# How The Heck Did The VICTORIANS Clean Their Houses?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 11, 2003, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323 "2003-12-11T08:42:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/1 "2003-12-11T08:42:17Z")
A friend of mine is into Victorian decor. Just visited her house…Gawd I HATE Victorian decor! Every inch of the walls are covered in pictures…and just about EVERY horizontal surface is covered with knick-knacks (dust collectors)-each one witha doiley underneath! And that massive,ugley furniture…yecch!
Which brings up a question…in an era before electric vacuum cleaners, how did they clean these houses or horrors? Add to it heating by wood or coal stoves, and the average Victorian home must have been filthy with dust and dirt…or elese they spent their entire lives cleaning! Oh, and I fogot to mention…you had to have a JILLION types of plates, forks,spoons, etc.on the dinner table-the Victorians must have spent hours at dinner.
Truly an era NOT to emulate! Why were these people so damn eleaborate? It even extended to their clothes!
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### Author:  [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/2 "2003-12-11T09:12:02Z")
The wealthy and well-to-do had _other_ people cleaning for them.
While other people spent long hours dusting, laundering, beating carpets …
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### Author:  [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/3 "2003-12-11T09:17:05Z")
They didn’t have permanent carpet, so they could take their rugs outside and beat the hell out of them with a stick to get the dust out. Plus plenty of dusting and sweeping.
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### Author:  [@GoldenGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoldenGael)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/4 "2003-12-11T12:29:49Z")
> [@](#):
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> The wealthy and well-to-do had other people cleaning for them.
Those ‘other people’ were invariably Irish.
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### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/5 "2003-12-11T13:00:51Z")
It’s not Victorian, but read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s _Farmer Boy_ for a description of housecleaning at Almanzo Wilder’s childhood home. It too was full of knick-knacks, heavy furniture, and all that good stuff. And they didn’t have hired help in the house.
The thing is, people had different standards for cleanliness then. We think of vacuuming the rugs every week as pretty normal; to them cleaning carpets that often was both impossible and unnecessary. Taking the carpets up once a year and beating the bejeezus out of them was sufficient.
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### Author:  [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/6 "2003-12-11T14:21:05Z")
Victorians actually had [carpet sweepers](http://tofino.ex.ac.uk/virvic/themes/cooking_and_cleaning/cptsweepobj.htm) too.
Although from the looks of it, it seems that it might actually have been easier just to haul the rugs outside and beat the dust out.
_flodnak_, that passage in Farmer Boy was always my favorite when I was a kid, especially when Eliza Jane (I think) gets mad and throws the brush at Almanzo and gets stove black all over the wallpaper.
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### Author:  [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/7 "2003-12-11T15:13:17Z")
You might want to check out the British miniseries [The 1900 House](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250838/). It features a modern family trying to live like their Victorian-era counterparts for three months. From what I recall, most of the cleaning involved heavy scrubbing with sodium bicarbonate.
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### Author:  [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/8 "2003-12-11T15:37:17Z")
The incredible drudgery of running a Victorian house of any size would make any of us collapse into our caramel moccacinos. This work fell almost exclusively to women, either as domestics “in service,” in middle-class or upper income homes, or to the women of the family in working or lower-income families. Did you get to see “The 1900 House?” Simply doing the family laundry was a two-day chore. “Blue Monday,” indeed!
[Here](http://www.victorianweb.org/history/work/maids1.html) is a very good 1874 article on the life of women servants in England.
[This page](http://www.originalfeatures.co.uk/clean.htm), which sells beautiful reproduction Victorian tiles, says that
> [@](#):
>
> The tiles were originally oiled by hand after washing to bring up a sheen and seal the surface of the tiles. **This is hard work as it must be repeated every time the floor is washed…**
(Emphasis mine). In Glasgow (and other parts of Scotland), women in the large (three or four storey) tenement buildings would take turns scrubbing the long tiled street entrances, or “closes,” and then using white pipeclay to make decorative designs along the bottom of the wall and sometimes on the front step; this in addition to all their own cleaning.
Keeping the house clean was a point of pride, certainly in the part of Scotland that my family came from, at all levels of society. My grandmother was “in service” before the First World War as a housemaid in a “big hoose.”
So the short answer to the OP is sheer bloody drudgery on the part of women, paid or unpaid, from pre-dawn to after dark!
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/9 "2003-12-11T15:50:45Z")
. . . yeah, things are _much_ better now with our Ikea furniture and sweatsuits . . . [shivers]
Cleaning took hard work, a feather duster, cleaning cloths, early vaccuum cleaners, help (if you could afford it—not everyone could), and more of a tolerance for dust than we have today.
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### Author:  [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/10 "2003-12-11T16:10:59Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Greywolf73 \*
> \*\*_flodnak_, that passage in Farmer Boy was always my favorite when I was a kid, especially when Eliza Jane (I think) gets mad and throws the brush at Almanzo and gets stove black all over the wallpaper. \*\*
Actually, he threw the brush at her, after she got really bossy and he got mad at her. Being an older sister, I can so see this. Little brothers are a pain. 🙂
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/11 "2003-12-11T17:13:56Z")
My understanding is that the lady of the house spe nt a lot of time huffing around and saying to her visitors, “Honestly! When we were in India the servants understood how to polish brass!”
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### Author:  [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/12 "2003-12-11T20:57:44Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Shoshana \*
> \*\*My understanding is that the lady of the house spe nt a lot of time huffing around and saying to her visitors, “Honestly! When we were in India the servants understood how to polish brass!” \*\*
Meanwhile, back in India:
“Honestly! The servants back home understood how to polish brass!”
😉
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### Author:  [@Jenny\_Haniver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Haniver)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/13 "2003-12-11T21:32:04Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by GoldenGael \*
> \*\*Those ‘other people’ were invariably Irish. \*\*
You mean the **I** rish **R** insing **A** rmy?
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### Author:  [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/14 "2003-12-11T23:33:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by GoldenGael \*
> \*\*Those ‘other people’ were invariably Irish. \*\*
Not necessarily. For my family, becoming a servant was getting one of the better jobs available – at least you got food, clothes, and housing. Living in Victorian times may make a lovely fantasy, but the reality for most of the people in England at the time was much harsher and more brutal.
CJ
Descendant of a long line of Lancashire peasants!
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### Author:  [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/15 "2003-12-12T00:18:52Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Greywolf73 \*
> \*\*Victorians actually had [carpet sweepers](http://tofino.ex.ac.uk/virvic/themes/cooking_and_cleaning/cptsweepobj.htm) too.
>
> Although from the looks of it, it seems that it might actually have been easier just to haul the rugs outside and beat the dust out.\*\*
Look closely… that carpet sweeper looks very much like the modern ones you roll back and forth across the floor and wheels underneath drive brushes that sweep debris into a pan in the center.
Surely you’ve seen restaurant staff using these to clean up after a party that included toddlers in high chairs!
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### Author:  [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/16 "2003-12-12T03:39:54Z")
Yes, but the ones in the restaurant (and in my house) are lightweight plastic and aluminum with rubber belts and plastic gears. That sucker in the link looks heavy.
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### Author:  [@DaisyFace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaisyFace)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/17 "2003-12-12T03:53:56Z")
Don’t forget the crumb cloths! Simpler fabric pieces to lay under the dining room table during meals which could easily be lifted up and shaken outside afterwards. (I can’t find a link to a picture which shows one well, but I used to work in an historic house museum. If I find it, I’ll post it.)
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### Author:  [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/18 "2003-12-12T04:14:33Z")
England in the 1500s …
Baths equaled a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the
other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you
could actually loose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water”.
Houses had thatched roofs. Thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm,
so all the pets … dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs lived in the roof. When it rained it became
slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, “It’s raining cats and dogs”.
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other
droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. So, they found if they made beds with big posts and hung a sheet over
the top, it addressed that problem. Hence those beautiful big 4 poster beds with canopies.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying “dirt poor”. The wealthy had slate
floors which would get slippery in the winter when wet. So they spread thresh on the floor to help keep their footing. As
the winter wore on they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece
of wood was placed at the entry way, hence a “thresh hold”.
They cooked in the kitchen in a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to
the pot. They mostly ate vegetables and didn’t get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner leaving leftovers in the
pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been in there for a
month. Hence the rhyme: “peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old”.
Sometimes they could obtain pork and would feel really special when that happened. When company came over, they would bring
out some bacon and hang it to show it off. It was a sign of wealth and that a man could “bring home the bacon”. They would
cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat”.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food.
This happened most often with tomatoes, so they stopped eating tomatoes … for 400 years.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got
the top, or the “upper crust”.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone
walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a
couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the
custom of holding a “wake”.
England is old and small and they started running out of places to bury people. So, they would dig up coffins and would
take their bones to a house and reuse the grave. In reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have
scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string
on their wrist and lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out
in the graveyard all night to listen for the bell. Hence on the “graveyard shift” they would know that someone was “saved
by the bell” or he was a “dead ringer”.
(Courtesy of **ccwaterback** ’s spam archive.)
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### Author:  [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/19 "2003-12-12T04:16:47Z")
Sorry about the terrible formatting. “Review reply” shows it looking just fine. :dubious:
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### Author:  [@DaisyFace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaisyFace)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-heck-did-the-victorians-clean-their-houses/218323/20 "2003-12-12T04:20:31Z")
All of which is true enough, **ccwater** but 1500’s is hardly Victorian and I’m sure the upper crust would cetainly have argued that they’d come a long way since then.
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