The scent of garlic sautéing in olive oil is comforting and warming, but you aren’t so crazy about it when it lingers on your pans and utensils. And you could really do without the whiff of garlic clinging to your plates. Rid your dishes, utensils, pots, and pans with these great dishwashing tips.

Consider the material. Some dishes and other kitchen items are simply more likely to absorb and hang on to smells. These include wooden spoons or bowls; non-stainless-steel knives; cast-iron cookware; aluminum pots and pans; and antique plates and serving ware, which are often more porous than other materials.

Use the power of rinsing. Immediately after making contact with odor-causing foods like garlic, onions, or fish, rinse the utensils you used. By adding just a smidge of dish soap to this routine will further help keep odors from settling in.

Pre-treat. Try rubbing a cut lemon over cookware before washing then rinse and wash in sudsy water with dish soap. For stubborn smells, presoak items in a solution of sudsy dish soap, hot water, and a little bit of baking soda or a few drops of chlorine bleach. For porous items like wood, keep soak time brief.

Wash separately. Don’t immerse those strong-smelling dishes in the same water as all of your other dishes. Wash them in a fresh sink of suds for fresher fragrances.

Choose an odor-trapping dish soap. Many dish soaps have pleasant scents, but some also have additional odor-fighting ingredients that trap and pull odors off your dishes, even if they’re made from hard-to-sanitize materials such as plastic. Tackle caked-on food and fight tough odors with a liquid dish soap like Dawn^® PLUS Odor Eraser^TM. It has a great scrubbing power and works to eliminate food odors, giving you fresh and clean dishes every time.