[1]This is always a sad time of year for slobs [2]. Nobody ever talks about “summer cleaning,” “fall cleaning” or “winter cleaning.” But “spring cleaning” is such an obligatory activity that the phrase has entered the vernacular. (A Google search for “spring cleaning” yields more than 600,000 entries, including a Web site called www.springcleaning.com.) And in the 2005 Spring Cleaning Survey [3] commissioned by the Soap and Detergent Association, it’s an occasion for adults to compare themselves (invidiously or otherwise) to their mothers. Fielded by International Communications Research, the survey found 56 percent of respondents saying they clean in much the same manner as mom did when they were growing up. Younger respondents were more likely than older ones to say they clean the same way their mothers did. Perhaps people develop a personal cleaning style only as they mature. In what way do people nowadays most differ from their mothers when it comes to cleaning? Seventeen percent said they clean less often, while just 3 percent dared to claim they “clean better.” Nearly half pointed to differences in cleaning products and equipment.
—Posted by Mark Dolliver