ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the emergence of the social norm of cleanliness in the nineteenth century by which the status-signaling property of cleanliness was eliminated. It addresses the evolving associations between consumption goods on one side and consumer motivations for consuming these goods on the other. The majority of households in industrialized countries use washing machines to ensure cleanliness. In sociology, it is commonplace that, in choosing their level of cleanliness, consumers look to the opinions of others, for the notion of cleanliness itself is a social construct. In view of the collected evidence, the emergence of the cleanliness norm in the Western world, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States, can be dated to the period between the middle of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Individual consumption of cleanliness turned from a private into a public good when population density rose in the period of growing industrialization and urbanization.
