Why did our grandparents whiten the front doorstep . ?

Question

and is it just an english thing?

Answer 1

  Hi whitening of the entrance was a common practice in Greece & other European Counties as well as England. The mixture was made with asbestos & sometimes lime mixed with water to make a pasty paint like substance, it was used as a form of cleanliness & also a strong disinfectant/germ killer. Asbestos was also used to paint walk ways courtyards & even tree's were white washed from the base to about half way up this worked as anti fungal preventative for fruit tree's.    Now days due the the dangers of asbestos this practice is being phased out by a more aware younger generation.  

Answer 2

It's because they didn't have much, but what little they had they took pride in.  It was a matter of pride to keep the house as sparkling clean as granny could possibly manage while grandad was out at work.  I can remember my gran scrubbing the doorstep every day, plus the windowsills, then she'd clean the windows too, inside and out.  Every day.  It was a dreadful social error to have a house which wasn't pristine to look at.

Answer 3

Because they want it clean.  :3

Answer 4

Pride in making a house a home and wanting to reflect that right to the welcome on the front doorstep.

Answer 5

People used to have a lot more pride and worried about what the neighbours thought. Nowadays, the British are fat, drunk and foul mouthed.

Answer 6

  My mother worked as a domestic in a farm house which had a long hall in from the back door which was scrubbed every day by hand on her knees then a white mark in the shape of a swirl was made beside the skirting board the whole length of the hall on both sides. It was done to show the people it was a clean house that the owner took pride in their home.My Saturday job as a child in my house was to polish the door k***s with brasso which i really enjoyed,by the end of the job my hands were black ( no rubber gloves in those days) .                            

Answer 7

my grandma used to just scrub the front door step!

Answer 8

Since white is a color that reflects light, it is more noticeable for them when they are walking up in down.  It can let the step be seen at night or from a distance in the daytime, providing clear vision for them to prevent stumbling up or down the step.

Answer 9

I can't tell you exactly why, you'd have to ask them BUT I do know that in a lot of elderlry homes and facilities they whiten the steps or paint a thick white line at the edge of each step to help it be more visible to the eye. It avoids a lot of trips or falls cos it's easier to see

Answer 10

Because they wanted their 'innermost thoughts' to be reflected and 'registered' as.......... 'whiter than white', and, cleaner, than, a Clergyman's conscience!