You could dry the items and then put away the drainboard ;)

Seriously, there are smaller drainers that fit in the sink. It wouldn't be on the counter. You could also get a sink with an integrated drainboard.

I know what you are talking about. I was considering getting one of the Oxo stainless steel drain board and tray, nice looking, but I can't justify spending $50 for it.

Well, I put my stuff like that away wet...

I was thinking, tho, instead of a dishwasher drawer (definitely overkill), why not just have a cabinet that fits a dish drain thingy in it close to your sink (in that spot where you were considering installing the dishwasher drawer? If there was a plastic tray on the bottom, the dishes could happily drain out of sight!

Lindawink,

I've been thinking about that too (retrofitting a cabinet next to the sink with some kind of waterproof liner that drains into tubing, or some such, that attaches to drain). Does such a thing exist or is it a pipedream?

in europe, they have a dish drying rack in a cabinet above the sink that's bottomless, so you can just put dishes or whatever up there and close the doors.

it's ubiquitous. you see it in virtually every kitchen, from the fanciest to the most low-budget college crash pads. literally, everybody has it.

{{!gwi}}

I put some paper towels on the counter. Then I wipe everything dry and put it away. I only wash good pots and knives by hand. Plastics go in the top rack of the DW.

You get a big deep double sink, and buy a new dish drainer that fits in one of them!

Seriously, I ALWAYS had this big, ugly plastic dish drainer on my tiny counter in the old kitchen. If I KNEW company was coming, I somehow crammed it in under the plumbing under the sink. I was going to have runnels cut into my granite, cuz I thought I'd be doing the same ol, same ol. Thank heavens it was going to be too expensive...

So, with my new ASKO DW that holds so many dishes we run out of dishes before I need to run it, and with the much bigger and deeper sink with a smaller dish drainer in it, I actually get to admire my new granite counter instead of looking at drying dishes.

Having a gorgeous new kitchen is a wonderful incentive to get things cleaned up and put away faster too! Trust me- you'll see! :>)

I used to have one of those little ones that hang from the front and back into the small side of my sink. It worked, but didn't look that great. Lately, with my new Ticor sink and the grate that comes with it, I've just been using the right side of the sink for rinsing and letting clean stuff like pots and pans, knives, and such dry. The grate lifts the things off the bottom to dry. I love it!

The other thing that we do at our house is we never use the drying cycle on the dishwasher. We save energy, and we can put plastic things in there with no problem. We simply wash after dinner, and put them away the next day.

We throw everything into the dishwasher! Knives, tupperware, fine china, stove grates, sponges, etc. I use a normal drying cycle which means plastic comes out with a few drops that are wiped dry later.

No need for a drainboard. No dishes in the sink.

OK, I guess it is late, because I found this really funny:

"...with some kind of waterproof liner that drains into tubing, or some such, that attaches to drain). Does such a thing exist or is it a pipedream?"

Pipedream? hehehehe......

As to the original post, I use the large bowl of my sink to dry big dishes that wont fit in the washer. Only problem is training the boyfriend who assumes that all things in the sink are dirty, and dumps his iced tea on them.

I have a large single sink. Everything but pots, pans and knives goes into the dishwasher. I wash the pots and pans and set them on a dishtowel to dry, then put them away. Sometimes they are left there overnight and I put them away in the morning. No big deal. I have a dish drainer if we do a big load of dishes for some reason but rarely use it. It sits on top of the extra fridge in our garage.

I threw out my dish drainer/drainboard.

Like LindaWink, I put lots of that stuff away damp.

I often lay a towel on the counter to the left of the sink. Then, when I'm done handwashing, I either dry stuff off w/ a towel and put it away (if it's wine glasses, for example), or I put it away as the last thing I do in the kitchen.

It dries out inside the cabinets just as well as it would on the counter.

Sometimes I set stuff on my stove to drip-dry (for cookie sheets, cooling racks, pots & pans); the grates make it function just like a dish drainer. And it makes me put things away right away.

(I love my tilt-out tray for OTHER stuff that used to "ride" in my dish drainer--the scrubbing toothbrush, the bottle brush, the sink stopper)

Rmlanza,

We have already purchased a large single sink (Franke Europro at locale appliance center liquidation) so maybe I'm just having a crisis of confidence about that purchase & how to deal w/drying pots, pans, etc.

Raehelen, I figure you're right too about having a nice kitchen you want to keep that way. I think half my problem is that in our current kitchen (which boasts only one base cabinet other than sink) when the dishwasher is open we can't access that one cabinet where all the cleaned pots & pans would go. Hopefully when that's not an issue in new kitchen it will facilitate actually putting stiff away! :)

Thanks

I read with amusement a recent article in the Chicago Tribune's Home section about the latest dish rack, in stainless steel, from the company Simplehuman. I remember that Simplehuman was the company that introduced a bestselling garbage can to the market that was actually attractive and also functioned really well. The Tribune described the Simplehuman dish rack as "an ultimate dish rack, a dish rack to remember, a dish rack to desire".

According to the Tribune, the Simplehuman dish rack has the following "desirables":

- Fingerprint-proof stainless steel walls that are meant to hide the visual clutter of drying dishes--and look chic too.

- Extra large, two-compartment utensil holder, plus a bamboo knife block.

- Cup holders that flip out on the end of the rack to store cups and then store neatly out of the way when not in use.

- Extendable drip tray (under the cupholders) with a pivoting spout so water flows directly into the sink.

- Flip-down tines to accommodate larger pots and pans.

But, here's the thing. It's selling at Bed Bath & Beyond for $70! The Tribune actually has a web page where you can vote whether you'd pay $70 for a dish rack (www.chicagotribune.com/rack). But if you MUST have a dish rack that looks good, this one may be the only one out there (wasn't there a Kitchens Forum thread about $300 paper towel holders? This seems cheap by comparison...).

I myself wouldn't spend $70 for a dish rack. I just leave things on towels for an hour or two, or till the next morning, and then put them away. I only handwash knives, pots/pans and plastic things I think might melt in the DW.

{{!gwi}}

Honestly, I'm not sure if that Simplehuman rack would be attractive in person. I don't like all the plastic underneath.

This is the one I've wanted for months:

Bistro Dish Rack

Or this if I had a Tuscan or French kitchen, maybe with a towel under it for drips:

Provincial Dish Rack

But what I have is technically just fine, black drainboard like the counters, and can fold to be put out of sight under the sink. It's sturdy, and having the attached drainboard makes set-up and take-down easy. The one I have wasn't nearly this expensive:

Folding Dish Rack

Has anybody tried using a rail system with one of the fold-down dish drainers that hook on the rail?

Thanks

I throw EVERYTHING in the dishwasher - immediately. The only things I wash by hand are the sterling silver, good knives(which I dry and put back as I am washing) and antique china or fragile glass. Plastic lids, all that other stuff - straight to DW - nothing in the sink - and then back in the cupboards or drawers. Dish drainer?

FWIW, I think a drainBOARD is counterpace integrated into the sink so that the drips are contained. A drainRACK is the holder that goes on top of that.

I grew up in a house with both. We put the rack on the board when we did the dishes.

Oh, the Euro style drain in the cabs above works well IF your sink isn't in front of a window. Much more common in American apartments and European houses than in American houses...