The household revolution

Every household has it: a vacuum cleaner. For how could you clean your house without it? Especially your carpets? Impossible, you think. Nevertheless, until about 125 years ago, vacuum cleaners didn’t exist. Till then, you had to swipe your rooms and to beat out the rugs outside. You had a special instrument for that: the carpet-beater. It was a lot of work. At the end of the 19th century, the first vacuum cleaners were launched, but they were yet impractical. This changed with the invention of the portable electric vacuum cleaner in 1907 by James Murray Sprangler. One year later, the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company brought an i
mproved version on the market. Although it weighed 20kg, it was the start of the successful introduction of vacuum cleaners in every household.
The invention of the vacuum cleaner illustrates an important revolution that took place a hundred years ago: the Household Revolution. Although for centuries humanity had made progress in many respects, the organization of domestic work had hardly changed. The invention of agriculture had changed how people feed themselves, how they work, how they live together (the rise of cities), and so on. The use of metals for producing tools and weapons also had such an impact, as had many other discoveries and inventions as well. Although these innovations influenced also the daily life at home, one thing remained the same: all household work still had to be done by hand. From the time of the Roman Empire and far before till the mid-19th century all household work was done basically in the same way: peeling and cutting the vegetables; washing the cloths one by one; preserving the food; everything that you did at home had to be done by hand, for machines to make the work easier hardly existed. Only the tricks to do so were different from culture to culture. When you were rich, you could hire servants for doing the work or you could outsource the work to specialized firms, but the work itself was done in the same way: by hand. “What a slave work!”, as Henri Lefebvre remarks. There were no fridges, no washing machines, no vacuum cleaners; nothing. But this all changed around 1900. And not only the household work as such changed, because it became easier, the household appliances saved also much time that people could use for doing something else.
The revolution didn’t come suddenly. The introduction of new household appliances took decades and may not have been completed until around 1970, but in the end it changed the household work everywhere, even in that way that also rich people began to do it themselves. Moreover, the technological change was not limited to appliances that made the household work easier. At the same, time there were also many changes in the field of communication and amusement, like the introduction of the telephone, radio and television and cars. These products were not only introduced in the households, but they became also part of the world around. The result was that life at home didn’t only become easier, but life at home as such changed. People greatly changed their live patterns at home; housewives got more free time, which stimulated their emancipation; also the way people had contact with family and friends changed. While once long winter evenings at home were filled with board games, reading, talking, making music, etc., now people listened to the radio (and later watched TV). It had also become easier to go out and people had more time to go out. The amusement outdoors had become different, for instance by the arrival of the cinema and the rise of sport clubs and other clubs. Life got a new dimension.
Actually, I should call this household revolution the First Household Revolution. Not long after its end, a Second Household Revolution took place: The invention of the computer – especially the personal computer – and the internet, soon followed by the invention of the smartphone. Although this revolution is still going on, it is already certain that these inventions have revolutionized daily life. They have caused already such changes, that it is almost impossible to think how everyday life could go on without digital appliances. The essence of this revolution is that it revolutionized the way we communicate and the way we get and use information. Should I have to typify both revolutions, then I would say that the first one changed how we act, while the second one how we think. The first one made life easier, the second one fundamentally different. One main consequence of the second revolution is that humans have become more individualistic but also more impressionable.
What has been brought by the Second Household Revolution? Because it is still going on, I will limit myself to a few keywords and to brief indications: individualisation, globalisation; change in the way we communicate (that we are accessible at any time and for everybody, for instance); changes in banking, research, production, automatization, education, health care; entertainment. Should I add more? This revolution changes not only your way of life but also your style of life. Or rather, you don’t only express yourself in a different way, but this revolution makes you different as a person. With this also the household work changes. Soon, everything in your household will work fully via the internet. You only need to program your personal settings and all devices at home will work according to your wishes, unless the internet is down, of course. Oh, don’t forget the password, in case you need a new modem (but who will enter all passwords for you?)

Sources
- Wikipedia. “The vacuum cleaner”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_cleaner
- Henri Lefebvre, Critique de la vie quotidienne. Édition intégrale. Montreuil: L’Arche, 2024 ; p. 667.