The Ultimate Kitchen Cleaning Quiz

Rather than let your dishes sit, let them soak. As they do, the grease and dirt will soften, and the dishes will be easier to clean when you get around to them.

Add a bit of vinegar -- 3 to 4 teaspoons -- to really attack the grease as your dishes soak.

Water spots are ugly and annoying. Soak your stemware in a basin of water and white vinegar to remove pesky spots. After all, what's a good wine if you can't enjoy its color?

Plastic containers keep air out, but they are somewhat porous. If you keep storing tomato-based sauces in plastic, you will see a light red stain begin to take over the inside surface of the container.

You can produce a protective barrier on the inside of your plastic containers with a thin coat of vegetable oil or spray.

Wiping ceramic with a soapy sponge might remove the top layer of a spill, but it will not remove the germs that have built up on the ceramic.

The best way to clean ceramic tiles is with rubbing alcohol. This will remove the grease, the dirt, and the germs.

Wood absorbs dirt, oil, and bacteria. The best way to attack the problem is to add baking soda to warm water, and use that solution to clean the wood.

Gently rub boiled linseed oil -- vegetable oil also works -- into the wood with a pad of fine steel wool.

Applying one coat of linseed oil might not do the trick. Apply a second coat 24 hours later to really bring out the wood's beauty.

The best way to remove stains from wood is with bleach. Use 1 quart of water and 1/4 cup of bleach.

China chips vey easily. Pad the sink with a towel, and cover the faucet with one as well.

If you put your china in the dishwasher, the china is likely to get chipped or even cracked. Always wash china by hand.

Take the rind of a lemon, rub it on a calcium deposit, and watch what happens.

A mild abrasive, such as salt or baking soda, will help remove especially tough calcium deposits.

One really clever solution is to pour a little bit of white vinegar into the vase as a cleaning agent, and some uncooked rice as an abrasive. Swish the rice and vinegar around for a while to remove stains inside the vase.

When you hear the familiar splash and sizzle of an oven spill, you should immediately cover the spill with salt to absorb the spill. The salt will soak up the stain and make the oven much easier to clean.

If the spill occurred in the back of the oven, use a long-handled spoon to pour salt on the spill -- safety first.

Not only is salt going to soak up much of the spill, it will function as an abrasive when you wipe the spill away. All you need is a sponge or rag.

Sometimes all you need to unclog a drain is a little added pressure. Plug up the drain, let the water fill up, and quickly remove the drain. It just might work.