We have a dish drawer. DH was very skeptical about it, but now that he has had a chance to use it, he likes it. Ours is in the island also, directly to the right of the sink. The dishwasher is directly to the left of the sink, so it is so convenient to unload the dishwasher. I store 16 playsettings in the drawer. 16 lg plates, 16 salad plates and 16 bowls. The drawer below it has all the kids plastic cups, so I can just toss them in the drawer and the top drawer holds our silverware. I didn't have to use any sort of organizer in the drawer. There are simply 2 piles of plates (one large and one small) and four stacks of bowls, 4 each. I've never had an issue with anything toppling over, which I was a bit worried about at first. After lugging those plates into an upper cabinet for years, I wouldn't change a thing!

You might want to run this by the Kitchen forum: its a bit more active.

The general tone there is very pro-drawer, even for plates and glasses.

If I go this route, I'll use the organizers from Ikea that let you pack a stack of plates to the table more easily.

I've been using a drawer for my everyday dishes since we finished our house 3+ years ago. Mine is placed closest to the dining room so it makes for easy table setting. We absolutely love it. My drawer is fairly big and I store dinner plates, salad plates, two kinds of bowls, plus dishtowels all in that drawer. I don't have any type of divider, just a drawer liner at the bottom that prevents the stacks from sliding around and a basket for the towels. Like I said, it works great for my family and the smaller kids could set the table without any help getting things out of cabinets. Perfect.

We keep everyday plates and some glasses and coffee mugs in one of the 36" drawers opposite the sink and dishwasher. It's a great set-up, much better than an overhead cabinet, IMO. I didn't use an organizer, I just put a squishy liner on the bottom. Nothing moves.

In my last house, I kept my everyday dishes in the middle drawer of a 36" pot & pan drawer that was in the peninsula, perpendicular to the dishwasher -- standing at the dishwasher I could just pop everything into the drawer. It was wonderful - no more lifting stacks of heavy stoneware from a wall cabinet. I'll repeat it in the new house, but in the island because there's no peninsula.

I used an organizer but I don't plan to use it this time. I found it easy to scrape knuckles on the posts, and when I removed them, nothing moved so I think I'll leave them out.

Incidentally, the bottom drawer in that stack held paper goods. A church study group met at our house each week. People rotated bringing snacks, and I supplied napkins, cups, drinks, plates, etc. Everything was in that drawer, and I could get it out and put it away in a minute. Very handy!

Arlene

Would you all say that a 36 inch drawer is plenty big for all of your dishes? And is that a stack of 3 drawers? Jamie: I'm amazed that you can store 16 place settings in your drawer - what size are you using? We are now deciding how to do our kitchen set up and our thought was to put the dishes in the island across from the DW as others have done.

My center island has cabinets with pullouts that faces the outside island with two dishwashers. This makes for unloading the dishwashers so simple. When the dishwasher racks and the cab pullouts are extended there are no steps, just a turn of the torso to unload plates, bowls, glasses, utensils and bowls. I have Miele's with the top utensil rack and it's truly effortless to unload.

I measured and my cabinet is actually only 28" across, with inset drawers (which will make for a little less usable space), so I'd think a 36" cabinet would be great. The drawer is very heavy when opened but slides nicely. Here are a couple of pix.

Here is the cabinet to the right of the sink.

This is the dish drawer. I don't keep my coffee mugs here... They are above the coffee pot, bu t the rest of the 16 placesettings are here.

And the silverware is above that.

I won't show you the drawer below it. :) It is a jumble of plastic sippy cups, soccer water bottles, solo cups, etc, but it is a perfect spot for the kids ugly "stuff" and right across from the water dispenser on the fridge.

I LOVE this set of drawers. It works perfectly for my family. Jaymie

Most of my stoneware fit in a 36" drawer. I like to keep things at their point of use, so my mugs were above the coffee pot and some of the bowls were next to the cereal cupboard. Other than that, everything fit pretty well.

Arlene