25. In medieval times, clothing and linen and other household goods, when not being used, were stored in a small room known as a garderobe. This room was also used as a place to relieve oneself. Why were household goods stored there?
From Quiz Welcome to the Sewers!
Answer:
The smell of ammonia in urine deterred rats and killed fleas
Garderobe was a term that eventually came to mean a toilet or a commode chair only. Originally however, although one did go into this room for this purpose, a garderobe was used also as a storeroom. The room was built to include a toilet shaft, which was just a simple hole built out over a cesspit or a moat below - your first primitive sewer. All perishable goods liable to suffer the attack of rats or fleas, which were an ever present problems in medieval times, were placed in the same room, because the smell of the ammonia acted as a kind of very early pest control device. The word "garderobe" means "to guard one's robes". That's so clever and inventive, don't you think? They got rid of the fleas and the pees at the same time.