There are many factors that go into a well-washed plate: pre-rinsing of dried food remnants, hot water, soap, gumption. The most important one is the sense of touch. After scrubbing a plate and rinsing it off, it's important to feel it, too. Just like people, plates can look clean but be filthy. Once a quick scrub removes the yellow remains of egg, if you run your fingers over a plate and sense what feels like egg residue, that's egg. That doesn't mean the egg is some indomitable substance, best left for the next poor dishwashing sap, or perhaps broken down over time. It means you missed a spot. Wash it again.

How to stack washed dishes:

If you have ever played Tetris, then you know that there is an art, or at least science, to stacking differently shaped items. (If you have never played Tetris, there is something suspicious about you.) See, plates are flat circles. Bowls are half-spheres. Glasses are cylinders. If you had the opportunity to arrange the shapes into groups, before a round of Tetris, there would be no game. You would simply have a neat pile of blocks. Even if (especially if) there is a random pile of dirty dishes on the counter, spend 30 seconds grouping them together before turning the water on. You'll spend less time looking for that valuable slot, when all the plates are washed together.

Restaurant critic Corey Mintz does not own a dishwasher, which makes him an expert scrubber (and preachy).