Cultural Differences: a Case Study in Dirty Laundry!

I did a very un-adventuresome thing today. A very American thing. I sought refuge in the familiar. I went to Whole Foods.

Yup, there’s exactly one Whole Foods in London, England, and it is located right smack in between the two neighborhoods where most recent American ex-pats choose to live, Kensington and Notting Hill. (And yes, the British relocation company we’re using said Americans like living in Notting Hill because it’s familiar to them through the movie of the same name. Art/life – is there a difference? Apparently not to Americans.)

I went to Whole Foods because I’ve been having a heck of a time trying to find fragrance-free laundry detergent. (I miss you All Free & Clear!) Laundry detergents also have confusing labels here – they are classified as bio or non-bio. Bio means that the product contains stain-fighting enzymes, either natural or artificial in nature, and non-bio means it doesn’t have these enzymes. I’m not sure if American detergent has these enzymes or not! Anyway, the point of this boring thing is that I figured if I couldn’t find fragrance-free laundry detergent at Whole Foods, then I couldn’t find it anywhere in London. And I found it! Yay! I also got a whole bunch of Method cleaning products too. Although I miss my Mrs. Meyer’s countertop spray very badly. Who knew you could get so emotionally attached to cleaning products?

*Sidetrack* I also bought some free-range blue eggs.

It’s kind of hard to tell from the photo but they are this really lovely light teal color. They kind of match my kitchen cupboards actually!

Back to laundry reality. I didn’t even mention how all the laundry machines here are combined washers and dryers. Sounds cool, but it isn’t. It takes two hours to dry a miniscule amount of laundry and look how wrinkly everything is!

Dryers do waste a lot of energy though. Hang-drying may be tedious, but at least I’m saving the planet! And why do no American eco-crazies decry the use of dryers? It’s never even occurred to me before not to use a ****ton of energy to do what could be done with no energy at all. (Just a few extra minutes of hanging.) So my energy-gorging stateside friends, you too can live like a Brit today! Hang dry your laundry! Cheerio!