In ancient Rome, people had some unusual ideas about cleanliness—and one of the most surprising was their use of urine as a cleaning agent. Believe it or not, urine was commonly used as both mouthwash and laundry detergent. Thanks to its high ammonia content, it was an effective natural cleanser long before modern soaps and chemicals existed.
Romans would collect urine in public pots placed on street corners, and it became a common practice for fullers—professionals who cleaned garments—to use it for washing clothes. They would soak soiled togas in vats of urine and stomp on them to release dirt and grease. The ammonia helped break down grime and even brightened whites, making it a surprisingly effective solution.
Even more bizarre, some Romans used urine as a mouth rinse, believing it could whiten teeth and kill bacteria. This may sound horrifying today, but ammonia does have disinfectant properties, and ancient societies didn’t have access to minty toothpaste or antiseptics. What we now find repulsive was once considered part of a hygiene routine.
Urine’s usefulness didn’t go unnoticed by the Roman government. Emperor Vespasian famously introduced the urine tax (vectigal urinae) on public urinals and the collection of urine for industrial use. This gave rise to the Latin phrase “pecunia non olet”—meaning “money doesn’t stink”—a saying still used today to suggest that profit is profit, no matter the source.
The idea that urine was a household staple may sound odd, but it reflects how resourceful and practical the Romans were with the materials available to them. In a world without modern cleaning products, they made use of whatever nature provided—even if it meant rinsing with something we now flush away.
So the next time you toss a laundry pod into your machine or swish with mouthwash, be grateful for thousands of years of hygiene evolution. After all, ancient Rome proves that the road to cleanliness wasn’t always minty fresh!
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