You can, I have done several 24" sink bases in kitchen designs. You have to sort through these, the search paramaters aren't specific enough.

Here is a link that might be useful: SInks

Have you thought of a 27" sink base with a 21" cab (drawers)? Our area was small too; the sinks I found for the 24" sink base were basically 'prep' sinks and insufficient for anything besides washing your hands. I added three inches to that sink base and was able to get a regular size kitchen sink with massive depth (22"x17.5"x10)to make up for the loss of space in width. I actually enjoy hand washing the dishes now! The dishwasher still fit into the space and when running, doesn't fill the entire sink up anymore! (The hose goes into the disposer)

Function is FAR more important than symmetry, especially in a small kitchen. If you could afford an 18" DW, that could give you some more room to storage needs.

There are plenty of 18" sinks to go in a 24" base to be found, but they are too small to serve as a everyday sink for a kitchen. That's prep sink sized, even with a DW. 27" sink bases are also extremely hard to find in a budget cabinet line, but if you can do that, you can fit in a 25" drop in sink in one. 36" and 30" are usually the size sink bases you find in a budget line, so you could do a 30" sink base if you couldn't find that 27".

Don't forget with full overlay cabinets you will need a filler strip at the wall for proper clearances. If this is in between two walls rather than only one, use a 3" filler split in half for each side, and that makes it easy to make the numbers come out right as cabinets come in 3" increments.

Galaxy tool supply has a couple of undermount stainless sinks that would work (both rounded corner and zero radius), and Ikea has both a drop-in and their ginormous fireclay farmhouse sink (single domsjo):

Me, I think any of these are plenty big enough for a main sink, as long as you don't need to wash your Golden Retriever in it. :)

Some of the Galaxy sinks:

s405:

{{!gwi}}

s3660:

{{!gwi}}

and there are others, too.

Sorry, should have specified that both those are Ticor, just sold by Galaxy and also available other places. overstock.com has some other brands in similar sizes, too.

Why not just pick up one of the drop-in sinks at Ikea while you are getting the cabinets? I recall they have several, the cheaper-looking drop-in and a more contemporary-looking drop-in. If I remember, I don't even think they offer an under-mount, but maybe through the fabricator if you choose one of their stone tops.

21" wide bowl stainless steel drop in will fit in a 24" cabinet with no problem and there are lots of 21x15 bowl stainless sinks. The actual sizes are larger to include the flange but the flange is on top of the counter and is irrelevant to the cabinet size.

You can search different options at AJ Madison (www.ajmadison.com) ... select sinks at the top, then refine it to drop in sinks and single bowl. You can further refine 8 ways to sunday by size, price, brand, etc, or just look at them all sorted by price low to high, etc.

Here's one I found quickly that fits into a 21" base: http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/S171980ML.html ... there are lots of others. Good luck!

My first thought is an 18" dw is fine for a small rental kitchen.
We rented out part of the lower part of our first house. We went to trouble and expense to make the kitchen better than what was there. Long story short, every single tenant we had religiously bought take out and used the larger fridge we bought for some lonely leftovers, beverages and condiments. The second to last tenant asked us to remove the island to fit his big sectional in and the last guy did not use it either. We wasted well over $1k, when we were new homeowners and cash was tight, in an effort to have a better rental unit.

I'd do a modest size sink and give them more drawer space. You don't want them able to pile up too many dishes anyway....
Ikea has great options for smaller kitchens. Try out their online planner and ask for help when you go there.

thank you everyone!!! it's too late to respond to all right now but I will check back soon. I appreciate all your suggestions.

Sorry, I missed the part where you said you want a drop in. Go to a big box store and get the cheapest one they have that will fit. They do exist, and HD/Lowes will order to the store without charging shipping.

The ikea bredskar will work as a drop in, but you can find something cheaper elsewhere if you look around. The ticor s993 is the overmount version of the D sink in my post above, and it's half the price of the ikea sink:

{{!gwi}}

There are less expensive sinks at Ikea that would fit, but most of them have drainboards and you don't have room for that.

writersblock, thanks for all your efforts. I think this is one of my problems....I checked the ticor s993 you just showed me as well as others that seem as though they should fit, given the dimensions include the flange. But then on galaxy website it says minimum cab would have to be 27. I've seen this over and over and it doesn't make sense to me. Am I missing something? Also went to my local lowes and couldn't believe they didn't have one that would work.

live_wire_oak, this is a 72 inch span between 2 walls (see? REALLY small). I have looked on ikea fan page and am still confused about those clearances against the walls that you mentioned. Would 1 and a half inches be enough clearance to get the doors open? And do you know for sure if the ikea 3 inch fillers can, indeed, be cut in half to use on either end?

One end on the bottom might actually be a dishwasher. The guy who said he'd do the install pointed out that I might need clearance for that too, since a window frame is within opening distance of that door. I guess I'll have to measure and see if one and a half would be enough for that too.

thanks for helping..

>But then on galaxy website it says minimum cab would have to be 27.

But that isn't necessarily so. If you look at the bowl dimensions (that's what counts), it's only 21-1/2 inches. There's no reason at al why that sink wouldn't fit.

There are lots of sinks that actually fit in smaller cabinets. If you are doing ikea it's not a big deal to scoop out a little of the side to make room for a larger bowl, if you have to.

With ikeafans, your best bet is to post your plan there and ask specific questions.