Cleaning up..

Fashion faux pee: Romans used to wash their trendy togas in a mixture involving urine, which was collected from public bath-rooms.

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It might sound disgusting but the ammonia in it helped dissolve grease and stains from fabric. They even used the stuff in toothpaste to clean gnashers.

Wash-ever it takes: As well as scrubbing clothes against rocks in rivers, people in ancient civilis-ations used everything from sand to ashes and animal fats to try to get their garments clean.

Berserker idea: Vikings would put clothes in a tethered bag and drag them in oceans.

Soap laborious: Until the 1800s, clothes were washed in a pro-cess that often took days, involving soaking, beating, scrubbing and rinsing. The task was usually done by wom-en, often in communal washhouses.