Yesterday afternoon, we cleaned Rafilia-san's room and the courtyard.
In French, the noun ménage means both "housework" and "cleaning." When people say "housework," they mean cleaning — and it's done very frequently with high importance.
In medieval Europe, people commonly used straw beds. Because dust mites and fleas liked them, they were frequently aired out and beaten to stay clean.
Straw also easily absorbed moisture, so it had to be dried regularly.
Straw beds were just a wooden frame filled with straw, so it was easy to move the straw aside and clean.
Furthermore, unlike expensive sheets or feather comforters used by nobles or upper-class families, cheap straw beds used by commoners meant that if bugs appeared, they could be easily discarded and replaced.
In other words, commoners had a household chore of rebuilding their beds periodically.
Probably one of the reasons the word ménage (meaning housework) strongly implies cleaning.
