This paper will discuss the development of the breadwinner-homemaker model in Sweden by looking at the interaction between the organization of domestic work, the circulation of new consumer goods and the growing interest in health and cleanliness. Contemporary civilizing sources give an idea of what was expected from a good homemaker, but the possibilities to fulfill the domesticity and cleanliness discourse shifted between households of different social classes. The efforts that were involved in transforming new consumer goods to a healthier home environment meant for some women not only more work in their own home but also more (paid) work in other women's home. By analyzing households in three different settings - a town with a mixed economy and two types of agrarian regions-the study addresses questions concerning changing consumption patterns, the gender division of labor and household strategies. Sweden had rapidly industrialized from the mid 19th century and new job opportunities outside the household had opened also for women. The turn of the century 1900 was, however, a period of paradoxes period when the women’s movement met a discourse focusing on a woman’s true nature and her role as mother and homemaker.