'I'm a cleaning expert - you're washing yourself and your clothes too often'

You can never been too clean right? Apparently you can, according to a expert.

Personal hygiene is incredibly important - whether that be brushing your teeth or having showers and washing our clothes. But how often should you be doing it?

You might already know you should be brushing your teeth twice a day, but should you be showering as often? And how often should you be washing your clothes? It's easy to feel paranoid about your smell, but according to cleaning guru Ann Russell, we're overdoing it.

"We are undoubtedly washing our clothes far too much," she said in an eye-opening TikTok video, pointing to a news article quoting activist model Lily Cole, who urged Brits to stop over-washing and start rewearing.

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Ann, who regularly posts cleaning hacks on her @annrussell03 account, explained that many of us believe we need to "wash clothes all the time", to signal to others that we are clean - and also that we are over-perfuming not only ourselves, but our clothes and homes.

"Clean things don't have a smell, that's the whole point of washing your clothes and yourself - so that you don't smell," explained Ann. But many people try to mask smells by using fragrances - and even if someone wears a "highly fragranced laundry detergent" it "gives her a headache and quite sick".

"You don't need to smell of laundry detergent to be clean, you just need to be clean and not have a smell," she warned. "Your skin will thank you, your wallet will thank you and you'll feel a lot happier."

Ann explained she washes her jeans weekly, even though she "wipes her hands" on them, and her fleece a week-to-10 days. Her T-shirt she changes "every couple of days" unless she's working and it's hot, when she will "change it every day".

Ecove, in partnership with Galmouth University, found that 18% of the 2,000 Brits interviewed for their report in August believed, wrongly, that washing less frequently would not affect the planet. It also found that 75% believed they would be judged by others if they wore the same clothes multiple days in a row.

Dr Cui Su, from the school of communication, Falmouth University, who worked on the report said: "For decades, our relationship with laundry has been shaped by powerful cultural forces and advertising that have conditioned us to believe that 'perfectly clean' is the only acceptable standard. From the smell of freshly washed clothes to the crispness of fabrics, cleanliness has been presented not just as a necessity, but as a reflection of success."

According to , assistant professor of dermatology at NYU Langone Health in New York, how often. you shower depends on many personal factors - including skin, age and activity level.

But in general she suggested: "You should be showering, bathing, or cleansing yourself every two to three day." Meanwhile, agreed that how often you wear clothes depends on how much you sweat. But in general she recommends washing jeans every five to 10 wears. For T-shirts it should be "one to two wears".