Clue: Wife pounds clothing in huge pails, badly short of energy and detergent (7-2,6)
Answer: WASHING-UP LIQUID
Explanation: Definition: detergent
An envelope ('clothing') of ASHINGUPLI, an anagram ('badly') of 'in hug[e] pails' minus the E ('short of energy') in W ('wife') plus QUID ('pounds'; note the plural e.g. "Lend me five quid").