I would be approximately 15% happier in my life if I never had to wash a dish by hand again. If I could throw my expensive Wüsthof chef’s knife on the top rack of my dishwasher, cram my wedding china into the bottom, and toss in a wooden cutting board and the All-Clad D3 Tri-Ply Stainless Steel cookware I’ve owned for (OMG) 18 years while I’m at it, I would. But, alas, some things just need to be hand-washed. And because my husband does the cooking, I do the clean-up. It’s the rules. For some people, the dish soap might be an afterthought. For me, it’s an essential tool to make the chore more efficient and less onerous. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of using a no-name, poor-quality dish soap at a dollar-store-shopping relative’s house. It doesn’t suds properly, it doesn’t rinse cleanly, it smells like some amorphous “fresh scent,” and you have to use squirt after squirt after squirt to make any progress. So when Wirecutter named Palmolive Ultra Pure + Clear Dish Liquid as the top-pick dish soap, I discovered that I could have it all, namely excellent cleaning power without the fake fragrance. (Fake fragrance, I might add, that has moved beyond “lemon fresh” and into the wild west of watermelon, coconut, and fresh-cut grass.) I practically ran straight to the grocery store for a bottle, and it immediately became the one bright spot in an otherwise bleak chore that I have to psych myself up to get through. The truth is, it doesn’t really take me that long to wash the dishes, even during big family holidays when I’m hiding out in the kitchen to avoid blood-pressure-escalating political debates and probing personal questions. But if I can spend even those 15 minutes in a more pleasant way, it’s an improvement to my day. Here’s why I love Palmolive Ultra Pure + Clear, why we named it one of our best new picks of the year, and why you should consider switching if you’re not already part of the Ultra Pure + Clear club. Top pickThe best dish soapPalmolive Ultra Pure + Clear Dish LiquidThis well-rounded, fragrance- and dye-free dish soap is an excellent cleaner, and it’s hypoallergenic.$4 $2 from AmazonWith clipped on-page coupon$8 from Walmart(pack of two)