---
title: Clean wood floors right, make 'em last... lumber is scarce
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/clean-wood-floors-right-1943/
description: 'Army conservation sheet: five numbered floor-cleaning rules in white type over a photographic wood-plank ground.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Clean wood floors right, make 'em last... lumber is scarce

[![Clean wood floors right, make 'em last... lumber is scarce, 1943 US poster: Army conservation sheet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/clean-wood-floors-right-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/clean-wood-floors-right-1943.jpg)

# Clean wood floors right, make 'em last... lumber is scarce

Army conservation sheet: five numbered floor-cleaning rules in white type over a photographic wood-plank ground, with the line 'Make 'em last... lumber is scarce' at the foot. The technique is faint here: the sheet gives practical instructions and one stated reason, scarcity of lumber.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Clean
WOOD FLOORS
Right
1 Daily care should be dry sweeping or mopping.
2 Scrub with soap and water no oftener than absolutely necessary.  Frequent soaking softens wood—makes it splinter and wear away.
3 Use only Mild soap for scrubbing or mopping.
4 Clean a small area at a time.  Rinse off soap with clear water, and wipe dry immediately.
5 Never flood the floor or let water stand on it.
Make 'em LAST...
LUMBER is SCARCE
U.S. ARMY SAVE CONSERVATION PROGRAM
ARMY CONSERVATION PROJECT NO. 65-E-15
[imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943—O—574069]
OFFICE, CHIEF OF ENGINEERS
```

[← Civil Air Patrol: eyes of the home skies](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/civil-air-patrol-eyes-of-the-home-skies-1943/) [Clear for action: U.S. Coast Guard →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/clear-for-action-coast-guard-1943/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
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- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
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- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.