Old-fashioned cleaning craft, does it still exist?
In IJopener, the neighbourhood newsletter for IJburg, a nice article caught our eye. Columnist Simone Slotboom writes about her 'grandma Beppie'. Beppie was the type of 'old-fashioned worker'. A thoroughbred cleaner who didn't do dry cleaning at all. She had to use a bucket of suds to get things really clean.
In the meantime, cleaning techniques have developed further. With new techniques such as microfibre cloths, dry wiping has become much more effective than in the past. But the article does touch on an important point: the time that can be spent on cleaning.
Under pressure of cutbacks, the cleaning industry is forced to calculate a minimum cleaning time per room. On the one hand it is understandable, but on the other hand it is at the expense of the general image of 'clean or not clean'. "Perhaps it has become so commonplace that we hardly notice it any more," says Simone Slotboom.
Especially in schools and government buildings, you often come across situations that show that the cutbacks in cleaning take their toll. Simone aptly describes this in her article and gives a few concrete examples. In doing so, she breaks a lance for cleaning work and the appreciation that goes with it. Chapeau!