Table of Contents
1 How I Came into Cleaning and Caring 11
South Africa to Switzerland 11
Cleaning company and crisis 14
Indifference and lack of commitment 15
Three questions 18
Cleaning and caring 21
Goetheanum 23
Living on an island 25
2 Cleaning as a Cultural Impulse 29
Early civilisations 30
Purity in Islam 32
Other traditions 33
Japanese misogi 34
Greek and Russian customs 35
The origin of spring cleaning 36
The Passover 36
Persian New Year traditions 37
China and Vietnam 38
Japan 40
India 40
Christmas 41
3 Human Beings, Home and Helpers 42
Wisdom, devuutness and life confidence 42
The human being 44
The home as an organism 45
Helping beings 47
Perceiving nature beings 49
Communication 50
The four classical elements 52
What do we know about the elements? 53
Tidying and cleaning 55
The nature of the elements 56
Earth 56
Water 57
Air 58
Fire, the element of warmth 60
Elemental beings 61
Fairy tales 65
Elemental and the environment 64
Schooling our alertness 65
Different elemental beings and their relation to us 67
Gnomes 68
Undines 68
Sylphs 69
Salamander 69
The redemption of elemental beings 70
Other nature beings 70
Invisible helpers and mischievous hinderers 71
Day and night 72
The phases of the moon 72
The seasons 73
The effect of beings we create 74
The little devil and the snake 75
Dealing with malevolent beings 80
Questions and answers 82
4 Cleaning and the Basic Tasks in Life 85
Caring 85
Renewal and a fresh start 85
Cleaning with joy 87
Art in daily life 89
Honouring beauty 89
Neglect 91
Homemaking in earlier times 92
The ten fairy servants 92
Hands and fingers 94
Housework today 95
Cleaning as a profession 97
Invisible dirt 98
Awakening a sense of beauty 100
Curative education and social therapy 102
Questions and answers 108
5 Spirituality in Daily Life 115
Hestia 115
The religious element in daily life 116
Overcoming stress 121
Exercises for strengthening the life body 125
Exercises for strengthening the astral body 126
Exercises for integrating the self 126
6 Creating Order 127
Disorder is not chaos 127
Disorder and order 128
Temptation 129
Strive to finish what was started 131
The difficulty of maintaining order 132
Where does disorder start? 135
Where do I start? 136
Developing willpower 137
Self help and getting help 138
Dust and neglect 140
7 Our Relation to the Objects Around Us 142
Bidding farewell 142
Favourite objects 146
The value of interest 146
What we give to objects 149
Compulsive hoarding 151
Not every disorderly person is a messie 152
Finding solutions 154
Implication for professionals and family members 155
Getting help at home 156
Organising your own day 157
Questions and answers 158
8 Rhythm 162
Food 163
Clothing 164
Tidying and cleaning 165
Household maintenance 167
Lifestyle habits 168
9 Home Life and Growing Children 170
The pressure on parenthood 170
Free play 171
Imitation 173
Support and patience 174
Rhythm, and coming to agreements 176
Going to bed and getting up 177
Mealtimes 178
Developing a sense of responsibility 179
Closed for reconstruction: adolescence 180
Love and trust 182
Meaningful work 184
10 Cleaning Schools with their Students 187
Student cleaning project 187
From concept to reality 189
Possible objections 190
Training 191
The purpose of student cleaning projects 191
The school as a living organism 192
Preventing neglect 194
Questions and answers 195
11 Practicalities 197
Where do I start? 197
Getting organised and cleaning 197
Start with the room that irritates you most 198
The cleaning process 198
Essentials 198
Clearing space before beginning 199
Different rooms in the home 199
The kitchen 199
Bathrooms 201
Living room, dining room, bedrooms 202
All rooms 203
Odds and ends 204
Paperwork 204
Tidying made easy 204
Tips and tricks 205
Bugs and infestations 206
Cleaning agents and tools 207
Environmental considerations 207
Acids 207
Alkalines 208
Neutral agents 208
Abrasives 208
Dissolving agents 209
Glass scraper 209
Microfibres 209
Day-to-day cleaning 210
Cleaning waters 210
Disinfection 211
Fragrances 212
Environmentally friendly tips for your home 213
Our consumables 214
Nature and the garden 215
Laundry 215
Stain removal 216
Notes 229
Bibliography 231
