This well-known slogan from a global stain remover brand encapsulates a dominant cultural ideal: cleanliness as virtue, purity as aspiration. On the company’s website, customers are encouraged to prolong the life of their clothes by removing all visible traces of dirt. The underlying message is clear—only spotless garments are worth keeping. As a result, vast amounts of still-functional but stained clothing are discarded, often ending up in landfills or incineration plants, both in Sweden and abroad. This obsession with the flawless extends to the second-hand clothing market. Despite increased interest in sustainable fashion, garments with minor flaws—stains, wear, discoloration—are routinely filtered out during sorting and deemed unfit for resale. Value is often assessed according to resale potential, meaning only items that appear close to new survive. The stained ones are excluded, not for their function, but for their failure to meet aesthetic and hygienic expectations.