It's been a stressful week or so. My kitchen sink has been blocked up, years of grease and the detritus of food waste slowly building up in the pipes. I felt quite proud of myself when I cleaned out the u-bend trap under the sink, and safely reassembled the pipes. It wasn't enough, and the sink remained blocked. Worse, as the washing machine drains into the same pipe as the sink, I couldn't risk washing my clothes. Water from the machine would just flood into the sink and probably overflow.

So I have had a week of washing my dishes in basin and flushing the water down the loo. My underwear drawer started to look empty, so I decided to wash a few essentials by hand in the bath. Now, this post isn't about washing my underwear, but it is about the need to clean and be clean. I work in an office; I live in a flat. I don't get dirty, beyond the everyday grim and sweat of life. Even then, how much grime and sweat is there? How dirty do my clothes get - and how clean do they need to be?

My washing machine's standard 40º cycle takes 3 hours 10 minutes to complete. It's slow because, apparently, it's efficient - it uses a lot less water than my previous machine. It took me approximately 5 minutes to wash a few pants, socks and a couple of vests by hand. Were they any less clean for being washed in one-thirty-sixth of the time that the machine takes? I think as a society we have become obsessed with cleanliness, and unhealthy fear of every germ and speck of dirt. Mankind survived thousands of years before the invention of detol. In the 18th and 19th centuries, clothes - at least outwear - was rarely cleaned at all, and bodies were sponged down rather than pummelled with a shower twice daily. Underwear was washed: underwear often being a full-body affair, and washed once a week on wash day. So I feel comfortable in saying that my pants are now clean after just five minutes.

Meanwhile, drainage experts have been to clear my blocked sink. It took two and half hours with a petrol-powered jet to clear the blockage, during which all sorts of filthy water burst forth from my bathroom sink. Dirty water has been trailed around every room of the house. Now that is dirty. Thanks to the perseverance of plumber (and former rugby player) Conan Sharman, I can finally use the washing machine and sink.

Of course, my first wash was a few odds and sods, at 40º, taking over three hours.

I'm a product of society - I'm not going back to hand-washing my smalls!