Most of my old photos need the same set of things, to a greater or lesser degree: straighten, crop, adjust contrast, remove dust and crud, try to disguise physical damage, and sharpen. They're mostly black and white, so color adjustment usually isn't required. Really, all I want to do is to bring out as much detail in the photo as I can. Simple enough… but I find myself flailing around, so overwhelmed by the number of tools, and filters, and scripts that I never get around to saving the file and calling it done.

Is there a basic approach to basic photo restoration? If I'm going to straighten, crop, adjust contrast, remove dust and crud, and sharpen, does it matter what order I do them in?

Many thanks!

I think you have the order pretty right. Maybe put contrast before sharpen. I found G'MIC > Colors > Basic adjustments
is useful for finishing-off photos. Remember, you are only repairing with Gimp rather than creating from a blank canvas so forget the many filters and scripts.

I recently removed watermarks from a certain company in England that mass watermarks images and then tries to sell them back to the original owners. It was just time consuming because it probably can't be automated. I mainly used the clone tool for this. If you have serious problems with your photos this is the tool to use.