New Britain, CT - home of Little Poland ;-) The Polish stores in town carry a large selection of European detergents and fabric softeners, so I don't have far to go if I crave some Persil or Ariel or Perwoll...

Montgomery, Texas. Texan born and bred. I hate the climate here, which is hot and sticky for about 6 months out of the year. I would love to live in the mountains. I envy people who live in Colorado or other states where those majestic mountains can be seen from every direction.

I am a proud Texan though. We have great people, great food and in this case, a large mexican population, so I can find my new favorite detergent Ariel.

TX, small city (but much larger than Montgomery!) south/west of Houston.

Southern California, small mountain community. I've already admitted that I just use one detergent, but I do use the lines on the cap and warm/hot water, Larsi!

Kansas City, KS area. :)

I live in central Iowa on a farm :) I commute to the big city of Des Moines for work. I'm a nurse in one of the hospitals. I work 3 days per week and am very happy that I can work part time. My DH is a full time farmer, corn, soybeans, hay, and cattle.

@ enduring, the really important question of the week is - do you wear a stethoscope? :-)

Great article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kateri-allard/joy-behar-nurses_b_8142516.html

@ pawprint, sorry for hijack.

I live in Lapland, Finland. I've been lurking for a while, never commented before though.

I envy the amount of different products people have in the US and elsewhere in Europe, I'm getting bored of the detergents available here. At least Sweden is close enough to visit every now and then. Went there last week with my sister and mom. Main reason was to visit the nearest Ikea to buy some things, but we always make a point to go to ICA market as well. Always exciting to explore foreign grocery stores and their laundry aisles! Only got to spend four hours in Sweden though, because my mom and sister are always in a hurry. Had to breeze through the laundry aisle and just grab stuff quickly. Annoying!

Ezeia, you'll have to go on your own sometime so you can enjoy your pace.

I don't have a car and probably never will, as I hate driving. It makes me anxious. My leg shakes when I take it off the clutch. Otherwise I would! My mom isn't that impatient, but my sister is used to running through stores as she usually has her kids with her and they don't tend to enjoy the shopping!

Leave sis at home next time, lol. Or, arrange that YOU are shopping at your pace, and they can take a seat if they are bored. Heaven knows you've done it for them.

Or you could go off on your own-when you get there, make plans to meet at a certain time and place, than run late, very late...hahaha

Yeah that's the plan, lol.

Hehe

Mamapinky, usually we go to ikea first and then drive to ICA and then go back to Finland. Not much else to see, because it's a small border town.

@ezeia, if you have a camera, you should post pics of the Laundry Aisles. I'd be excited to see what kind of laundry products are sold there :)

I'll go grocery shopping tomorrow if it doesn't rain too much and take a few pictures!

Mdln, I sometimes wear a stethoscope, lol. I work in an outpt department and I don't need to BP's or other tasks needing a stethoscope very often. But when I have mine around my neck and go for coffee, I feel proud :))) I wear street clothing, btw.

ezeia, completely OT, I cannot resist asking if by chance you are Sami? I think not too many folks in Lapland are, but not sure. My mostly-Scottish family recently began a family DNA project, and learned that paternally we are primarily of Sami descent, which is pretty rare, I gather. We have enjoyed beginning to learn more about the area.

MizLizzie, I find that so interesting! A new topic to research for me....

MizLizzie, I'm not Sami and I don't know much about them really. There's only about 8000 Sami in Finland and most of them live farther north than where I'm from. Funnily enough, Helsinki is probably the biggest Sami city with about 1000 Sami living there.

Carmel, Indiana.

Green Bay metro - Go Packers!

Queens, New York City

Duluth, MN. On the shores of the Greatest of the Great Lakes.

On the shores of Gitche Gumee,
Of the shining Big-Sea-Water ...

I love Lake Superior!

Warwick, Rhode Island (Little Rhody)

Brunswick, Ohio just outside of Cleveland, on the shores of Lake Erie home of the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, the Cleveland Orchestra, and LaBron James.

Birmingham, Alabama

NYC/Manhattan for 30 years now north of city in Hudson Valley.

Roanoke, VA

Easy on those orange barrels! If it weren't for those, I wouldn't have a job until winter in North East OH.

I live in northern Canada, 4 hours north of Toronto , Sudbury

Lots of interesting locations posted. With that in mind, I thought the thread could use some more pictures of where we live. This is a picture taken from my yard several years ago, about this time of year. Central Iowa.

Love fishing off our dock with the grands. Notice the boy isn't happy that his sister caught the first fish of the day.

M about a 45 minute drive from Pittsburgh Pa..little country town surrounded by dairy farms and corn fields. I'm also about 15 minutes from Latrobe, home of Rolling Rock beer.

The skinniest city in America.

http://www.aneki.com/skinniest_cities.html

I live in Wichita, Kansas. Don't have much here but flat farmlands. Most people around me don't know much about laundry detergents. I'm the odd one out because I love to sniff the detergent at the store and prefer to spend money on laundry detergents than handbags or shoes. LoL.

I've 2 kids and they don't share my interest in laundry chemistry. It's mom's job to have clean clothes ready when they need them. LoL.

I also love to experiment with dish detergents.

tweety, I live outside of Topeka! Be so glad that there's just a few of us Laundry Freaks because that makes finding older, rarer detergents easier to find. Since Wichita is pretty big you should have quite a variety of old stock. Try some of the Mexican grocery stores for Ariel with phosphates powder and if you are really lucky-FOCA with phosphates. It's the bomb for whites! Are your 2 kids grown? I have 2-Em is 19/son Nathan is almost 16(in 2 weeks).

I live in an old converted factory in Milwaukee, WI.

About an hour north of Wichita, KS.

Tweetybaby, we're neighbours! Do you know of any places to find fun detergents in Wichita?

Jean and mommytotwolittles... howdy neighbors!!! I normally go to the Asian stores to get Mexican detergents like Foca and Ariel. But they have also taken out the phosphates we so love (maybe they don't get them from Mexico??). To be honest, I've never been to any of the Mexican grocery stores so they are on my list to visit. I'm using the last bag of Foca with phosphates (sadly it will be gone with the next few loads). A lot of the detergents in the Asian stores are very scented and I much prefer no scent or just lightly scented detergent.

Jean - I have 2 kids. My daughter is 12 and she is on the spectrum. My son is 10. I have a golden retriever which tracks mud, grass and other stuff into the house on a daily basis. This translates to more laundry and makes me very happy! LOL.

tweety you MUST go to the Mexican stores!! They might just have the phosphates at least in the Ariel. Opps=well Ariel does have a strong scent but after a run through the dryer it's barely noticeable. You have a plethora of choices in a city that size and I envy you. Younger kids and a golden retriever does create a lot of wonderful dirty laundy-YAY!! mommyoftwolittles-try the older grocery stores too. They have lots of goodies!

BAby, the Ariel. In the Mexican stores should still have phosphates..but won't list them in the ingredients but rather something vague like water softener..P&G a while back tried to stop the importing of Ariel to the US Mexican stores and couldn't so instead they took phosphates out of the ingredients listed but not the product..that being said P&G does plan to remove phosphates from all their products sometime this year.

Foca hasn't had phosphates for a long time now so any found is old stock..I'd give hubs, ***** for Foca with phosphates lol....

Have you ever seen the big buckets of Tide from Vietnam?? Loaded in phosphates.

Baby, did I welcome you to the Family? Welcome!! And anyone lovin phosphates is surely one of Mama's chicks.

Mama!!! You little devil!!! Hubs would be in heaven for sure!! Yes-that Tide in the bucket-I like it even more than Ariel! If you guys in Wichita can get it-do so it is wonderful!!

http://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/problem

Nutrient pollution is one of America's most widespread, costly and challenging environmental problems, and is caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the air and water.

When too much nitrogen and phosphorus enter the environment - usually from a wide range of human activities - the air and water can become polluted. Nutrient pollution has impacted many streams, rivers, lakes, bays and coastal waters for the past several decades, resulting in serious environmental and human health issues, and impacting the economy.

Too much nitrogen and phosphorus in the water causes algae to grow faster than ecosystems can handle. Significant increases in algae harm water quality, food resources and habitats, and decrease the oxygen that fish and other aquatic life need to survive. Large growths of algae are called algal blooms and they can severely reduce or eliminate oxygen in the water, leading to illnesses in fish and the death of large numbers of fish. Some algal blooms are harmful to humans because they produce elevated toxins and bacterial growth that can make people sick if they come into contact with polluted water, consume tainted fish or shellfish, or drink contaminated water.

Nutrient pollution in ground water - which millions of people in the United States use as their drinking water source - can be harmful, even at low levels. Infants are vulnerable to a nitrogen-based compound called nitrates in drinking water. Excess nitrogen in the atmosphere can produce pollutants such as ammonia and ozone, which can impair our ability to breathe, limit visibility and alter plant growth. When excess nitrogen comes back to earth from the atmosphere, it can harm the health of forests, soils and waterways.

I completely understand about phosphates and our land. Back when phosphates were removed from detergents it was believed it would solve the algae blooms...it hasn't, actually I think it resulted in 3% less blooms...the active enviornmental specialists know this, but of course their not going to say..go ahead and use it....but it has been established that removing it from use by consumers has not solved the problem. I fully respect anyone that doesn't use phosphates but I do . Am I burying my head in the sand about this issue...I don't think.... the average household flushes more phosphates down the toilet every day than what's used to wash clothes or dishes...not to mention its allowed in food and toothpaste but not my automatic washer..why is that....no, last time I really delved into it... it was found phosphates in household use was not the problem..theres also the fact that when phosphates were removed it took how many other chemicals to replace what phosphates did on its own...and im fairly sure these other chemicals are unsafe....I just want to be very clear though...I respect everyone's opinion on this.

Mama, you crack me up. LoL. When I make a trip to the Mexican grocery store (could possibly be this Sunday because my son's robotics competition is over and I don't have to coach them on Sunday's anymore!!!), I'll see if I can find those detergents with phosphates.

LOL

Winfield, Illinois. I live on a golf course. I count balls. That's all I am saying. LOL.