laundryFind to reveal
Ancient Roman laundry workers used urine as a cleaning ingredient, drawing on its ammonia long before bottled detergents existed.
Household chores Word Search
Find familiar words. Discover something unexpected.
Puzzle10 words · 11×11 grid · Medium · Answer key included
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🎉 Solved — all 10 words found!
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Find a puzzle word to reveal its fact.
0 of 10 facts revealed
dustingFind to reveal
Scientists have found tiny meteorites among rooftop dust, turning an ordinary gutter into a collection point for material from space.
moppingFind to reveal
Some robot mops navigate by reading invisible light patterns on the ceiling, looking upward to find their way across a floor.
ironingFind to reveal
Some old irons held burning charcoal inside hollow metal bodies, turning ironing into a job done with a small portable furnace.
vacuumFind to reveal
Hubert Cecil Booth patented a powered vacuum in 1901; his petrol machine was so big it stayed in the street.
spongeFind to reveal
A natural cleaning sponge began as a sea animal, whose dried skeleton can soak up water without its original living cells.
bucketFind to reveal
Buckets once held water ready for fighting fires. Some had rounded bottoms so nobody could borrow them for mopping.
sweepFind to reveal
Curling players sweep ice to steer sliding stones, using an ordinary cleaning motion to make a heavy object travel farther or straighter.
scrubFind to reveal
Sailors used sandstone blocks to scrub wooden decks, calling the large stones Bibles and the smaller ones prayer books.
broomFind to reveal
The sweeping broom is named after a shrub; people once tied its slender twigs to a handle to make one.
True stories · London, England
The cleaner that had to wait at the curb
In London, England, in 1901, an engineer named Hubert Cecil Booth went to the Empire Music Hall to watch a new cleaning machine. It blew air at the floor and hoped the dust would land in a bag. Booth thought the whole idea was pointed the wrong way. Pull the dirt in, he argued, and trap it in a filter, and the room would actually be clean. The inventor on stage told him suction was impossible. Booth patented his suction cleaner that same year. His petrol engine was far too big to carry indoors, so it waited at the curb while operators fed long hoses through the windows of the house.
Life's too short to stuff a mushroom.
Shirley Conran, Superwoman (1975)
Trivia
Who patented a powered vacuum cleaner in 1901, a petrol machine nicknamed Puffing Billy?
Hubert Cecil Booth.
The sweeping tool called a broom takes its name from what kind of plant?
A shrub, also called broom.
Which two common cleaning products must never be mixed, because together they give off toxic chloramine gases?
Bleach and ammonia.
The American word chore is a variant of which older English word, meaning a turn of work?
Char, as in charwoman.
Which religious community at Watervliet, New York, made its name with flat brooms that swept a wider path?
The Shakers.
Trivia · 1 / 5
Who patented a powered vacuum cleaner in 1901, a petrol machine nicknamed Puffing Billy?
Hubert Cecil Booth.
More puzzles
True stories · Brisbane, Australia
A van full of washing machines
In Brisbane, Australia, two friends decided that clean clothes were a good place to start. In 2014 Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett fitted an old van with washing machines and dryers, then drove it to the places where people sleeping rough gathered. The washing was free. They also set six orange chairs beside the van. In the founders' account, the conversations there mattered as much as the laundry. While a load spun, people sat down and talked. The service they called Orange Sky spread across Australia and New Zealand, and on Australia Day in 2016 the pair were named joint Young Australians of the Year.
There was no need to do any housework at all. After four years the dirt doesn't get any worse.
Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant (1968)
Find sweep, laundry and vacuum among the words hidden in this puzzle. Play free online or print the puzzle with its answer key.
Is this household chores word search free to print?
This household chores word search is a free printable puzzle with 10 hidden words in an 11×11 grid. Find words like LAUNDRY, DUSTING, MOPPING hidden across, down, and diagonally. You can play it right here in your browser — tap the first and last letter of a word — or download it as a printable PDF with the full answer key on page two. It's free for personal and classroom use, so teachers can print copies for a whole class with no sign-up and no account. Word searches like this one are a proven way to build vocabulary, spelling, and word-shape recognition, which is why they're a favourite with ESL learners, elementary classrooms, and anyone who likes a quiet puzzle with their coffee.
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Sources: Hubert Cecil Booth: 1901 patents, petrol engine, Puffing Billy, hoses through windows (Wikipedia) · Empire Music Hall demonstration and the suction insight (Science Museum) · Orange Sky Laundry: founded 2014 in Brisbane, free service, six orange chairs, joint Young Australians of the Year 2016 (Wikipedia) · "Broom": the shrub, twigs tied to a handle from the mid-14th century, and the 1660s proverb (Etymonline) · "Laundry": from Vulgar Latin lavandaria, things to be washed (Etymonline) · "Chore": American variant of char, from Middle English cherre, a turn of work; charwoman (Etymonline) · Why bleach and ammonia must not be mixed (CDC) · Watervliet and the Shaker flat broom (Shaker Heritage Society) · "Life's too short to stuff a mushroom", Superwoman (1975) (Wikiquote) · Housework quote sourced to The Naked Civil Servant (1968), chapter 15 (Wikiquote)
Word list, facts & trivia researched and compiled by Sam Letterman — spotted a mistake? Tell us and we’ll fix it.