The Middle Ages was a time when sanitation, medicine, and personal hygiene were dubious. While the upper classes, royalty, and powerful had access to water, servants, and mountains of clothing, the middle and lower classes had the opposite, forcing them to lead a less-than-hygienic and healthy lifestyle.
1. Poop was Problematic
Those living in castles had access to latrines, including an enclosed bench with a hole leading to a cesspit. However, peasants (the vast majority of the population) used waste buckets, chamber pots, and communal outhouses. The waste was disposed of in nearby cesspits or the river. Without any kind of paper, hay, grass, straw, or moss was used in lieu of toilet paper.
2. Cringy Cesspits
A cesspit is a pit where human, animal, and other waste are dumped. People would empty their waste buckets and chamber pots into a cesspit, which is also used to dump animal waste and garbage. Most affluent people had cesspits in their castles. These pits would be cleaned out and dumped in rivers or farmlands for use as fertilizer. These pits often leaked into the ground, contaminating the groundwater and soil despite being cleaned out.
3. Kicking the Waste to the Curb
While there were laws against dumping waste into the streets, this was often ignored in larger urban areas. With less access to open bodies of water and cesspits that would pile up, people would throw their waste out into the streets. This attracted flies and other vermin, bringing disease to overpopulated and unsanitary areas, creating a hygiene and medical nightmare.
4. To Bathe or Not to Bathe
It was common practice to wash your hands and face in the morning; however, bathing was seen as a luxury. Middle-class citizens used public bathing houses, but peasants had to fetch water from a nearby water source and carry it home or use open bodies of water. When cleaning off indoors, they would only be able to wash off in a small basin, using cold water, ridding their bodies of the day’s dirt and sweat. This was a labor-intensive exercise, which means it wasn’t done frequently.
5. Grubby Little Paws
In the Middle Ages, like today, washing your hands before and after meals was standard. However, due to poor sewage practices, water was often contaminated for most people. Also, cutlery was mostly for the rich, so peasants and middle-class citizens ate with their hands, transferring bacteria and germs onto their food.
6. The Great Unwashed
Laundry was primarily done in large wooden tubs or rivers (often contaminated with human, animal, and other waste). Clothes would be washed with soap from ashes and animal fat and beaten with sticks to remove the dirt. At the time, clothing was layered to aid in cleanliness. The bottom layer was linen, while the top layer was made from wool. It was understood that clean clothes kept parasites away, but it was not always possible for peasants to clean their clothes regularly. While the middle class could afford launderettes, peasants only cleaned their clothes once a week.
7. A Bed of Unclean Straw
Most people slept on straw, which was rarely changed, topped with cloth and rags. These conditions attracted vermin such as mice and rats. Additionally, the straw was a breeding ground for fleas and lice. Preventative measures could be taken by mixing nice-smelling, insect-repelling herbs and flowers (such as lavender, mint, and chamomile) into the straw. Additionally, peasants often shared their sleeping quarters with the rest of the family, aiding in the spread of lice, fleas, and other diseases.
8. Let’s Meet for A Delousing
In the Middle Ages, fleas and lice were a common issue. So much so that comb-makers designed small-tooth combs to remove lice and dirt from hair. Alternatively, peasants would delouse each other by hand, similar to monkeys. This became a social event, and delousing groups were formed.
9. The Melancholy of Menstruation
The Middle Ages weren’t the cleanliest of times, but women of the era suffered more than most every month. It was common for women to use rags to soak up the blood, strips of linen cloth wrapped around twigs as rudimentary tampons, or absorbent moss as a pad. As religious authorities made menstruation out to be shameful and disgusting, women had to hide their bleeding from men, even their husbands, and society. So they carried scented herbs and flowers with them to mask unpleasant odors.
10. A Dirty Mouth on You
Dentistry in the Middle Ages was nothing short of barbaric. A combination of twigs and wool cloth was used to fashion toothbrushes, while herbs, such as mint and sage, were used to freshen breath. When the dental hygiene of the day wasn’t enough, teeth were pulled with pliers and without any numbing agents (save for some alcohol) by barber-surgeons since dentists didn’t exist.
Sources
Medieval Hygiene
What Hygiene Was Like For Medieval Peasants
Medieval Cleaning: Hardly Hygienic
Medieval dentistry
