I have seen various ads locally for European or European Style Housecleaning. I tried to find info on it on the web but came up empty-handed.
Can anyone tell me what this is? How do Europeans clean houses any differently than any one else?
Certain European countries have a reputation for maniacal levels of household cleanliness – Holland, Switzerland, the Scandinavian countries – that is perceived to be of great value in selecting a house cleaning service. The subtext, if you want to be cynical about it, is “this ain’t lazy Meskin housecleaning, it’s Yurpeein!”
How do Europeans clean houses any differently than any one else?
According to my grandmother, who lived in Germany while my pawpaw was stationed there, Germans have slight OCD when it comes to housecleaning.
You know how Americans wash the windows on their house maybe twice a year? The people she lived around did it EVERY DAY. She says the first thing everyone in the neighborhood would do every morning is go outside and sweep their sidewalks. And their floors? You could do open heart surgery on them.
I’m not sure when her neighbors found time to hold down jobs and raise kids, but I certainly wish I had a touch of their compulsion.
Is this true for all Europeans?
I know a guy whose parents are from England; they own two expensive customized cars and a massive, brand new Dodge pickup truck, but their house is the filthiest heap I’ve ever had the misfortune of stepping foot in. I mean stacks of pizza boxes reaching to the ceiling, empty bottles and cans all over the place, and half-finished renovations left and right.
Maybe the English just don’t care about it as much as the Germans do.
My wife has a friend and coworker that spent some time in Germany and still visits there regularly. She likes to take all of the blanket, sheets and whatever else she can get her hands on and hang everything over the terrace railings. She says this is a “German thing”. I’ve noticed some of the same when visiting Europe (I’ve yet to visit Germany).
However, I will agree after visiting Amsterdam, Norway and Sweden that they keep things amazingly clean in parts of Europe. I won’t mention the parts I’ve been to that don’t seem that much cleaner than here in the US for diplomatic reasons.
I can only speak for myself, [and the people I know] ofcourse, but the keyword would be ‘Former’ European Style Housecleaning.
The picture of women sweeping the sidewalks has gone, along with my grandmother. Once we were a very clean nation.
I’m pretty particular myself, about cleaning. I like a clean house, though I hate cleaning. Therefore I hired a cleaning lady. But I know a lot of friends that can’t use their kitchen counter because it’s stacked with dirty stuff. Your feet will stick to the carpet - so never wear white socks, eww - And cleaning windows they’ll leave to the weather gods. 
To each his own, huh.
The English aren’t European. 
From what I can tell from living in London (and visiting other UK cities), obsessive cleanliness is restricted to the continent. Littering isn’t frowned upon due to the lack of public rubbish bins (removed because of terrorism)–so the streets are fairly grotty. It’s harder to generalise about household hygiene.
It’s standard advertising practice; establish that your product is extra special because its not your normal domestic product. Whether European houses are cleaner is more a matter of stereotypes. I’m sure you get as many filthy German houses as American ones.
On the otherhand, and slightly OT, as Jervoise says; street litter is a national disgrace in the UK and something that annoys me intensely. You really do notice the difference in the average European street. But this doesn’t mean that the average British house is any dirtier than European or American houses.
We aren’t? When did that happen? Because I was under the impression that Britain is part of Europe, hence our membership of the EU.
But yeah, some parts of the UK are pretty grotty.
One of those bizarre SDMB co-incidences. In the news today; a comparison of different European nations’ household cleanliness…
I lived in Italy for two years, while I was in the Navy. Italians keep their homes spotlessly clean as well.
They might live in a hovel (I was stationed in Sicily, which was pretty poor), but it will be a clean hovel.
During a visit to Madrid last year I noticed that not only did people sweep the pavement ( sidewalk ) outside their house / apartment but that some of them even washed them down. This usually happened first thing in the morning.
Also there seemed to be a whole army of cleansing personnel who kept the pavements and streets really clean. This ranged from people with brooms to those mechanical , push-along sweepers .
To this outsider at least, it seems many English people make a clear distinction between the UK and Europe proper, meaning continental Europe. (Take the terms Eurosceptism and Eurotrash, for example, where the -Euro prefix denotes something separate from the UK.)
Obviously I’m aware that the UK is literally part of Europe–hence the winkie smiley.
I was hoping it would involve French Maids… 
…with the egg-whisk and the stick of celery
or was it the flying helmet ?
Really? What do garbage cans have to do with terrorists?
It’s really easy to plant a bomb in them, and then blow it up when the street is busy.
Nice little IRA trick. :mad:
Around here, they’ve removed everything from the subway platforms - no trash cans and no newsstands or newsracks. The result is litter everywhere on the platforms. I understand the idea that someone could dump a bomb into a trash can, but they could do the same with a large shopping bag or backpack.
As for the European cleaning, it does sound like thinly-veiled racism - “lazy Messican” vs Frau Scrubbenschein.
The IRA plant bombs in them. They did it in Warrington, killing two schoolboys.
As for the English, it depends on whether you are talking about a houseproud person or not. Some people are just born nasty.