap applied for all purposes from scrubbing the floor to washing oneself, was a big block called Sunlight Carbolic. In some cases the floors were covered with a kind of oil cloth to make scrubbing a little easier and it was common to sprinkle dried tea leaves on this surface – also on rugs and carpets – as a means of helping the dust to settle. Bear in mind there were no vacuum cleaners so all such detritus had to be removed by broom and brush.

Rugs were often taken outside in the summer days and, after a light application of soap-diluted water, were dried on the line and then beaten with special cane carpet-beaters to ensure the dust is thrashed out. This was hard work. It was also quite hard and cold work taking the rugs out in winter, when there was a covering of snow – as there was quite regularly – and dragging them across the snow to wet them sufficiently to clean off superficial dirt before laboriously drying them in front of the fire.

Nor did the Victorians have dishwashers but most kitchens bristled with pots and pans and they had a special trick for cleaning these by soaking them in an abrasive mixture of broken eggshell and lemon juice. Afterwards the articles were thoroughly rinsed and dried. Our savvy ancestors also used a mixture of lemon juice and salt to clean baths and stains on the wooden kitchen tops.

Thankfully nowadays, we are blessed with highly effective detergents, bleaches and super-abrasive cleaning products, and with worktops and surfaces that are designed with cleaning efficiency in mind. But if the thought of that still does not appeal, you might consider getting a quote from us to come and do a professional job to get the house sparkling.

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