Cleanliness in Dutch cities was not a preference — it was a rule.
In the early modern Netherlands, streets, homes, and doorsteps were expected to be spotless. City authorities enforced cleanliness through laws, inspections, and fines. A dirty doorstep could bring public shame, penalties, or complaints from neighbors. Clean streets were seen as a civic duty, not a private choice.
This obsession had practical roots. Dense cities built around canals faced constant threats from disease, pests, and polluted water. Cleanliness reduced illness, protected trade goods, and made crowded urban life sustainable. Sweeping became routine. Waste was regulated. Even shopfronts and alleys were monitored to maintain order.
But cleanliness was also moral. A clean home reflected discipline, respectability, and self-control. Visitors judged households by their floors and windows. Foreign travelers repeatedly remarked that Dutch cities felt unusually orderly compared to the rest of Europe, where filth was often tolerated as inevitable.
By enforcing cleanliness through both law and culture, the Dutch turned hygiene into identity. Order in the streets mirrored order in society. Long before modern sanitation systems, cleanliness became a foundation of urban pride — and one of the quiet reasons Dutch cities functioned so well.
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