If you regularly use detergent capsules, we have bad news for you (and your clothes)

Laundry.

Sigh.

If we don’t do it, we have to do it, or we have just finished it, or we have to do it soon.

You might think we have perfected it by now because we can’t escape it, but too many of us do everything wrong.

That’s what we – Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, co-hosts of the HuffPost podcast “Am I Doing It Wrong?” – found out when we recently chatted with Patric Richardson, aka “The Laundry Evangelist.”

Richardson fell in love with laundry at the age of two and a half and is now king of a laundry empire that includes sold-out laundry camps, a best-selling book, his own laundry products and the HGTV show “The Laundry Guy.”

One of the most shocking realizations we made during our conversation? We’re probably using the wrong detergent and way too much of it, which can result in our clothes not getting as clean.

“I will always use laundry soap… That’s soap that’s made (specifically) for washing and then grated or ground,” Richardson said. “It’s the cleanest and gentlest (choice).”

However, it can be difficult to find one. If it’s not available, he recommends buying a special detergent for baby clothes that is also gentle. Just make sure you don’t use pods.

“I don’t care if (your detergent) comes in powder or liquid, but I don’t like capsules because I don’t like that you can’t control the amount,” he said. “You don’t need as much detergent as a capsule… I think you only need about two tablespoons of detergent (for a load), so a bottle of detergent might last a year because you only need a couple tablespoons to get your clothes clean.”

Richardson points out that a little cleaning agent, like salt, can go a long way.

“If you’re cooking and the recipe says to use half a tablespoon of salt and you put that in, it tastes delicious,” he said. “But if you say, ‘I love salt,’ and put a whole cup in, the food is ruined, it doesn’t taste any better. That’s the same way you should treat detergents: A little bit is really good because it does what it’s supposed to. If you add a lot more, you’re actually ruining it.”

There is a scientific reason for this. Detergents contain surfactants, which are compounds that remove dirt and stains from clothes.

“The dirt and germs come off the clothes and get into the water,” Richardson explained. “They get trapped in the surfactant and when you rinse, the surfactant goes down the drain. If you use too much detergent, it can’t be rinsed out, so the surfactant actually settles back into your clothes and all the dirt ends up back in your clothes with it. So more detergent means your clothes are actually dirty.”

We also talked about the one wash cycle he always uses, his trick for eliminating static electricity in the dryer using a product most people have in their pantry, and much more:

After listening here or wherever you get your podcasts, Don’t forget to subscribe to “Am I Doing It Wrong?” on your podcast platform of choice so you don’t miss a single episode. It includes our investigations into the intricacies of tipping, how to apologize or pay off your credit card debt, how to find love online or overcome fears, tips for online shopping, how to take care of your teeth and go to the bathroom like a pro, secrets for booking and staying in a hotel, how to deal with an angry person, cooking tips from celebrity chef Jet Tila, shocking laundry secrets, tips and tricks for cleaner dishes, how to get your best workout in, and more.

Need help with something you did wrong? Email us at [email protected] and we might explore the topic in an upcoming episode. This article originally appeared on ^ “HuffPost: The Return of Poor Americans”.