Your future self—and your dinner guests—will thank you. Have a nightmare drain hose story? Drop it in the comments below. We promise not to judge the amount of mystery slime you found.

Under your sink, you’ll find the dishwasher drain hose connected either directly to a garbage disposal or a "wye" branch on your sink drain. If that hose runs straight from the dishwasher to the disposal in a flat line, gravity wins. Dirty sink water, grease, and debris will literally roll back uphill into your hose.

We often treat our dishwashers like magical boxes. You load them with crusty plates, greasy pans, and wine-stained glasses, press a button, and an hour later—sparkling miracles. But there is one unsung hero (and frequent point of failure) hidden behind your appliance: the drain hose.

So, go ahead. Look under your sink right now. Is that hose sagging? Is it looped high? Give it a squeeze. If it feels crunchy, you know what you have to do.

This is the single most important trick to keeping your hose clean. A high loop means you take the hose and clip it as high as possible under the countertop (near the underside of the sink basin) before it drops down to the disposal.