Clean Machine Time Travel
Clean Machine Time Machine...
Join me on a trip through history.
If you think modern day cleaning is hard work, be glad you didn’t live in these times! First off, professional cleaning, in times of old, was rarely done in teams! So, no jokes to share, or conversations to have.
The Egyptians had slaves who cleaned. These cleaning slaves were also expected to help the wealthy with their makeup and clothes; spa treatments and more, all so the wealthy could go out in style! Can you imagine us, at Trinity Commercial Cleaning, having to give spa treatments?!
The Babylonians discovered that contaminated water could kill you. So, every day, without fail,
fresh water was brought in. Considering the water sources may have been miles away from where you were cleaning AND that the size of your buckets would be small, that would mean several trips! On average, one person had to make 10 trips just to clean one building!
The Persians would ‘shake their houses’ every year. Since most of the materials could be removed easily, it was not a big deal to shake the rugs outside and so on. But can you imagine doing this only one time a year?! That would be one heavy rug to shake. Today, we call ‘shaking the house’.
Spring cleaning.
The Greeks also had slaves to do their cleaning. However, if you remember your Greek history, consider all those marble statues. If you were a cleaning slave, you would have to clean all of those, too!
The Romans created aqueducts and sewer systems to help improve cleaning the cities. They also used public bath houses. The irony of this is that before you could enter the public baths, you doused yourself in olive oil and pumice, used a stirgil (a sharp metal scraper), to remove dirt and sweat. I’m so glad we have soap to clean ourselves with!!
In the Dark Ages, almost NO ONE cleaned. As a result, lots of bacteria built up. On the bright side, as soon as this was discovered, massive improvements were made in personal cleaning as well as community wide.
Joseph Lister (think the mouthwash Listerine) created the first antiseptic. While it cleaned and disinfected medical equipment, today’s technology has vastly improved how antiseptics work.
Here, at Trinity Commercial Cleaning, we use antimicrobial agents in our cleaning solutions.
These are electrically charged and go after the bacteria to destroy it!
CNN reported that in the 1500s stale human urine was considered a type of laundry cleaning agent! Gross!! CNN also has these important cleaning notes:
- 1907, Scott Paper Company created the first paper towels
- 1912, Lysol (created in Germany) was brought to America. It was promoted as both a cleaning solution AND birth control for women.
- 1913, Clorox Bleach came along.
- 1933, Proctor and Gamble created Oxydol Soap (can still find it, today). Oxydol Soap sponsored radio shows at the time and that’s how we got ‘soap operas’!
- 1980, Dawn Dish Soap begins saving wildlife. So, where were you in 1980?! I was graduating high school that year.
So, aren’t you glad you live in the 21st Century and have access to not only better cleaning products, but all those friendly faces to help each other? I am! It’s great to be a part of Trinity Commercial Cleaning.
Just think, the next time you are at a party, you can dazzle your friends and family with all this cleaning history ‘time travel’. Enjoy!!
