I, too, have a large sink; mine is a triple bowl. My friend cannot understand why I would want to add another "beast" as she calls it to the redesign I'm working on. It is for this very reason. I purchased a stainless dishrack(or perhaps its chrome) anyway, it sits in the sink to the far right. When it's not full you barely notice it. When it is full I still have my counter space.

I have a 36" sink so every dirty dish, pot, platter, spoon, and glass goes into the dishpan in one side of the sink, and then into the DW. The few times I wash something, I drain/dry it on a dishtowel placed on the counter. I don't even have a dish drainer any more and I don't miss it. When it was on the counter it was in the way and it's almost impossible to store.

Enjoy your new kitchen.

Great post johnliu. I have been wondering the same thing but was embarrassed to admit that I myself am a dumper.

doonie - I join your pledge in becoming dump free. Dumpers Anonymous anyone?

I have tried all kinds of dish drains as well. The neatest one was a wire one from the 20's. I use tea towels now too. You could always make a place under the sink to store the dish rack when not in use. Most of us store useless or little used items under there anyway. I use a plastic dish pan in my sink and keep thinking I need to clean out from under my sink so I can store that there when not using. Bottom line, I use the dishwasher unless it is a hand wash item.

I stopped using a dishrack the day I got a dishwasher -- my old house had a small kitchen and I wanted the counterspace. Now I have LOTS of counterspace but I'm firmly in the dish towel camp for good. Or a sheet of Bounty, swipe down the counters with it when the pots are dry. With the exception of good knives, everything that fits gets crammed into the dishwasher. That leaves cookie sheets and stock pots for handwashing because they don't fit in this blasted Bosch with the undersized, weirdly laid-out interior.

Hi Johnliu,

Yes, the ugly dish rack like Alice's

Perhaps the dish rack is evidence of kitchen use.
I wonder that we never see them too,
There are some pretty ones out there.
~boxer

Beautiful Ms. Bullock

From MasionKristine

Bamboo

Fun Electric Green

I went to tea towels after we remodeled the kitchen, and so prefer it. You can pile a lot on a tea towel, and you're more likely to go ahead and dry the things and put them away than if they're sitting in a dishrack.

My counters look so much nicer without the dishrack sitting there.

I got rid of my dishrack when I remodeled my kitchen and went to tea towels. Then I found dish drying mats from Bed Bath and Beyond that are thicker than a tea towel so they absorb the water better and can be thrown in the washing machine. I bought two and keep them folded under my sink and take them out when I hand wash dishes. Not having the dishrack makes me hand dry the dishes and put them away instead of leaving them in the dishrack to air dry. I also put more things in my new dishwasher than I did in my old one. My granite counter is just too pretty to have a dishrack with drying dishes sitting on it all the time!

I always had one up until 3 weeks ago when we moved into our new home. I do wish I had one but now I realize I don't procrastinate doing the dishes. I used to just rinse them and put them on the rack until the rack was full and then load them in the dishwasher.
Now I rinse and put them in the dishwasher as soon as I am done with them.
No more procrastination for me :)

Everything goes in the dishwasher. there's only 2 of us, and I can fit the pans in as well.
When we cook for more, I just run the thing twice! - That's why I bought an efficient dishwasher (studies have shown that its greener to use a modern efficient machine, than to hand-wash - provided you don't pre-rinse).

On the occasions when I just can't fit stuff in, then I wash and dry it. As a kid, without a dishwasher, we always dried stuff up and put it away.

We used to have a dishrack and had the same problem as you. We installed a new stainless steel double bowl sink, and found a sink basket accessory that fit neatly inside. We tried it, and now the dishes sit mostly out of sight in the second bowl. Although we may have "lost" one of our sink bowls, it freed up a nice chunk of countertop space. If I need the second sink bowl, I can easily pull out the basket, even with dishes inside.

For years I lived in small 40's era apartment so the sink had an integrated drainboard - I hated the lost counter space but it was great to not need a dish rack. New 80's era condo has a single bowl sink and no drainboard - I have been trying the t-towel but it really isn't working for me. Big thing for me is I have a small kitchen and I hate doing dishes so before you know it you are cooking with a few dishes that haven't been put away out and the t-towel is looking not so good - and it still takes up counter space. I got this dish rack on the weekend:

{{!gwi}}

When I get a sink with 2 bowls it will be more useful but for now at least I can suspend it over the sink and create some counter space when I'm baking. Of course I could just dry the hand washed dishes and put them right away but that isn't terribly likely.

I don't hand wash any dishes so I don't own a dishrack. I even wash my china in the dishwasher. I wouldn't buy it if it couldn't have the dishwasher. the only thing I hand wash (and use only twice a year) is crystal with a platinum band on it.

Double-bowl sink with grids.

With our double-bowl sink we don't really need a dishrack...wash on one side, rinse & stack on the other. The sink grid works great as a "rack" to hold the plates up. We do use the DW for 90% of our dishes. I suppose if we didn't have a DW even a double-bowl we might not have room for all the dishes, but then ditto for a dishrack...

However, growing up, we were a family of six kids + two adults and did not have an "automatic" DW...but we still used the second sink for rinsing/stacking. We never had a dishrack (I suspect my mom had the same feeling about the dishrack!) We had to dry dishes as we went...which is what my mom wanted anyway!

I'm enjoying this post-also part of the reason why I've been looking at farmhouse sinks with integrated drainboards and debating single vs double bowl sinks!

boxerpups-which movie is that photo of Sandra Bullock from? I'd like to see more of that kitchen-thanks!

I use the smaller side of my sink (with sink grid) to dry larger items and a towel on the counter for smaller items. It works for us and the towels we use are a dark/forest green on our Peacock Green granite so it sort of blends in also. I don't like stuff sitting out so I tend to put them away when they're dry, or finish drying by hand and put away after they've had the chance to drip.

I, too, hate seeing dishracks . . . so in my last kitchen, I dedicated two navy blue bath towels for draining hand washed dishes. They're almost the color of the counter so they pretty much blend in. I fold one in half, and it absorbs a huge amount of water. I find that after they air-dry for 30 or so minutes, all the dishes need is a quick swipe and I can put them away. I mounted two towel bars on the back of the pantry door, and the wet towel hangs there till I need it again. Wet dishcloths and tea towels dry there, too . . . as soon as DH gets around to it, there will be a third towel bar there, and additional ones on the back of the laundry room door.

I'm also a dumper! We had a stainless dishrack from Williams Sonoma. Fancy pantsy, but it was cumbersome and didn't hold as many things as you'd expect. Things tended to fall off of it. Annoying. We've finally relegated it to an attic box, and are firmly in the dishtowel camp. I wish I could be one of those people who immediately puts things away. I like this Whitehaus farm sink with drainboard, but wonder if the drainboard would (a) be too small and (b) get too gross.

Here is a link that might be useful: Whitehaus farm sink with drainboard

This is a great invention from Bed, Bath, and Beyond called the Original Dish Drying Mat. I have been using for a couple of months. It really soaks up the water and barely gets wet, dries quickly and doesn't stink. You can roll it up and put it away when it's dry. It costs $5 so I should probably buy a spare.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Original Dish Drying Mat

I have the dish drying mat from BB&B....love it. When were done, we just tuck it in one of the open cubbies near by. We can also use our sink grid to dry things too.

I've been meaning to try the Williams Sonoma mat....Bed Bath and Beyond doesn't seem to carry it in Canada and there are only a few far away stores.
I still have the dish rack. WIth 2 small boys, there is just still a lot of plastic that needs to get washed frequently and I don't have time to dry it and put it away. Kudos to those of you who do but honestly, This week-end alone I think I 'cleaned' the kitchen at least 8 times and it was still never clean.
I hate the way it looks and hoe in a couple years when the boys are bigger, most things will go in teh DW and those that can't will be washed, dried and put away .

I once stayed in an apartment in Israel that had a cabinet over the sink with a wire grid bottom. You just washed the dishes and let them dry out of sight, dripping into the sink under. It was pretty commen there, but I've never seen it done here.

Day-to-day hand wash items (coffee maker carafe, travel mugs) dry on a tea towel on the cooktop. Almost everything else goes in the dishwasher.

I do keep the drain board (brown) and dishrack (white vinyl) under the sink for the rare occasions that I handwash a bunch of items. Sometimes I put the dishrack directly in the sink.

I live with two cats, and they couldn't care less about an unsightly dishrack.

I've been toying with the idea of trying this one, the collapsible dish drainer. I use a wire rack with a towel underneath, which works okay although it isn't lovely. I miss having the old farmhouse sink with the built-in drainboard. I had one in an old apartment and loved it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brylane collapsible dish rack

I am primarily a lurker - this post drew me to comment. My husband is a chef - this is HIS kitchen & he demands a dishrack. I bought a SS rack that I could stand having out all the time. We typically use the dishwasher, the dishrack and tea towels primarily for crystal all the time, especially when we entertain.

used to have the rack in the second bowl of the sink which is how I realised that a single sink is what i actually use. Don't know what I will do but thought i would tell you of this idea I have seen in Israel.

In the cabinet above the sink, they have a drying rack made of wooden dowels.This is the "floor" of the cabinet.o The dishes go in there to drain and actually just live there.
i thought is was a brilliant idea
Found this picture using steel which is even better

Dishwasher for most everything, towel to put hand washed things on (mostly pots and pans) while washing and someone else is drying and putting away. I never leave dirty or clean things out on my counters for very long. Dish racks look like germ collectors to me, I'd be running that thing through the dishwasher every day, too!

Muspic,

I designed one of those into my kitchen! It's not complete yet so no pictures but I gotta tell you I'm very, very excited about it.

M.

I never knew that people with "fancy" kitchens didn't use dish racks until I realized that they never appeared in any of the finished kitchen photos. I was reluctant to use one on my new granite but then, while in Costco, I discovered a FABULOUS (to me, anyway) red dish rack from Kitchen Aid. Since I have a lot of red accents in my kitchen I knew it was the one for me. I wash lots of pots and pans that can't go in the dishwasher (including cast iron) so a dish rack is a necessity.

My dishrack is my friend. It allows me to wash breakfast dishes and transport them to a bathroom so the workers don't have to work around them. We have done the tea towel for many years but I'm not sure what we will do in our new kitchen. I tried and tried to incorporate one of the in-cabinet drainers but just didn't have enough upper cabinet space to do that. Great question!

I love this thread- what a great question! Right now the vast majority of our things go in the dishwasher. When something doesn't we use dishtowels, but I have to confess, I'm not a fan. Things slide all over and it's just not as solid as a dishrack. We have an older circular dishrack from Urban Outfitters in our summer place, I love it. It's very modern looking, but it holds many dishes, which from a family of dumpers is a good thing!

Helped by all the responses here, I've thought about why I use a dishrack so much.

I think the main reason is that I am an obsessive ''clean as you go'' type. The meat marinates in a prep bowl, then gets placed in the saute pan, in between sizzling and stirring I'll step to the sink and quickly wash and rinse the bowl - and dump it in the rack, because there's no time to dry and put away.

Of course, one can dump on a dishtowel, but then you need counter space, and I have very little. That will get a little better after the re-do, and I'll have separate prep and wash sinks, so I ''should'' be able to skip the dishrack. Or, what I really should do, is get in the habit of dumping dirty prep stuff in the dishwasher. After too many years of living without a dishwasher, its hard to get out of the handwashing habit, even though I know a dishwasher saves energy and water and cleans better than I do by hand.

My vow: one way or another, there will be no dishrack in my next kitchen. I will, will, will break free from the tyranny of the rusty, moldy, cracking, spotted dishrack - and its evil henchman, the slimy drain tray.

Since it's just myself, I only use my dishwasher for holidays and dinners w/family and friends. On a daily basis, I handwash dishes either in the morning or evening, and put them to dry in the dishwasher, which is right next to the sink. In other words, I use it as a 'dishdryer'. LOL

I'm all about the runnels - but if you are not remodeling our countertops another great alternative is the "Sham-Wow". My MIL uses those instead of tea towels and the absorb way more water without letting anything drip off the counter.

Johnliu, I'm a devout clean as you go cook as well. I have simply resigned myself to the fact that I'll never be able to give up my dishrack or the bowl of soapy water that is always in my sink. Sigh!

We are empty nesters and don't use the dishwasher very much unless we have company. I use a small hard plastic drainboard from Container Store or BBB. It is about 12" x 14" and tilted so the water drains in to the sink. It's easy to dry off and fits nicely in to the cabinet with the vertical dividers next to the sink. The sink grid also comes in handy as a drainboard in a pinch.

I've always been a dishrack user but dislike the look so I am designing my kitchen reno to have 2 dishwashers. 1 for washing dishes, and 1 as a big dishrack.
I got the idea from my aunt who uses her DW as a drying rack (it's just her and her husband so there's never a full load to run the DW).

Can't wait.
In the mean time, I have a gorgeous stainless steel Simplehuman rack. Love it!

Amanda

I also like to clean (hand wash) as I go. And I have many items that I won't put in the DW, such as cast iron (gotta keep these cured), SS pots and pans (I scrub these with Brillo), crystal, wooden bowls, knives with wooden handles, stemware, etc. SOOOOO I designed my kitchen so that I could have a hidden SS drying rack.

My double bowl sink has a full sized bowl on one side and a 3/4 bowl on the other side that fits my 12" wide drainer. I love this arrangement so much more than when I had a drainer and mat on the counter (ewwww).

We have a small house with a small kitchen: Very little counter space and 22 1/2" wide sink. With counter space at a premium, we installed Ikea Grundtal wire rail shelves above the sink and adjacent counters. Most items are wash, dried, and immediately put away. But for those things you may wish to air dry or are not particularly conducive to drying with a towel like cut boards, it gets them out of the way. It is also grear for temporarily stashing food prep. To a certain extent it merely shifts the clutter, but the shelves definitely make the kitchen more functional.

When I remodeled my kitchen, I got a Franke 'Oceania' sink. It has a ledge around the middle and I also got the drain rack that sits on the ledge. This is great for washing and drying the dishes or whatever else you need to clean. The great thing, is that it sits above the bottom of the sink, so you can shove dirty stuff underneath and still use your sink.

Thanks everyone for weighing in on this on. I know I am not totally solving my issues with my kitchen redo, but am hopeful some of the benefits (like sink grid) will help me create "new" habits.

I DW whatever I can, but my good knives NEVER go in DW -- unfortunately they languish to the left of the current 50/50 sink until needed immediately or until I have some handwashing to do -- several times a week. Then everything goes on the "tea towel". Will probably continue with the tea towel, but may transition to sink grid. Would love to have a Franke with rack on "lip", but can't work into budget -- am planning on Ticor 60/40. My boys are getting fairly old now (9 & 10) so not so many plastic things any more, but the Zip Lock container "lips" hold so much water that those go on the tea towel from the dishwasher, plus some other plastic cups. After several hours I can put up, then start the cycle all over again . . . I love the Israeli drip-dry drains, but just won't work in my kitchen.

I'm excited to hear about the BBB drying pad & the Williams Sonoma drain -- with a cutting board storage cabinet, perhaps I can have the WS drain for major hand washing & use the BBB for the tea towel -- I'm buying the next time I'm in BBB. Thanks everyone for sharing.

When we remodeled, we wanted to banish the dishrack. My husband is also the chef, hostapasta, and he insisted on no dishrack and 2 DWs. I was worried about losing a cabinet, it's too much money, do we really need 2 DW? I am so, so, so glad he did insist. We have 2 DW, 1 on each side of the sink. Most of the time, we use one for dirty, one for clean. We are mostly clean as you go. Handwash items go into the clean. Everything else goes in the dirty DW. Then, when we have company, clean up is fast-we have 2 DW! It is one of the best things we did.

la jan - you have just made the lightbulb go on in my head! I could never see a reason for two DW, but with how you explained using them, that would be an ideal solution to a 30 year "area of tension" between DH and I.

Of course when I mentioned the idea, he thougth I was joking. . .

Cathy

Love seeing all the pictures and reading everyone's ideas. I'm eagerly awaiting my 36" 70/30 double bowl sink. Although reality is some form of drainage device will still be used as we wash and cook as we go, especially for those big collanders/pots/pans. I'm going to incorporate runnels into the countertop to help this instead of the clear plastic drainboard I use now. And great idea of using shamois as a better absorbing (and better gripping) device too. I'm set in my ways and know something will be on the counter, but not going to worry about hiding a drain board etc. to keep the new kitchen neater looking.

Another here who uses the BB&B dish mat, I even gave them away as stocking stuffers! I have 2. I normally wash my dishes by hand and put them in the d/w to dry (out of the way) but knives and larger pots and pans get the dish mat. It soaks right up and dries out quickly, easy to fold and stuff under the counter when company comes.

My daughter has lived in at least 3 different apartments in Italy and she has always had what muspic shows. It is so practical, and I'm surprised we never see that here.

Our dishrack is the dishwasher itself. It's huge, out of sight and cleans itself. We don't really have a problem with dirty vs clean, as the dirty dishes get loaded en masse (as they were sitting in the sink, haha) right before the dishwasher runs.

Great idea, huango and la jan, to have 2 dishwashers, and dedicate one for drying the hand-washed dishes! We are in the midst of planning our kitchen, so I could have a full-sized dishwasher for dirty dishes, and a slim-sized dishwasher to use for the other. In addition to washing many items by hand, I also wash all plastic food sacks (cereal bags, pasta sacks, etc.) because it can all be recycled in our town. These then need to drip-dry, which one can't do with a dish drainer in the sink or tea towels on the counter. La jan or huango, do the hand-washed dishes placed in the extra dishwasher dry out okay even with the dishwasher door closed, or must you leave it ajar?

bungalow-lady: I don't have that 2DWs layout yet, but my Aunt does leave hers open during the day when she's out at work. She's located in Southern CA, so w/ the warm weather, everything dries quickly.
I'm in New England, so I'm thinking I'll leave it open overnight/bedtime. I'm also thinking of getting the dish-drawers, so that I can just pull out the drawer, instead of the 2 steps of having to open up the DW door and pull out the DW tray to put wet stuff in.

Good luck.
Amanda