Un-naturally Clean: How Chemicals Took Over Cleaning

Earlier, I had outlined a few ways you can clean your home naturally and cheaply.  But there is actually nothing new about those methods.  They had been used by our Grandmothers and their Grandmothers quite successfully for some time.  In fact, it was only after the World War II that we started using the chemical-filled home cleaning supplies on a mass scale. Why did we do it?

The War Years

The war years were a time of substitutes for everything.  Substitute coffee, substitute panti-hose and substitute cleaners.  Take soap, for example.  Real soap is made from lye, fat and salt.  But during the war, when all companies were diverted to a war footing and all raw materials were scarce, people had to make do with soap-substitutes such as detergents made from petroleum.  These substitutes, however, seemed to clean even better than traditional soap.  In fact they scoured everything and made it sparkle.  It’s not surprising then that after World War II was over many people did not want to give up their new-found convenient super-cleaners.

Companies’ Needs

This desire for convenient and time-saving super-clean, fit in perfectly with what the needs of the chemical companies.  The chemical companies had been doing brisk business during the Second World War because every army fights the shooting enemy and the invisible enemy (disease)—and “super-cleaners” are the perfect way to fight bacteria.  But when the War ended, it was by no means certain that there would be enough people to buy all the super-cleaners the chemical companies had created during the war.

The Advertising

Luckily for the companies, people who had lived through the war had gotten used to the convenience of cleaning everything quickly and print media, radio and women’s magazines made it easy for the chemical companies to create a mass market.  In addition to this, American labor costs skyrocketed to the point that many restaurants (for example) could no longer afford to pay people to wash dishes.  Anything that could save time and money would thus get a great reception from stay-at-home Moms, women who still worked if only part of the time, and small businesses.

Thus it was that in 1949, for example, NBC radio listeners heard about Tide, the Miracle Wash.  Tide was not the only chemical to be marketed in the post-war era.  Soilax was another product that did quite well as did many, many other household cleaning supplies.

The Aftermath

And that is also why, if you walk into any department store today with a dictionary, you will see that the “soaps” on the shelves are in fact detergents mixed with plasticizers, preservatives, perfumes, and dyes.  In fact, most of these so-called “soaps” and the chemical household detergents that are supposed to make your home sparkling clean have many of the same ingredients as plastic trash bags.

But we’re so used to them that we no longer even think about it.