We spend hours searching for and finding The Perfect Garment, carefully storing it in the closet and proudly wearing it preferably the whole week long. But when your clothes could use a wash, we flick them between the t-shirts and underwear straight into the washing machine. Quite strange, actually. Personally, I have a pretty passionate dislike for the whole washing process and since I don't have the money to either have everything done by a housekeeper or to send the whole bunch to the dry cleaner, it's a nuisance I just can't escape. Now, I have quite a bit of clothing, so I can get away with not washing for about two weeks, but still, I hate it. I especially find hanging it up very annoying. So annoying that I, *confession*, sometimes leave the laundry in the machine for so long that I have to rinse the same load of clothes again. Anyway, hassle. I found a book with the cutest title in the history of book titles and this book is full of handy and clever tips so you can achieve a much better washing result. Look, washing isn't going to get more fun, nor really easier, but at least a bit clearer. The book is called, are you ready? The book is called: My boyfriend barfed in my handbag … and other things you can’t ask Martha. I find that really hilarious. Martha is Martha Stewart, supreme housewife and ultimate cleaning and cooking queen but also a pretty polished and refined person and when your boyfriend has thrown up in your handbag, she's not someone you want to bother with that.

The author of this book is Jolie Kerr and she gained internet fame with her incredibly fun column Ask A Clean Person on thehairpin.com. It sounds impossible but it really is, writing a fun book about cleaning. Not only does washing your clothes come up, but your kitchen will also look spick and span after reading the first chapter: ‘The Kitchen: Clean it, or Just Set It On Fire and Be Done?’ The toilet is also a shiny paradise again thanks to chapter 3: ‘The Urinal (Because These Things Sound Fancier in French)’. But this is a site about fashion so I suppress my newly acquired cleaning excitement and get to the point.

To begin with, you should use less detergent from now on. Much, much less. Detergent manufacturers love to say you should use a full cap, but hey, that's coincidental; the more detergent you use, the more bottles you have to buy from them, the more, indeed. So stop doing that, it's unnecessary. In fact, The Wall Street Journal published an article in 2010 warning humanity about the dangers of too much detergent. “Excess detergent makes a high foamy tide inside the machine, lifting soil and lint above the water level so it isn’t rinsed away.” That means there's a layer of dirt in which your clothes are swimming. Not cool. According to Jolie Kerr, we should fill the detergent cap to about a third.

Then, you already sorted your laundry by color, but you should also sort it by material. Jeans, for example, have a rubbing effect on delicate fabrics, so never wash them together. And did you know that a sports pant combined with a sweater with soft fleece lining causes fleece fibers to remain forever in the stretchy material of the sports pant? And when you wash a towel with your cotton clothes, the chance of the fabrics pilling (or fraying) is much greater. Never do that again because pilling is the devil's work.

So you're probably already using too much detergent, but you can also be a bit more frugal with fabric softener. It smells nice, of course, and everything feels like that super cute Robijn bear, but it's actually not that good for your clothes. It leaves a thin layer on your clothes and especially with towels, that's inconvenient because it makes them dry less well. Moreover, the fabric softener can build up in the machine and leave annoying stains on your clothes.

So, what have we learned today? Use less detergent, sort your clothes by color AND by material, and finally, use less fabric softener. Good for your clothes and therefore also good for your wallet, so that's a nice double win.