Everyday Cleaning--Dishes

Dishes
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What's more Americana--more Norman Rockwell--than standing around the kitchen together after a homey dinner and washing dishes? Nowadays, that family ritual is more of a memory than a reality thanks to dishwashers. And with the new generation of dishwashers sporting "gentle" settings and "air-day" options, washing dishes by hand is heading for extinction. But dishwashers blast jets of hot water that can cause any ornamentation to fade. Anything with a metal decorative border is doomed. So if your really want to take the best care of your heirloom china, don't take any chances. Do it the way Grandma did-by hand.

To hand-wash delicate china--any china that's fragile, antique, or gold plated-get out the rubber gloves and the dishwashing liquid. And don't even think of using steel wool or anything else

Getting the Most from Your Dishwasher
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Here are some dishwasher-use tips that will help you get your dishes (and pots and pans) cleaner and help conserve energy and water:

• Load dishes so that they are separated and face the center of the machine. Put glasses and cups between prongs, not over them.
• Don't position large dishes (or pots or pans) so that they block the spray arm, the spray tower, or the flow of water to the detergent dispenser.
• Use only dishwasher detergent in your machine--never soap, laundry detergent,
  
  or dishwashing liquid. Follow the label directions for the amount. Less is needed if your water is soft (or artificially softened), more it it's hard.
• Use a rinse agent to speed drying if your water is hard, but skip it if you have soft water.
• Run hot water at the kitchen sink until it feels hot before turning on the dishwater.
• Don't bother to prerinse moderately soiled dishes. just scrape off any food.
• Run the machine only when it's fully loaded and do it at night or during off-peak utility hours. During hot weather, running the machine at night will also save on cooling costs.
• Use the hold-and-rinse cycle only when you need to leave dishes overnight but want to avoid odors.
• If your dishes aren't very dirty, use the lightest washing cycle.
• Air-dry dishes when you don't need rapid drying. And don't warm plates in a dishwasher; use the oven instead.

Give Your china a Face-Lift

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No matter how careful you are, delicate china is going to get its dings and smudges. Linda Cobb. Do It yourself Network host and best-selling author (Talking Dirty with the Queen of Clean). says it's easy to rejuvenate china that's showing its age.

• To get rid of those hairline cracks that seem to come from nowhere, soak the china overnight in a large bowl of warm milk (no warmer than what you would feed a baby). Then gently hand-wash as usual. Those crazed lines will disappear.
• Where, oh, where did those mysterious black marks come from? Did we eat dirty food? Scuff a shoe on a plate? Likely neither. Black marks can be the result of a couple of things, such as cutlery in the hands of a zealous eater or contact with aluminum in the dishwasher. To get rid of the black marks, sprinkle a little baking soda on a damp cloth and rub the spot. Or try a little nongel toothpaste on a plastic scouring pad.
• To lift tea stains from cups, mix 2 tablespoons of chlroine bleach in a quart of water.
  
  Soak the cup in the solution for no more than two minutes and rinse immediately. 
• Hard water sometimes causes a film to develop on china. To remove it fill a bowl with 1 1/2 cups of chlorine bleach and place it in the lower rack of the dishwasher. Load your china into the washer and run it up to the dry cycle, then shut if off. Empty the bowl, rinse it out, pour in 1 1/2 cups of white vinegar, and return it to the dishwasher. Turn the dishwasher back on and let it run through the rest of the cycle.

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with texture. A sponge or a dishcloth will do everything you need. Before you even turn on the spigot, place a towel in the bottom of the sink. Then remove your rings or at least turn any jewels on them inward, toward the palm of your hand. This will cut down on chipping caused by
jewelry while you wash. Also turn the faucet to the side to avoid clashes with delicate objects, such as your grandmother's gravy boat. 
  Fill the sink with moderately hot water and a healthy squirt of mild dishwashing liquid. It never hurts to add 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to the water. (This boosts the power of inexpensive dishwashing liquid and makes even the best dish detergent work better.)  Then slide the dishes in edgewise, which allows the temperature of the dish to equalize gradually. If very hot water hits a fragile dish too quickly, you're begging for cracks in the china. Once the dishes are stacked carefully in the sink, pour a little extra dishwashing liquid on a sponge or dishcloth. Then resist the urge to scrub. Instead, wash in small circular motions. It might take longer than a vigorous scrubbing, but it will protect your china. Put 1 tablespoon of white vinegar in the final rinse, and you'll be able to see your smile in the reflection.

Before doing good china in a dishwasher, it's best to run a test. Buy the most inexpensive piece that's made in your pattern. Put it in the back of the dishwasher and forget about it for a month while you use the machine normally. At the end of the month, take a gander. If there's no change in its
appearance, you'll know it's safe to use the dishwasher for your good china. If it's faded, well, you'll be buying more rubber gloves.

When storing good china, it's important to be gentle, too. Try to store your china so that it doesn't touch. A layer of pliable paper--paper towel, paper plate, or napkin--will keep pieces from scraping. Hang cups, if possible. And when dealing with tops--to tureens, sugar bowls, and teapots--turn the top upside down, so that the handle or protruding part is protected inside the bottom piece.