When Covid was first upon us, Britain locked down into a frenzied habit of deep cleaning. During that time I was stacking shelves in a supermarket. Right at the beginning of the pandemic, the shelves were being decimated by desperate shoppers buying toilet paper, hand sanitizer, pasta, and flour.
Flour? Were they going to bake themselves out of a pandemic?
My university shut down and had a ‘deep clean’. I understand from my upbringing, through my travels, and from my previous employment that ‘clean’, like ‘art’, is highly subjective. Clean is not something you are born with – it is taught and therefore very closely linked to the ideals in your cultural heritage.
The word ‘Clean’ comes from old German / Dutch, meaning ‘to get rid of impurities’ (both in the soul and in the world of dirt). The Dutch heritage considered cleaning a part of their religion, and when the religion disappeared from their culture, cleanliness remained very much a part of their identity. My partner is from Limburg, Belgium, and attests to ‘Cleaning Sundays’ a day when everyone would clean their house.
In South Africa the unsavoury practice of keeping a ‘Maid’ during apartheid meant the house was always spotless. Most white families had a maid. My mother felt uncomfortable with someone in the house that ‘was family’ but was not ‘family’ a weird double standard that racist societies have. She decided to clean the house herself. She trained my sister and me to clean the house from top to bottom, on a Sunday (no relation to the Dutch practice).
So when Covid started and ‘deep clean’ was bandied about on the media, I expected a step up from our household chores. I expected fumigation and the white-suited figures I had seen on the Chinese news. I expected every last bit of dirt lifted and scraped clean.
This was not the case. A ‘deep clean’ was the same clean we had practiced as children. Scrubbing and wiping down with a sanitizer was the norm, there was nothing ‘deep’ about it. The other day my housemate (from India) asked if I was ‘deep cleaning’ the flat when I was performing my bi-weekly house cleaning.
There is definitely a very notable difference each culture has in relation to cleaning. Why is this important?
“In terms of its ability to signal enemy invasions, or alternative illicit activities, or cultural transgression, litter can be associated with danger. The phrase ‘dangerous pathway’ is more usually associated with coastal paths which are being undetermined by erosion and it could be argued that a different form of erosion is taking place here, the erosion and it could be argued that a different form of erosion is taking place here, the erosion of accepted forms of ownership.”
Shirley Keeping Britain Tidy: Litter and Anxiety pg 38
Simply because it not only performs a relatable function in different cultures that have the same preferences, it also creates anxiety and outsiderness. Those that ‘litter’ in a park become those outsiders, not part of the system, a threat.
During my interview with the founder of Studio Kura, Hirofumi said the biggest issue with the local residents in the Japanese rural town was the garbage disposal. Japan is extremely strict with how you dispose of your garbage and there are very few public bins. You are expected to be responsible for yourself and your belongings. It also relates to this culture’s lack of waste and disinterest in clutter. Everyone thought Kondo was a craze, she is merely the cultural norm of a society that has difficulty keeping clutter because of lack of space and strict social compliance.
This is not to say Japan is the greenest country because of their waste disposal system, they still burn everything, just at different temperatures.
Each culture considers its way of cleanliness the right way. However, the real challenge comes when you try and build common values around cleanliness.
If Covid has done anything, it has created a global standard of cleanliness. The bottom line is to stop the spreading of diseases.
But cultural cleanliness remains a very important topic because it allows us to be empathetic to each other’s spaces. Compatible cultural cleanliness builds trust and enables integration. As far as political and gender politics go, it doesn’t matter who you share the bathroom with, everyone needs to respect the cleanliness of themselves and others.
When I started this year I came into my new shared studio and scrubbed the sink. Gradually, I noticed others would also keep the sink tidy.
Afterthought:
“Why clean? It will only get dirty again.” This is more regularly said, I’m afraid to say, by the young men I work with. But cleaning is a constant chore and one that everyone in society should be consistently doing. Things get dirty and it’s our responsibility to make it good for the next person, for the next group, for the next generation. It is a social responsibility to look after the spaces we share with others.