The meaning of cleaning: The creation of harmony and hygiene in the home

Abstract

Towards the end of the 19th century cleaning and maintaining orderliness in the home took on increasing social and moral significance. New competences were required of women to achieve the desired hygiene and harmony in the home. The article focusses on the advice given in household manuals, books and articles to middle‐class women in turn‐of‐the‐century Sweden. The texts identified a number of threats to health and possessions which necessitated a constant battle against dust and dirt. The meaning of cleaning can be seen in relation to the “bacila fright” created by science in late 19th century, but also to a rising middle class’ desire for distinction and social respectability. Above all, women's efforts and skills to create order must be set within the context of the patriarchal family of the time. Women were to be competent housekeepers in the minutest domestic detail — but were wholly dependent on their husband's income and good will. This made for a contradictory situation where the goals of harmony and hygiene were not always easy to reconcile, and women were accused of both too little and too much of cleaning zeal.

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