Don't your drainboards have ribs to keep things from sliding?

I have the same question. There are foldable/storable dishracks. I saw them at BB&B. It might be a big PITA to get out and put away every time.

I have a flat dish mat with ridges instead. I really only use it for stemware, however. Those larger items get dried. A big drawer full of different kinds of tea towels is all that's needed. Always take a clean one for drying. Put another one on the counter or drainboard for a place to set things and hold the drips. As each large piece is rinsed, I dry it. I put them in order so the pot gets done before the lid.

We had a great thread about tea towels a couple of years ago. Some people like microfiber, but most diehards like linen or cotton. Linen dries better the more it gets washed, and even cotton needs to be washed a few times to reach its peak. Linen is expensive, but cotton is fairly painless to buy by the dozen.

Favorites:

Cat_mom's recommendation (I think it was she) is the Ritz Flemish Wonder Towel, which they have at Killian's Hardware.

My old favorite is cotton birdseye, which are hard to find. Julie found them at American Chair Store. These are thinner than the ones I most love, but still excellent. They also have some with colored edgings on Etsy.

A lot of people love Williams-Sonoma's Sonoma Striped towels, though there has been some discussion that, while still good, they used to be better. This is a thicker kind of towel.

Some people swear by flour sack for everything, but they're thin and not as absorbent. I love them for glasses, but they get soaked fast. American Chair store has a large selection of different kinds of flour sack towels.

I have some of each of these, and some linen ones as well. I probably have six dozen tea towels, so there's a never ending supply of clean ones. Don't need a dishrack that way. :)

I don't really care for drying racks. They don't hold much, and I am always afraid things will fall off. I just use a big cotton dish towel. I really dislike a pile of dishes (sometimes I'll even dry them by hand lol), but the look is the same on a towel or a rack. I don't need an appliance garage - I need a dish garage. for my cast iron stuff, I wash, drain briefly, towel dry, and or stick them in the oven for a bit to be sure they are completely dry.

We have the same type of sink as you and it has broken us of the dish rack habit. We lay what needs to dry on it and come back a short while later when it is all dry and put those last pieces away. The dish drainer always seemed to collect small items in it that never got put away. It looked messy most of the time. Since our new layout is more spacious and things have better places to go, we put more stuff away regularly. I don't bother laying down a towel or hand drying. I just lay stuff on the clean drainboard and they all dry nicely. If I have some extra pieces, like pots, I set them on the stove top to dry. 15 minutes later, it can all be put away without fuss.

95% of everything can go in the DW and that only leaves a few things to be hand dried. You do your hand wash things first, load the DW and then dry the handwashed items. You're done.

I just went to one large sink and had to do away with my drain rack. I bought a drying mat at Bed Bath and Beyond and rest the dishes on it. I have been trying to institute..Wash it,Dry it and Put it away...with my family.
The mat folds up and goes under the sink until next time.

Good, but seriously, how about one step further--how about a dish towel? Since most of Htracey's stuff goes in the dishwasher anyway, we're talking about what...30 seconds spent drying and putting away a couple of items? We have a stack of about 20, always ready for anything.

Lest I sound like Susie Homemaker here, my husband does the dishes, and after he leaves the non-DW extras out to dry I'll sometimes even skip the towel and drop the odd utensil or colander in our metal drawers to finish air drying there. It works just fine.

I'm pretty good about drying the dishes.... but at this point with the other household members success would look like consistency when it comes to getting the "extras" washed, let alone dried. I think I need to initiate some change management practices around my household, but I get eye rolls when I try that kind of stuff.

OK, this is going to sound very elementary; fair warning. I too discovered I hated drying dishes sitting in full view covering the gorgeous mirage that is now our real kitchen. Simply, I put them IN the sink, instead of beside it. I don't see them (the sink is deep enough to cover the view) and once they're dry, I just put them away and put the rack back under the sink. It is not a PITA to pull the rack out & put it away each time because I really want to see the counter instead. Wow, that was easy!

We had fully planned on using our dish rack in the new kitchen, it just did not get unpacked at first and then we realized it was not needed. It would take up space and probably get left out for no other reason than laziness.

I am not a huge fan of drying dishes with a towel as I feel that air drying is more hygenic and cleaner. When you hand dry dishes you are spreading anything that could have gotten on the towel on the dish. Let nature run its course and then put the stuff away. Usually, by the time I clean the table and sweep the floor, it can all be put away just fine. I put things away if they are mostly dry and they finish the final 1% of drying inside the cabs or drawers. We really don't have more than a handful of items and sometimes only 1 in any given day. I wash items as I cook when possible, so those don't wait until after dinner.
Storing hand towels and/or a rack is a waste of space. Both need to be kept clean, engendering more work. Simple is better.

htracey - I totally get you on dealing with the other family members. I have been working on housebreaking our 2 boys (and dh, lol) for years. I will not give up and intend to outlast them! My future DIL's will thank me one day and not curse me as I do my MIL..... ;)

Another vote for using a dishtowel. Less than 30 minutes later, everything is dry and ready to be put away. My cast iron pieces I dry immediately, rub with a little olive oil (be sure to remove all excess with a clean paper towel) and put in a 300 degree oven for 15 minutes.

I spread out one of those WS thick cotton dish towels on the countertop and lay out the handwashed items in a single layer. In my house it's usually just a couple of wine glasses, a pot or two, maybe a wooden spoon, and the kids' SIGG water bottles. Come back later & put 'em away. I cannot stand those dishracks!

I never thought I could do without a dishrack, but I am about there. I changed to a very tiny dishrack (about 6 x 12 inches) a few years ago in my still very not-updated kitchen, and I find I probably don't even need that. The key, as noted above, is have really great places where everything goes, plus keep some counter space free. I re-vamped my cookware collection, so even in my ugly kitchen, each pot or pan has its spot. So it's very easy to dry a few handwashables and put away. I do use dishtowels and get a clean one each evening for any such dishes and rotate it to be the hand towel and just get fresh towels as often as I think I need to--it's just as easy to wash a dozen as a half. I think I finally got the picture when I realized that with the old dishracks, you either had an empty dishrack or you had items just sitting there for 12-24 hrs and it saved almost no time in the long run. When you don't have the dishrack, you have space, and in the space you can set a pan or a few glasses for a few minutes, then clear.

I currently have a ceramic cooktop (I like it!) and it's part of the system, too. I move the pots & pans to the sink area to wash, and clean the cooktop nicely, and then it's space too for setting the clean skillet to dry for a few minutes.

Take a few minutes to think about what habits are easiest for you to make or break, what time & motions work best for you, what storage you might need to rearrange to make some of that work better, and you will find a way to not use a dishrack/drainer.

We too gave away the dish rack when we put in the deep huge sink and the granite. The kraus sink came with a metal rack that is perfect for draining and my DH does most of the hand drying. I never thought I would give up a dishrack but here I am loving it!

I'm with breadandsuch - love the drying mats from BB&B. I've even given them as little gifts to friends who see them for the first time at my house and they love them and then they give them to their friends.