What did medieval women clean their homes with?

Answer 1

1st AnswerThey didn't clean their home. The peasant woman had dirt floors and not much space to clean. The nobility would throw rushes on the floors and clear them out once year when they got really stinky. There were no cleaning products. 2nd AnswerCertainly, medieval people had brooms, sponges, and mops, and while it is true that most had dirt floors, a dirt floor can benefit from being swept. The rushes kept on many floors were woven into mats, and the mats were removed and beaten to clean them when they got dirty. While they were being cleaned, the surface below them was also cleaned.

Medieval people believed cleanliness was next to godliness and were quite clean. Soap was an ancient invention, and had not been lost to medieval people. There was a soap makers guild formed in the year 600 in Naples, and its manufacture was listed as a product of worthy workmen in documents from about the year 800. But I don't know that it was used for household cleaning. It seams quicklime was used for both cleaning and cooking. The records of how this was done are sparse, but it would not have worked on plaster.

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I want to comment on the 1st answer. It looks very much like it could come from a letter Erasmus wrote in to a friend while he was in England on a visit. Erasmus was a Dutch humanist of the early Renaissance and was known for his wry humor. He was ostensibly describing how the English nobility kept their houses, but was actually describing a stall in a badly kept stable. I don't think it was intended to be taken seriously.