Victorian cleaning tips can outperform modern methods, says English Heritage

According to the experts at English Heritage, home cleaning tips from a bygone era have proven more effective than some modern methods.

Some unusual methods of the Victorian era were tested by the curators of English Heritage (EH) during the annual spring cleaning in hopes of reopening several sites to the public in May.

The skimmed milk helped clean the stone floors of Brodsworth Hall in Yorkshire, while the white bread removed "an impressive amount" of dirt from the wallpaper, according to EH.

English Heritage Curators Trying to Milk Flagstone Floors (English Heritage / PA)

Waxed parquet floors became a boon after a dose of beeswax and turpentine was applied to them, and a soft chamois used in place of less environmentally friendly window cleaners polished the mirrors.

Other historical cleaning tips that modern conservatives have appealed to have been using a horsehair brush to dust furniture and statuettes.

Amber Xavier-Rowe is EH's collections curator, working on more than 400 buildings, monuments and historical sites.

She advised against using "some of the strangest historical cleaning tips", such as using a potato to clean an oil painting, but said housekeepers of the past were often "perfect with their methods, despite having relatively little scientific knowledge ".

Reminding everyone to vacuum up the crumbs when using any of these unusual cleaning tips, Ms. Xavier-Rowe said, "Using white bread to clean wallpaper is a good example.

A restorer uses bread to clean the wallpaper in Brodsworth Hall in Yorkshire as part of his annual spring cleaning (English Heritage / PA).

"We tend to use synthetic bread so as not to attract pests, but the idea is the same and regular bread works just as well.

"While they've been on the right track many times, detergents from the more unusual cleaning methods of the past can make you scratch your head."

EH cautioned that some historical cleaning tips should be ignored as they are likely to do more harm than good, e.g. For example, trying to remove mold from paintings by exposing them to direct sunlight or using salt and lemon in historic copper pots.

This includes using a potato soaked in cold water to remove an oil paint or Worcestershire sauce to buff the silver.

Trying to clean the wallpaper by covering it with oatmeal with a piece of flannel and then sweeping it up with a broom or feather duster was another ancient trick to avoid.

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