How to Do the Dishes, expert tips on the proper manner and order from Kim's Rude Awakenings

This is the order you wash dishes in: cups, saucers, side plates, dinner plates, cutlery, pots and pans and glassware. Glassware should be washed separately at all times and it is the last thing to wash so leave it to one side. It is very advisable to have a washing up bowl (a plastic bowl that fits into your kitchen sink) because it is so easy to clank that cup against a stainless steel sink and crack it. The plastic bowl is wonderful. If the cup bangs it's not going to break.

Put rubber gloves on because you'll be able to stand the water a lot hotter and dishes need hot water. You need a decent washing up liquid (you call it dish detergent in Canada) but do not get a litre bottle that will cost you fifty cents. It's rubbish! Buy the better ones, because they might be small but they're so concentrated they'll last you for months. It's a false economy to think a big cheap one lasts longer. It doesn't, so buy a decent one and don't buy one that's too perfumed because who wants to taste lavender when you're eating your toast? Be sensible. And make sure the water isn't too soapy. Putting in too much dishwashing liquid is a waste of money.

There should be one washing up bowl and another bowl on standby to rinse the dishes off or you can run the faucet over them. Again, cups come first; saucers come second, side plates third and dinner plates fourth. The cutlery comes fifth and goes in separately. The last things you wash are your pots and pans. When you've done all that you throw out the water and dry the dishes. And then you tackle your glasses. You get the washing up bowl again. A little dribble of washing up liquid, warm, not hot, water. You don't need gloves if you don't want to wear them. You gently go around the glass with a soft cloth - and then rinse it gently under a faucet or in a bowl of clear warm water. Get a glass drying towel to put on the counter so when you put the glasses down they're not clanking on the hard surface. Put them upside down to drain and gently dry them with a glass drying cloth. Make sure that when you put them away you place the glasses upside down. However long they are left, the inside will always be clean ready to use. I don't care if the cabinet's closed they should be upside down so they're always clean inside. Dust always finds a way inside a cabinet.

Now, cloths that dry dishes can be fluffy and towely but you can't use them on glassware. You've got to use a glass drying cloth, which is usually cotton and has no fluff on it. Remember cups first, then saucers, side plates, dinner plates, cutlery and pots and pans. Glasses are always separate. I've said enough now, just get on with it!