Prettier with corn

In this compartment you could store a bar of soap and a brush. Just like in the Netherlands, Sunlight soap was very popular in Suriname, but people also often used this traditional blue soap. This blue soap contained soda, which helps remove stains, and bluing, which made white clothing shinier.

Most often, the brush was a dried out corn cob. Not a lot of people harvested their own corn, but almost everyone had a few chickens for eggs. And what do they eat? Exactly. Nobody was ever shy for a little bit of corn. If the yellow corns were off, the empty cob served as a fine brush – so fine even that there were not many brushes for sale in and around Paramaribo. There was no demand for them. Reusing old objects with new purpose is something very popular today. We use the modern term ‘cradle to cradle’ for it, but it is something of all times.