Clean your grill while it's still hot.

Yes. The single best thing you can do is scrape the grates right after cooking, while the grill is still hot.

Heat makes the grease and food residue soft. A quick scrape with a stiff wire brush (or a wooden scraper if you hate wire bristles in your food) will knock off almost everything. Let it cool completely, and that gunk bakes on hard. Then you’re scrubbing like a maniac and still getting rust spots.

After scraping, do two things: oil the grates while they’re warm (use a rag on tongs with high smoke point oil—canola or avocado) and keep the grill covered but with the vents cracked if it’s a charcoal grill. Trapped moisture is what causes rust. A dry grill is a happy grill.

Once a season, take the grates off and burn off residue on high for 20 minutes, then scrub with a grill stone. But that’s maintenance, not daily cleaning.

Don’t let it cool down with gunk stuck on. That’s where rust and rancid flavors come from.