Household and cleaning

There were many household and cleaning products aimed at the woman of the house, who controlled the purse strings and made the home comfortable. For cleaning, there were an abundance of soaps, and later detergents, for washing clothes by hand or machine, but there were also disinfectant bleaches and liquid or cream polishes for metal and wood, with accompanying tools for applying them. Everything nice and clean!

The use of insecticides that were effective against all kinds of insects were a boon to domestic prevention, while coloured dyes gave new life to clothes and stretched the family budget. Another very popular product were creams and polishes to shine shoes, to give them a longer life. They were applied at home or by shoe-shiners, who were a customary sight on Barcelona’s La Rambla until about twenty-five years ago. All of these products were represented by very popular images; icons that symbolised an era and a way of life. They were accompanied by ingenious but effective slogans, in Catalan during the Republic.