Text 1: Forty-eight hours, four bin bags and a steam cleaner, by Kezia Marsh

An original contemporary blog.

Every March I promise myself a proper spring clean, and every March I find something better to do. This year I booked the weekend off, printed a checklist and told the family that nobody was leaving the house until it was done.

Saturday was for clearing out. We emptied every cupboard and drawer onto the floor and sorted it into three piles: keep, charity, bin. The children were paid a pound for each drawer they finished, which worked better than any speech about tidiness. By lunchtime we had four bin bags for the charity shop, including a bread maker used once in 2019.

On Sunday we cleaned. I washed the curtains, wiped down the skirting boards and did the windows with vinegar and old newspaper, a trick my grandmother swore by. We hired a steam cleaner from the hardware shop for twenty-five pounds, and the water that came out of the living room carpet was the colour of strong tea.

The best moment came when we pulled out the sofa and found two remote controls, a library book from last summer and eleven pounds in coins. By Sunday night every muscle ached, but the house smelled of lemon and fresh air, and for about three days it stayed tidy.

Text 2: A diary of the spring cleaning, by Lucy Hammond

An original diary written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

Text 2 is from the diary of a fourteen-year-old girl living in a large house in Bath in the 1870s.

April 3rd. The spring cleaning began this morning and the house is upside down. Every feather mattress in the house has been carried down into the yard, unpicked along one seam, and the feathers turned and shaken in the sun before being stuffed back into clean ticking. Mrs Gamlin the washerwoman is hired for the whole week, and the drawing room curtains are already soaking in the copper.

April 4th. All the carpets were taken up and carried into the back garden, where Thomas and the boy from the farm beat them over the line with wicker beaters until the dust rose like smoke. The muslin summer curtains, fresh from Mrs Gamlin’s tubs, have been put up, and the heavy winter ones packed away in camphor.

April 6th. The maids have been scrubbing since daybreak. Every floor has been washed, every grate blackleaded and every brass rod polished. The kitchen walls are being whitewashed, and we have eaten nothing but cold mutton and bread and cheese for three days, as there is no fire for cooking. Papa has taken refuge at his club and dines there every evening.

April 8th. Finished at last. The house smells of soap and beeswax, and Mamma walked through every room with her finger, feeling for dust, and pronounced herself satisfied.

Using information from both texts, explain briefly what spring cleaning involved.

You should make it clear which text you are referring to.