My 18-month-old son likes to play with equipment, both his own and that which sits in the cleaning cupboard. Well, according to yesterday’s Aftenposten, he’s right on trend. Apparently, men all over Norway, faced with their wives’ refusal to do more than their fair share of the household cleaning, are opening the door to the cleaning cupboard and tossing floor clothes, buckets and cleaning soaps out in disgust. Norwegian men are demanding better cleaning equipment, and Norwegian companies such as Lilleborg, which has 90% of the mop market in Norway – like everything, we don’t get much in the line of consumer choice here, mops being no exception – are making big bucks on the back of men’s yearning for perfect cleaning implements.
The administrative director of Lilleborg told Aftenposten that since men have taken more responsibility for house cleaning (code for since men have started doing what they are told), the company has put more thought into how they develop their products. How considerate. For example, the latest mops have more ‘technical refinement, something men like'. The company is also providing more combination choices in cleaning systems for their male target group.
It’s true. I’ve noticed that every shop here seems to stock mop handles with all sorts of varied heads and disposable attachments to go with them to help in the fight against dust and window grime. I’ve even bought some of them. Last summer, I took a wonderful window cleaning device to Ireland to use but didn’t in the end as I discovered that I could have every window, inside and outside, in the three-story house professionally cleaned for the price of a new mop in Norway. No kidding!
But back to this Norwegian cleaning trend. I think I may have been left behind on this one and clearly it's not that my husband hasn't got the right equipment. No, it's just that I've always got to make the first move, because he never takes the initiative to use it.
