As long as there have been windows, there has been a need for window cleaning.
The history of window cleaning goes hand in hand with the history of glass. While nobody knows for certain when or where glass was first made, it likely dates back as far as the 2nd millennium BC in ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia. It was, obviously, much less commonplace than today, and was considered very precious. It was even used in a sentence alongside gold in the Bible (Job 28:17). The art of glassblowing didn’t arrive until sometime around the end of the 1st century BC, and it finally started being mass produced during the mid to late 19th century. This is when it started being used to produce windows.
These first windows were cleaned by housewives or servants, with a simple solution, a bucket of water, and a cloth. It wasn’t until the construction boom–starting in 1860–that a demand for window cleaners came about.
