What does the word clean mean to you?

The Women's Library is a new building behind the facade of what once was Whitechapel Wash House in the East End of London. For nearly a hundred years the Wash House, with its steaming baths and mechanised laundry, helped keep local people clean.

Cleanliness has been a primary force throughout our history, the motivation behind many innovations from sewers to showers to the way our homes are built. Domestic life has been transformed by washing machines.

In this collaborative project the Women's Library is collecting words and thoughts from local people as well as through the world-wide-web on the business of keeping clean.

Tell us what the word 'clean' means to you in 100 words or less.

Click here to contribute and read what others have written.

E-mail: clean@thewomenslibrary.ac.uk