ABSTRACT
Towards the end of the nineteenth century cleaning and maintaining orderliness in the home took on increasing moral significance. Dust and dirt became signs of previously unknown risks to health and property. Disorder in the home was seen as a threat to the foundation of society. Just as the engineer should shape the parameters of urban society in public life, the housewife was to keep the household machinery in order, and create a dust-free environment at home. To master the numerous newly discovered tasks required knowledge, vigilance and organizational skills. In this essay I will discuss what these requirements meant for middle-class women in turn-of-the-century Sweden.1
