Cleaning the dishes after making a large meal is never fun. Either you get to them right after you’ve eaten, when you really don’t feel like doing anything, or you leave them for a while, only to find pans that are nearly impossible to clean. Soaking them in soap and water goes a long way toward helping, but a trick you might not know is to use aluminum foil.

This trick is best used on glassware and things like oven racks, were you don’t really need to worry about damaging the thing you’re trying to clean. Just ball up a piece of foil and go to down on the glass pan that you used to bake lasagna a couple of nights ago (and put off cleaning until today), and it will be clean in no time. Don’t forget to use a regular sponge afterward to get rid of the things you don’t see.