This made me laugh, because I was wondering the same thing last week. I thought I was just completely incompetent. Someone please come through with a good answer...

I've (also) never been able to get strainers truly clean, but I've never been really bothered by it. A fine film of pasta water or a small bit of dried veggie don't set off my gross-meter.

We don't have a dishwasher, so I soak, scrub, then poke the bristles of my little potato scrubber through the holes. I also try to use my metal (not wire) colander for pasta (that's the worst!) and use my mesh strainers for non-clumpy stuff.

Not great, but it works!

I rinse it from the back immediately after I use it, and then run it through the dishwasher. If there are a few little pieces left afterwards, I use my dish brush and poke them out.

I bang it on the sink, and that usually gets most of the stuff out. If you do it right after using it, it works best (don't wait till after you finish eating, or the stuff will dry and get stuck).

I use a plastic strainer though, not a mesh one as in the picture.

i like to use a normal sponge and the spray nozzle. it seems to get in those little holes. it's not perfect, but it's the best method i've found.

A good hot soak and a toothbrush!

A decent-sized bristle brush works well to loosen food stuck in the mesh, then a quick rinse with the spray nozzle.

i put it in the bottom rack of the dishwasher. that always does it for me.

I use my soapy hands to clean it - I can feel where those stealth bits have gotten stuck that way, and rub them from the back 'til they loosen up. Also, cleaning it ASAP after use seems to help a lot.

I rinse mine immediately after using it, using the spray nozzle to force particularly stubborn bits of whatever out. If that doesn't work, I grab my scrub brush and sort of poke the bristles through the mesh (under running water) to get at the remainders. It's an annoying process, though. I'd love to figure out a way to do this that uses less water.

I rinse it with the spray nozzle from the back as soon as I'm done with it. This way, nothing has time to dry and stick and most of the whatever rinses off easily. If anything is stuck, I'll scrub it with a scrubby sponge from the bottom and that seems to do the trick. I don't ever wash it in the same direction food was straining (does that make sense?)

In addition to soap and a good scrub, I always turn the strainer over and have the water run through the opposite side of the mesh strainer-works every time.

i find the dishwasher useless with this task. you can go at it with a bristle brush, but it takes a while to truly get it cleared out. honestly, the only solution that we've found to be truly effective is to immediately wash after use (no time for all the stuff to settle into the mesh to heavily).

I find the best thing to do is wash it immediately after, otherwise all the dried gunk takes forever to scrub off. But even when just used, a vegetable brush with bristles is good at poking through the holes.

I use my hand held sprayer and dish brush to clean my strainer. If I have any worries about lingering stuff, I pour water out of the boiling tea kettle over it.

haha, all of these people with their spray nozzles are assuming apartment dwellers have enough water pressure to effectively blast stuff off of these strainers!

I find stuff doesn't gather all across mine, so I generally just poke it with my bristle brush until it looks clear. I say poke because you want the bristles to really go through the mesh and poke out whatever little bits of pasta or whatever is clinging to the mesh.

I'm not sure there's a definitive "best way" to clean these, unfortunately. yet they are a necessity!

Try setting the strainer in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes to loosen all of the food particles, then giving it a thorough scrub.

Hi. Glad you used my pic.

I usually just rap them hard against the sink upside down. A couple hard raps and everything comes out. When all else fails I use the nasty sprayer which gets me wet.

I use a firm bristled scrub brush. I brush it both right-side-up and upside down under running hot water. If I keep an eye out for little bits, I can get them out easily when I see them by using the brush. Works perfectly!

I always make sure it's the first thing to be washed so that it is washed in the cleanest sink possible. It's also a case of carefully removing from the water in a motion that stops it from picking anything else up out of the water.

I'm an apartment-dweller and my spray nozzle works fine. I think your water situation depends on your building.

I rap mine upside down immediately after I use it to knock out the big pieces and then use the faucet spray to rinse down the sides from the bottom to the top. once the big pieces are out, I submerge it bottoms down into the dish water. The water floats out any particles stuck inside. When i rotate the screen away from me in the water, all the particles stay in the soap bubbles. It works great with me and occasionally I spray it with clorox.

Wash from the back and use the spray (as opposed to stream) setting on the faucet are key. Even with low pressure, having the water spread out instead of in a single stream works best.

toothpicks to get any leftovers, but this I know isn't helpful. It's just kind of a pain.

evada72 is on the money - a vegetable brush or dish brush to poke through the holes after a quick blast with a jet of water.

Like many others, I rinse mine immediately after using and use the spray nozzle if some stubborn bits cling. I would also recommend using a butane torch if you've got one. Obviously, you only do this if your colander is made of metal.

I usually rinse my strainer immediately after using it, or let it soak in a bowl that's a little bigger. While it's still full of water, I wipe it out with the sponge to get any bits of pasta or food off. I then quickly invert the bowl and strainer so the water flows out through the holes, and presto, it's clean.

Solution: don't get a wire mesh strainer. Mine is a sheet of metal with a bunch of little holes in it and is much easier to keep clean. :)

Yep rinse immediately after use, and most stuff comes out. I use a brush for dishwashing and I find jabbing the strainer with it (instead of brushing like I would other dishes) dislodges the remainder.

I know this would have an ick factor for many, but I have always used an old toothbrush. Soak the old toothbrush in hot water for a bit and one can be sure its as clean as it could get... Try and wash the strainer as soon as you have finished with it,else keep it in a position where the strainer and its holes remain soaked. I use a bar soap for washing my dishes, so I just scrub the toothbrush in the bar and then start scrubbing all over the strainer. Make sure you raise up a good lather and give the strainer a good rinse and bang against the side of the sink. I then normally hold it up against the light to see if i have any particles left behind and repeat the entire process for the more stubborn bits.
I make both tea and coffee in my house and i use on of those ultra delicate looking white plastic strainers for both beverages. Washing my strainers this way has helped me retain the white colour and the strainer doesnt get stained.

How funny. I was just wondering about this the other day. My favourite strainer also happens to be the most difficult one to clean.

I do a combination of several above answers -
clean immediately after use, bang the heck out of it (upside down) against the sink, run water in from behind and scrub stubborn spots with a toothbrush.

I have never owned, nor used, a mesh strainer.

Apparently that has saved me a lot of agony, lol

dishwasher, bottom tier, works well for me! :) i also scrub it well with a plastic bristle scrubby thing that has soap in the handle.

Canned air works well, so would an air compressor, and possibly a vacuum.

I used all the methods above, and it still looks yucky. Guess I'l lgo back to toothbrush and baking soda.

Chiming in late here. I soaked my strainer for 20 minutes in soapy hot water, took the scrub brush and spray to it. Took about 10 minutes, maybe a bit less and it was all clean.

The key is to do it UNDERWATER. After you set off the main part, turn the strainer upsidedown and completely immersed in the water. The use a long-tined scrub brush again and the particles will float away.