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Where/ how do you dry your dishes?  

post #1 of 21
11/9/08 at 3:25pm
Thread Starter 
Our dish drying rack gives our small kitchen a cluttered feel... I don't want to waste energy using the heat dry function in the dishwasher (esp since it doesn't work that well anyway) or time drying by hand when they can just air dry, but I'm looking to streamline the counter clutter.

I hope to someday get a double sink and put a drying rack in one side. But in the meantime, I'm wondering if anyone has come up with an awesome solution?
post #2 of 21
11/9/08 at 3:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtbuko View Post
an awesome solution?
Um, I trained my hubby to dry them as I wash .

Aside from that cheeky answer, I do have a drying rack. I hate it, because it's nearly always full. But I work and go to school, so there aren't enough hours in the day for everything and I have to make some concessions to stay sane. So DH dries the big things, the cups and silverware usually dry on the rack. If I have time I put them away in the morning; otherwise, before I make dinner. BTW: we don't have dish washer.
post #3 of 21
11/9/08 at 4:20pm
no dishwasher here either, except me
so the rack just clutters up our small kitchen *sigh*
can you delegate at least some of the hand drying to your older child? my kids actually like doing dishes/putting them away
post #4 of 21
11/9/08 at 4:24pm
OP- did you say you have a dishwasher? Are you using it to wash the dishes? Why not just let the dishes air dry in the racks? We don't have a dishwasher, but in our last place we did and I would never run the 'heat dry' function, just open the door and let them dry in place.
post #5 of 21
11/9/08 at 6:26pm
We have a dishwasher and have it set on "air dry". Dishes take a little longer to dry, but they dry right in the dishwasher with no special actions from any of us.

For the dishes we hand wash, I use a barmop towel on the counter. DH will dry the pots and pans, if he is in the room, or I will. One of us puts the other dishes away when we empty the dishwasher and the towel gets used as a rag and then goes in the whites for washing.
post #6 of 21
11/9/08 at 6:35pm
We run the dishwasher after dinner, then open it up to air dry overnight. Since nobody is walking around the kitchen in the night, it doesn't take up any extra space. I refuse to run the electric drying setting on the dishwasher, on principle. We empty the dishwasher sometime the next day and rarely have any wet dishes.

Side note: I have bad eczema on my hands, and my dermatologist has forbidden me to wash dishes. Isn't that sweet??? My DH washes dishes when they need to be washed by hand. We just put a towel on the counter and pile them up to dry overnight.

I wouldn't waste space with a drying rack, either.

--janis
post #7 of 21
11/9/08 at 8:11pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by slsurface View Post
Um, I trained my hubby to dry them as I wash .
That's the awesome solution I was looking for... now if I could just convince my wonderful hubby to put up with a little training in that department

If DH washes or if we have a LOT of dirty dishes then we use the dishwasher, but usually I hand wash since I HATE going fishing in a half full dishwasher for things I need during the day it takes to get to a full load. My current routine is to unload all the wet dishes onto the drying rack. I might try leaving it open overnight next time we run it. Leaving it open in the daytime won't fly since I do a lot of drop in care for toddlers.

Other than that or some magical solution that has not occurred yet, I suppose I just need to do more hand drying (which I doubt will happen) or embrace the drying rack. Maybe I should get a smaller, prettier one...

In the meantime I will see about enlisting DS... he might be ready for another new chore.
post #8 of 21
11/9/08 at 8:14pm
what if you use your dishwasher as the drying rack? the dishes wouldn't dry as fast, maybe, but if *only* clean dishes were in it, then it could be easily managed, I would think.
post #9 of 21
11/9/08 at 8:33pm
I don't have a dishwasher ( its been two years an I tell you, I will be SOOO grateful when i DO one day have one!!! ) we have a (small) double sink... so one side piles up with dirty dishes and the other has the drying rack in it
post #10 of 21
11/9/08 at 9:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrabbit View Post
We run the dishwasher after dinner, then open it up to air dry overnight. Since nobody is walking around the kitchen in the night, it doesn't take up any extra space. I refuse to run the electric drying setting on the dishwasher, on principle. We empty the dishwasher sometime the next day and rarely have any wet dishes.
That's what we do. I don't use the heat dry setting either.

Another thing you can do: get a dish rack that bolts to the wall and install it above the sink or the counter -- that way it isn't taking up counter space. Here's a fancy one and here are some cheaper ones.
post #11 of 21
11/9/08 at 10:08pm
I use something like this http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/prod...1&SKU=11785700 and keep it under the sink when Im not using it.
post #12 of 21
11/10/08 at 5:31am
We have a bad dishwasher so after I wash by hand I put dishes in the dishwasher to dry. I don't turn it on or anything, I just let them dry on their own in the racks the way you would on the counter. I hate the look of a drying rack because we don't have a ton of counter space.
post #13 of 21
11/10/08 at 12:00pm
we have a small kitchen but we do have a double sink-so we wash & rinse in the one sink and have an over-the-sink dish rack and we also have a hanging dry rack over the sink as well (I think my DH got it at IKEA-it looks kind of like this & folds up when we're not using it)

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80022786

And the system also has a paper towel holder & silverware canister as well- so its gets everything off the counter. :
post #14 of 21
11/11/08 at 4:45am
When we had a dishwasher in the apartment, it was noisy and wasted water, so we handwashed the dishes and let them dry in the racks with it open overnight.
I kinda miss it because yes it did declutter the countertops and it had twice as much space (2 racks) as the garden variety counter dishrack.
post #15 of 21
11/11/08 at 10:43am
ok... I havent tried this myself, but I heard a tip to lay out a thin, clean kitchen towel, and lay dinner knives across it, forming kind of a 'rack'. Then let your dishes dry on those.

That way you dont have an extra item, plus it's only out while the dishes are actively drying.
post #16 of 21
11/11/08 at 5:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kirstenb View Post
We have a bad dishwasher so after I wash by hand I put dishes in the dishwasher to dry. I don't turn it on or anything, I just let them dry on their own in the racks the way you would on the counter. I hate the look of a drying rack because we don't have a ton of counter space.
that's exactly what I do.
I'm in an apartment with really hard water. Using the dishwasher actually makes the dishes dirtier.
I hand wash everything in the sink and use the dishwasher as a drying rack. Makes is really easy for dd to get stuff out. I store some of the small plastic containers in there as well. Mostly use the bottom rack to air dry and the top for the small container
post #17 of 21
11/11/08 at 6:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aquarian View Post
ok... I havent tried this myself, but I heard a tip to lay out a thin, clean kitchen towel, and lay dinner knives across it, forming kind of a 'rack'. Then let your dishes dry on those.

That way you dont have an extra item, plus it's only out while the dishes are actively drying.
This is what we do ... we put a clean dishtowel down on the counter beside the sink and everything gets put away as soon as it's dried. We set aside the towel to reuse several times before washing. We don't 'lay' knives across, but we do wash a few pieces of cutlery first, which serves the same purpose.
post #18 of 21
11/11/08 at 9:35pm
We have a regular double sink and you can buy a drying rack that fits perfectly in one side of the sink.

So the drying rack lives in its half of the sink and it doens't feel cluttered because it's sort of below counter height.
post #19 of 21
11/14/08 at 12:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by woodchick View Post
OP- did you say you have a dishwasher? Are you using it to wash the dishes? Why not just let the dishes air dry in the racks? We don't have a dishwasher, but in our last place we did and I would never run the 'heat dry' function, just open the door and let them dry in place.
we also just let the dishes dry in the dishwasher...my only advice is to run the cycle every once in a while, sans dishes, just to suck out any water that's been dripping down but not getting forced out.

we don't even leave the door open. things dry just fine.
post #20 of 21
11/15/08 at 10:41pm
I put them away wet.
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