Crappy Housewife Tip of the Day

Buy good dishwasher detergent. I used to think the detergent didn't make a difference. I also used to think that I had to presoak and prescrub all the dishes. As it turns out, my two misconceptions were connected. On a whim one day, I bought a detergent that said something on the label about getting out caked on food. I tried it out on a load of spaghetti dishes that had been sitting for a week. Out of a full load of extremely crusty dishes, I only had to rewash 2 or 3. Those are pretty good odds (considering my experiments with my regular detergent and crusty dishes usually resulted in a 50% rewash). I'd rather rewash a couple dishes than prewash all the dishes. It's simple math!