Rinsing your plates before loading them into the dishwasher is a trivial task that's just seems to make sense, right? Giving them a quick once over rids the plates of leftover food, which stops a build of dirt in the machine and ensures that the load comes out clean. But apparently it could be doing more harm than good, as Australian cleaning expert Ashley Iredale told ABC: "There's absolutely no need to pre-rinse". Ashley says that cleaning off your plates before you put them in the machine can result in them being just as dirty as they were when you first put them in. Apparently most of our dishwashers are equipped with sensors which can sense just how dirty the plates are. So when the cycle starts, your machine will wash your plates with jets which are strong enough to clean them thoroughly. But if we pre-rinse them, Ashely says it may actually fool the dishwasher into thinking it only needs the lightest of washes – which explains why you're left with dirty dishes after a full cycle. Instead he suggests scraping any solid food into the bin, before popping your dishes into the dishwasher as is – the machine will do the rest of the hard work.