package Cleaner;
sub new 
{
    my $class = shift;
    $class = ref($class) || $class;
    my $self = qr{^\s+|\s+$};
    return bless($self, $class);
}

sub clean 
{
    $_[1] =~ s/$_[0]//g;
}

package main;
$c = new Cleaner;
$foo = "\t\tFOO\t\t";
$c->clean($foo);
print $foo, "\n";

##</code><code>##

package main;
$c = new Cleaner;
$foo = "\t\tFOO\t\t";
use Benchmark;
timethese(1000000, {
    'blessed' => sub { my $bar = $foo; $c->clean($bar) },
    'normal'  => sub { my $bar = $foo; $bar =~ s/^\s+|\s$//g },
});

##</code><code>##

Benchmark: timing 1000000 iterations of blessed, normal...
   blessed: 43 wallclock secs (36.50 usr +  0.14 sys = 36.64 CPU)
    normal: 28 wallclock secs (24.19 usr +  0.08 sys = 24.27 CPU)