I'm unsure if this is a common observation by people not part of the English tribe. I'm unsure if the tribe itself is even conscious of the difference between then and the rest of the world on this front. But I feel the following must be stated, if to at least shine a light on a less illuminated aspect of the English character. For the state of ones kitchen is most definitelly reflective of the popular character of the nation.

Some good few years ago, my first ex moved into an apartment of her own. She was not a very clean person, but I won't take this article as an opportunity to merely wash some dirty laundry. No this article's scope is to wash some dirty dishes. And that's what I tried to do while there. Until I noticed something strange: there was no sponge to wash the dishes with. I inquired about this and she pointed to a rag on the side of the sink.

"I use this instead" she said, pointing to the rag. "That's what I've always done, even back at home"

"How? The soap wont be trapped in long. And what you have a tough stain? There's no abrasive side!" I replied, puzzled by the odd response

"Well that's just what I've always done. I don't like sponges, they feel weird. I'm sure other people do it differently."

"I'm sure other people do it differently". Well I believed her. She had strange sensory issues (likely made up, but that's just a suspicion), so I ran with that at the moment. It was an absolute nightmare washing dishes with a soapy rag, so much dishsoap was wasted, and it felt so weird and impractical. Did not help that it was my responsibility to deal with the week's dish stack every time I visited. But those things compounded convinced me that she must be the outlier. It can't possibly be that a whole nation does this, surely?

Of course, by now you know I was wrong, otherwise I would not be writing this. But the rag was not the only thing that drove me insane. There was another thing that feels absolutely nonsensical to the non-English mind. The tub.

For those unaware, when washing dishes, the English do the following thing: They fill up half way a tub of water in the sink, then dunk their dishes in there. They then take their soapy rag and do one round of cleaning them, and put them to dry. Sometime they may rinse them first, using the dirty water, other times they may let them dry with the soap still on. My ex was the kind to leave the soap on.

"Well it's for dishes so it's non-toxic."

In big part she blamed her inability to wash dishes properly on her mother never teaching her. In which case I can only deduce that this whole style of cleaning dishes is not simply passed down for the English, but an instinctual thing formed by other things in their environment. The tub, with its dirty water, where the dishes are rinsed after being cleaned, is most likely a wartime invention. When the Blitz is on your doorstep you tend to be careful with your water consumption. This frugal behaviour was passed down in the working class English culture up until modern day, and it's observable and documented in other sides of life more accurately by others.

After the break-up I didn't encounter this for a bit. University students don't tend to care about frugality. However, in my final year an attempt was made to re-instate such a system by an autistic housemate of mine. It was unilaterally shot down. My closest friends were either Eastern European or lived too far away for me to investigate their kitchen sinks. However, recently, I uncovered it again. The kitchens at work use the rag and tub system. And as expected, there isn't ever a single clean dish, mug, or spoon in the whole kitchen. Not that they haven't been washed, but because this washing system, and the general carelessness of the English in regards to stains, means they will never do a proper scrub of tea and coffee stains whenever they clean. What's more, this system seems absolutely normal to everyone else. This solidifies in my mind that it's not a small oddity, but a nation-wide affliction. One for which, I'm afraid I have no cure.

Best one can do is pray the English discover the sponge.

They sell it in their shops, yet its use remains unknown.

END.