170 Fun Facts About Cleaning

Evidence of soap-like materials being made goes back to around 2800 BC in which ancient civilisation?

Proto-soaps mixing fat and alkali turn up in Sumerian, Babylonian and Egyptian texts.

What is the name of the chemical reaction that turns fats and an alkali such as lye into soap?

Soap made from pure olive oil is known as Castile or Marseille soap and is prized for its mildness.

Ivory soap's famous slogan, introduced in 1891, was what?

The name came from Psalm 45's 'ivory palaces', and its other slogan claimed it was 99 and 44/100 percent pure.

Sunlight, launched by Lever Brothers in 1884, is described as the world's first what?

Its success named Port Sunlight, the model village Lever built for his workers on the Wirral.

Persil, launched by Henkel in 1907, took its name from silicate and which bleaching agent?

It was the first laundry detergent to combine bleach with the detergent, marketed as 'self-acting' to end hand-scrubbing.

Tide, introduced in 1946, is recognised as the world's first what?

P&G had cancelled the research as 'Project X'; chemist Dick Byerly kept working on it in secret.

Synthetic detergents were first developed in Germany in World War I due to a shortage of what?

The chemists turned to coal tar as a raw material instead.

Which chemist found in 1785 that chlorine could bleach fabric and discovered the first commercial bleach?

Scheele had discovered chlorine itself eleven years earlier.

The first commercial bleach was named 'Eau de Javel' after a borough near which city?

Charles Tennant of Scotland patented solid bleaching powder in 1799 as an alternative.

The brand name Clorox is a portmanteau of chlorine and which other ingredient?

Annie Murray built demand by giving away sample bottles at the family grocery store in Oakland.

Domestos bleach was first produced in 1929 by Wilfred Handley and sold door to door in which English city?

An early slogan claimed it 'kills 99% of all household germs'; Lever Brothers bought the company in 1961.

Lysol was introduced in 1889 by Gustav Raupenstrauch to help end an epidemic of which disease in Germany?

In the mid-20th century it was also marketed, disturbingly, as a feminine-hygiene douche.

According to Procter & Gamble's backstory, Mr. Clean was a sailor in which service before he took up cleaning?

He made his TV debut in 1958; in Germany he is Meister Proper and in Spain Don Limpio.

Which odour-trapping molecule is the active ingredient in Febreze?

It went into test markets in 1996 and by 2010 was a billion-dollar brand for P&G.

Which British engineer built the horse-drawn 'Puffing Billy' in 1901 and may have coined 'vacuum cleaner'?

He tested the idea by sucking through a handkerchief on a chair and studying the dirt on the underside; he also designed Ferris wheels.

James Murray Spangler, who patented the first portable electric vacuum in 1908, had what department-store job?

He was asthmatic and blamed his carpet sweeper; his prototype used a fan motor, a soap box and one of his wife's pillowcases.

Spangler sold his patent to a local maker of what, whose name became Britain's verb for vacuuming?

Spangler had given one of his machines to his cousin Susan Troxel Hoover, which is how the family found out.

About how many prototypes did James Dyson build before launching the G-Force vacuum in 1983?

The cyclone idea came from a sawmill's dust extractor; his earlier invention was the Ballbarrow.

Where did James Dyson first launch his bagless cleaner after every UK manufacturer refused it?

It won a Japanese design prize in 1991; the Dual Cyclone later became the fastest-selling vacuum ever in the UK.

The Roomba robot vacuum was first introduced by iRobot in which year?

Bissell and another company had turned down early prototypes in the 1990s; its rival at launch was the Electrolux Trilobite.

Which company introduced the first domestic automatic washing machine in 1937?

It looked like a modern front-loader; statistician Hans Rosling called the washing machine the greatest invention of the Industrial Revolution.

Josephine Cochrane invented the first successful dishwasher in 1886 in which state?

Her company eventually became part of KitchenAid, and she entered the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006.

What was Josephine Cochrane's motivation for inventing the dishwasher?

She showed nine machines at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, where hotels and restaurants took notice.

Which German company made Europe's first electric domestic dishwasher in 1929?

Commercial machines sanitise with a final rinse of about 82 °C or a chemical sanitiser.

Jean Baptiste Jolly is said to have hit on dry cleaning in 1825 after what spilled on a tablecloth?

He used kerosene and gasoline; the less flammable Stoddard solvent arrived in 1924 and 'perc' took over in the 1950s.

Which solvent, known as 'perc', became the dominant dry-cleaning solvent from the 1950s?

Earlier cleaners used gasoline and kerosene, with predictable fire risks; perc took over in the 1950s.

The first laundromat opened on April 18, 1934, in which Texas city?

Older Texans still call them washaterias; in Britain they are launderettes.

P&G's Swiffer was modelled on the Quickle Wiper, a 1995 electrostatic cleaner from which country?

Swiffer uses a razor-and-blades model: cheap handle, endless refills; it grew into a half-billion-dollar brand.

Brillo pads, patented in 1913, combine steel wool with what?

They were invented because new aluminium pans blackened easily; the founders paid their lawyer, Milton Loeb, in shares.

Ettore Steccone named his 1936 single-blade window squeegee after which political programme?

It replaced the bulky two-blade 'Chicago squeegee' with a light brass handle and a sharp rubber blade.

Ostrich-feather dusters were developed in 1903 in which city?

American dusters of the 1870s used turkey feathers, after a farmer walked into an Iowa broom factory with a bundle of them.

Which religious community invented the flat broom-corn broom and the broom vice in the 19th century?

'Broom' gradually replaced the older word 'besom' from the 15th century, when the tools were made from twigs of the broom shrub.

The word 'mop', spelled 'mappe' in the 15th century, may derive from a Latin word meaning what?

Thomas W. Stewart's 1893 patent used springs and levers to grip the mop head; wringers with rollers already existed.

The word 'janitor' comes from the Latin 'ianitor', meaning what?

The same root gives us January, the month named for the two-faced door god Janus.

Some trace spring cleaning to 'khaneh tekani', a tradition before which new-year festival?

Another candidate is the Jewish cleansing of the home of leaven before Passover.

Marie Kondo's KonMari method tells you to keep only the possessions that do what?

She spent five years as an attendant maiden at a Shinto shrine and made the TIME 100 in 2015.

Which streaming service released Tidying Up with Marie Kondo in 2019, earning her an Emmy nomination?

Her 2011 book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has been published in more than 30 countries.

In which year did an Act of Parliament finally stop the practice of sending 'climbing boys' up British chimneys?

The death of 12-year-old George Brewster in a Fulbourn Hospital flue that year finally pushed the bill through.

How narrow could the hot flues climbed by Victorian chimney boys as young as four be?

German master sweeps, organised in guilds, never used climbing boys at all.

Cif, the cream cleaner launched in France in 1965, is sold under which name in Australia and New Zealand?

Britain switched from Jif to Cif in 2001 to align the name across Europe.

Which detergent brand did Procter & Gamble sell from 1933, mainly for baby clothes?

Henkel had begun selling fatty-alcohol-sulphate detergents in Germany the year before.

Which German brand, headquartered in Winnenden, is best known for pressure washers?

Alfred Kärcher founded the firm in 1935 and moved to Winnenden in 1939 for lack of space; it now employs 17,000 people.

Nicholas McKay's 1956 Lint Pic-Up was sold by a company he named Helmac after whom?

Michael Moore handed out free Helmac lint rollers on the promotional tour for Roger & Me.

Ultra-fine microfibres were pioneered in the 1960s by Miyoshi Okamoto at which Japanese company?

The first hit product was Ultrasuede in the 1970s; microfibre cleaning cloths were popularised in Sweden in the early 1990s.

Baking soda's older name, still seen in 19th-century recipes, is what?

Americans say baking soda; Britons and Australians say bicarbonate of soda; a three-to-one paste with water is a folk remedy for insect stings.

Which company introduced Ajax Powdered Cleanser in 1947?

It was one of the company's first major brands.

What is the primary active ingredient in the canned Bar Keepers Friend scouring powder?

It has been made in Indianapolis since 1882.

What does the Bar Keepers Friend logo represent?

The product was originally sold to bars in Indianapolis.

Which opening catchphrase made the OxiClean pitchman a TV fixture?

He pitched OxiClean, Orange Glo and Kaboom.

Which Discovery Channel series featured Billy Mays and Anthony Sullivan?

Mays died in 2009.

Who ran the carpet-sweeper firm founded by her husband Melville from 1889 to 1919?

She took over after her husband Melville's death.

Liquid bleach is notable for being one of the few compounds capable of fully annihilating what?

That makes it common for sanitizing lab equipment.

What is Bon Ami's early trademark slogan?

Bon Ami is French for 'good friend'.

The name Brillo is claimed to come from a Latin word meaning what, though no such word exists?

In Spanish, brillo means 'shine'.

The word 'broom' derives from what?

Common broom refers to whatever shrub is used locally for bristles.

The Automobile Laundry, considered the first US business to use the name 'car wash', opened in 1914 in which city?

The first US semi-automatic car wash also debuted in Detroit, in 1946.

Hot water extraction of carpets is often mistakenly given what name?

It sprays hot water and detergent into the carpet and extracts it.

Castile soap is based on which oil?

Aleppo soap, its ancestor, used olive and laurel oil.

A 1582 Tudor ordinance required chimneys to be swept how many times per year?

Soot is highly flammable.

Under what name is Cif still sold in Canada?

In Germany it is called Viss.

Under what name was Clorox founded in 1913?

Five investors put in $100 each for a factory on San Francisco Bay.

Which lip balm brand is owned by Clorox?

Clorox also owns Glad, Kingsford and Hidden Valley.

What is the rotating drum in a tumble dryer called?

A non-rotating 'drying cabinet' handles delicate fabrics.

Who invented the 'electric flatiron', patented in 1882?

The first heated metal ironing occurred in China.

The Danshari decluttering method was introduced in 2009 by which author?

Its name combines dan (refuse), sha (dispose) and ri (separate).

The word detergent comes from a Latin verb meaning what?

Detergere is the verb.

Under what name is Downy fabric softener sold in Europe?

It launched in the US in 1960.

Downy became the first what to be distributed nationally in the US in 1960?

P&G pushed makers to add automatic dispensers to washing machines.

Which synthetic fibre reacts poorly with water and should be dry cleaned if possible?

Silk and acetate also benefit from dry cleaning.

Electrolux is consistently ranked the world's second-largest appliance maker after which company?

It was founded in Stockholm in 1910.

The name Febreze is a portmanteau of which two words?

In many non-English countries it is sold as Ambi Pur.

Febreze's active ingredient is produced from what?

The brand made over a billion dollars in 2010.

The Great Stink of 1858 led London to adopt whose sewer proposal?

Work on the outfall sewers lasted from 1859 to 1875.

The CDC recommends hand sanitizers with at least what percentage of alcohol?

Sanitizer is less effective against norovirus.

For how long does the WHO recommend washing hands?

Drying is part of the process, as wet hands are more easily recontaminated.

Harpic toilet cleaner takes its name from which inventor?

He was based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

Which Harpic advertising slogan gave rise to a slang term for 'crazy'?

Harpic launched in the UK in 1932.

On which network did Hoarders debut in August 2009?

Lifetime later aired 'Update' episodes.

The first documented case of hoarding, in 1947, involved which New York siblings?

Their mansion became an attraction because of the accumulation found after their deaths.

In which US state was the Hoover Company founded in 1908?

Its name became a verb for vacuuming in the UK and Ireland.

Hoover North America was sold in 2007 to which Hong Kong company?

The price was $107 million.

Which 1861 Victorian guide said the housekeeper is 'second in command in the house'?

Housekeeping can also refer to computer storage maintenance.

In Victorian England and Wales, domestic service was the second-largest category of employment after what?

'Maid' in Middle English meant an unmarried woman.

Which two experts starred in Channel 4's How Clean Is Your House?

It aired from 2003 to 2009.

What colour is pure hydrogen peroxide?

Consumer solutions are 3-6% by weight.

What did Ignaz Semmelweis propose doctors wash their hands with in 1847?

Maternal mortality dropped from 18% to under 2%.

Semmelweis was nicknamed the saviour of whom?

He fought puerperal fever in Vienna.

The name Ivory was inspired by a quote from which Bible book?

Harley Procter chose it in 1879.

Who developed the inexpensive white soap that became Ivory in 1879?

He was a trained chemist and son of a co-founder.

Joseph Lister introduced which substance as a steriliser at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary?

It is modern-day phenol.

Keep America Beautiful was founded in 1953 by the American Can Company and which glass maker?

Critics call its focus on littering greenwashing.

Kleenex was first marketed in 1924 as what?

The 'ex' linked it to Kotex.

Which company owns the Kleenex trademark?

Kleenex products are made in 78 countries.

What is the most littered item in the world?

An estimated 4.5 trillion are discarded each year.

By the 2020s, which compound was the active ingredient in most Lysol products?

The 'Power and Free' line used hydrogen peroxide instead.

Which company launched the first commercial melamine resin foam, Basotect, in 1984?

It is the material in Magic Eraser sponges.

Melamine foam cleans by working like extremely fine what?

Its polymer strands are very hard even though the foam feels soft.

In which year was Marie Kondo named to the TIME 100 list?

Her Netflix show followed in 2019.

What was the title of the 2021 Netflix follow-up to Tidying Up?

Kondo was born in Osaka in 1984.

The Maytag Washing Machine Company started in 1893 making what?

Its threshing machine feeder made threshing safer.

Which company has owned Maytag since April 2006?

Whirlpool also owns KitchenAid and Amana.

Ecover, the Belgian eco-cleaning company, was founded in 1979 to make what kind of products?

It bought San Francisco's Method Products in 2012.

Microfiber cloth removes dirt without scratches by exploiting what?

Microfibers are finer than one denier.

What was Miele's first product line, sold under the Meteor brand?

Miele began making vacuum cleaners in 1927.

Which actor first portrayed Mr. Clean in live-action commercials in 1958?

Mr. Clean is Meister Proper in Germany.

What is Mr. Clean called in France?

He is Don Limpio in Spain.

Cleaning influencer Mrs Hinch worked in what job before starting her Instagram account?

Her followers are known as Hinchers.

What was the title of the cleanfluencer Sophie Hinchliffe's first book, published in April 2019?

It sold over 160,000 copies in its first week.

The word 'napkin' derives from a Latin word for what?

Old French nappe came from Latin mappa.

Which company introduced OxiClean in 1997?

Church & Dwight acquired it in 2006.

Which active ingredient in OxiClean releases hydrogen peroxide in water?

OxiClean is now owned by Church & Dwight.

Which Philadelphia firm launched Sani-Towels in 1907, starting a new disposable-hygiene industry?

They advertised paper towels as essential to hygiene.

Pine-Sol was invented in 1929 by Harry A. Cole in which city?

By 2016 store-sold Pine-Sol no longer contained pine oil.

Why did Pine-Sol drop pine oil from store products by 2016?

Clorox owns the Pine-Sol trade name.

Pledge furniture polish is sold under what name in France?

It is Blem in Argentina.

In which US city was Procter & Gamble founded in 1837?

William Procter and James Gamble were the founders.

The 'Great Bath' of which ancient city is one of the earliest public baths?

It was the size of a modest municipal swimming pool.

Recycling is which step in the 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' hierarchy?

ISO 15270 covers plastics waste.

Engineer Joe Jones conceived the Roomba idea in 1989 while working at which lab?

His initial design used LEGO bricks.

What did the S.O.S in S.O.S Soap Pads originally stand for?

Irwin Cox's wife coined the name in 1917.

Why does the S.O.S brand omit the final period?

Removing it made the name unique.

Fat in a corpse converts to what substance through saponification?

It is often called 'grave wax'.

Scrubbing Bubbles was originally sold under what name?

S.C. Johnson bought the line in 1997.

Which voice actor, famous as Tigger, voiced the lead Scrubbing Bubble in 1970s commercials?

MIT pranksters put 3D bubbles on the Media Lab in 1995.

Seventh Generation is based in which US city?

Its name comes from the Great Law of the Iroquois.

For roughly how much did Unilever buy Seventh Generation in 2016?

The company uses plant-based, phosphate-free ingredients.

Which kitchen utensil did ShamWow pitchman Vince Offer also sell?

He also sold a lint roller called the Schticky.

The Snuggle Bear puppet was created by which puppeteer?

The bear debuted in 1986.

Which former Monkee said in 2006 that he was the voice of the Snuggle Bear?

Corinne Orr originally voiced it.

The term for long-running daytime serial dramas comes from radio sponsorship by which businesses?

The Archers is the world's longest-running soap.

What is the chemical formula of sodium hypochlorite, the compound in household bleach?

Its dilute solution has been used as a disinfectant since the 18th century.

Mixing liquid bleach with acidic limescale removers dangerously liberates which toxic gas?

Chlorine is the active principle of such products.

Ancient Olympic competitors bathed with sea sponges soaked in what?

The word comes from the Greek spongos.

Which Jewish festival's home-cleansing tradition is another suggested origin of spring cleaning?

Persian Nowruz is the other main theory.

Which 1851 novel mentions a 'leathern squilgee', an early squeegee?

Early squeegees cleaned ship decks.

A self-cleaning oven that uses low-temperature vapour rather than pyrolysis runs at roughly what heat?

Pyrolysis needs about 500 C.

The word 'surfactant', coined in 1950, blends which phrase?

Horse chestnuts and soap nuts contain natural surfactants.

Swiffer uses which business model, selling cheap handles and pricey refills?

It launched in 1999.

Roughly what share of the global laundry detergent market does Tide hold?

It is the highest-selling detergent brand in the world.

Toilet Duck's duck-shaped bottle was patented in 1980 by a company from which country?

In Germany it is WC-Ente.

Toilet brushes were originally made of wood with bristles from which animal?

Horse, ox, squirrel and badger hair were also used.

Ancient Egyptian tooth powder from 5000 BC included powdered ashes of what?

Greeks and Romans added crushed bones and oyster shells.

Unilever was formed in 1930 by merging Lever Brothers with which Dutch company?

Unilever is the largest producer of soap in the world.

In New Zealand's Southland region a vacuum cleaner is sometimes called what?

It comes from the Electrolux brand.

Vanish toilet bowl cleaner was introduced in 1937 to compete with which older product?

Both used sodium bisulfate as the active ingredient.

Vim scouring powder, launched in 1904 by William Lever, was an offshoot of which soap?

It was produced at Port Sunlight near Liverpool.

Vim detergent tablets sponsored which CBS sitcom in the 1960s?

Lucille Ball starred.

Vinegar typically contains what percentage of acetic acid?

The name comes from Old French for 'sour wine'.

In what year was the first English patent in the washing machine category issued?

Electric washers were advertised as early as 1904.

Which Italian city uses barges for waste collection?

In Mexico City residents haul trash to a bell-ringing truck.

Who is credited as inventor of the wet wipe, trademarking Wet-Nap in 1958?

He adapted a soap portioning machine in a Manhattan loft.

What was the original 1911 name of the appliance giant Whirlpool?

Louis Upton had acquired a patent for a manual clothes washer.

What colour was the original Windex?

Today it is commonly blue.

Which company has manufactured Windex since acquiring it in 1993?

Drackett sold Windex to Bristol-Myers in 1965.

What is scrim used for in traditional window cleaning?

Chamois loosens the dirt first.

In what year was Woolite introduced?

Reckitt Benckiser acquired it in 1991.

On what date is World Cleanup Day held annually?

It became an official UN day from 2024.

In which California city did Frank Zamboni develop the first ice resurfacer in 1949?

He had built the Iceland skating rink there in 1939.

Per a 2017 study, roughly what share of all plastic ever produced had been recycled?

Zero waste focuses on prevention rather than end-of-pipe management; the 2017 estimate put the figure at 9%.

Which company's planned $1.7 billion takeover of iRobot collapsed in January 2024?

iRobot filed for bankruptcy in December 2025.

iRobot was founded in 1990 by three members of which university's AI lab?

Its Braava robots mop floors.

Which Philadelphia inventor patented the first commercial deodorant in the late 19th century?

Jules Montenier patented the modern antiperspirant formula in 1941.

What is the natural mineral form of sodium bicarbonate?

It is more commonly found as a component of trona.

Which brand-name lint roller did Vince Offer sell?

He also sold a cleaner called InVinceable.

Which dishwashing liquid, launched in 1973, was used to clean oiled wildlife after the Exxon Valdez spill?

P&G's best-selling US dish soap also cuts animal fat spilled on highways and was used again after Deepwater Horizon.

According to the inventor's son, Formula 409 was named after what?

Morris D. Rouff invented it in 1957 as an industrial degreaser; the company instead claims it was the 409th compound tested.

Besides coconut oil, which two oils went into the original 1898 Palmolive bar soap?

Like Ivory, the original bar floated; by the turn of the 20th century it was the world's best-selling soap.

Which company introduced Comet scouring powder in 1956 before selling the brand in 2001?

Prestige Brands later passed it to KIK Custom Products in 2018, while P&G kept rights in Europe and the US professional market.

Fairy soap bars were originally made by Thomas Hedley Co. of which English city?

The brand dates to 1898; Procter & Gamble acquired Hedley in 1927 and now uses the Fairy name across many markets.

Who invented Crystal Drano drain cleaner in 1923?

Its lye, sodium nitrate, salt and aluminium shards react with water to release hydrogen that stirs the mix; the slogan ran 'Once in every week, Drano in every drain'.