I ended up buying all sorts of medicines, different personal hygiene products, just in case I could not find these out in Spain. Socks, pants, shirts, the basics.
I bought all these things, but as it turns out, there was one thing nobody told me to bring: Clorox Bleach. Once I get a job here it's the first thing I'm ordering and shipping from the U.S., a box of Clorox with bleach spray.
It's not that I don't know what to look for here. Bleach is called "Lejia" in Spanish. The problem is, barely any products contain bleach. You can't buy a bottle of bleach and you surely can't find a spray bottle with bleach. The best you can do is an occasional toilet bowl cleaner with bleach in it. That isn't really all that practical for kitchens or general purpose cleaning. The products they do have here, leave a lot to be desired in terms of cleaning ability and deodorizer.
It likely has to do with EU regulations and their equivalent of EPA standards. It also seems that Europeans are not all that obsessed with all these cleaning agents the way Americans are. Even the largest supermarkets only carry a very small section worth of cleaning products.
So what I want for christmas is Clorox Bleach.
