Draining dishes in modern kitchen

[CorpusCallosum]

It's kitchen design time 🎉

The pictures of super modern kitchens all have under mount sinks with uselsss grooves cut into the worktop in lieu of a draining board. We have a dishwasher but we also cook a lot and not everything can go in the dishwasher.

Where do people drain their dishes without it looking awful and untidy?? What has worked for the hive mind of MN with your beautiful kitchens?

Another recommendation for the Finnish draining cupboards, found throughout southern Europe!

Also one of our sinks is large enough to take an oven tray. Definitely a good idea!

Well. Guess who's now obsessed with Finnish drying cabinets? They're brilliant!

Have a normal sink with a draining board. Don't be put off by kitchen showrooms trying to sell you a solution that's basically style over practicality. It doesn't look untidy when everything's put away. TK Maxx are great for stylish neat draining racks.

"Drainage grooves" puddling water everywhere, festooned with damp teatowels, plastic trays etc to try and overcome their basic design fault look a lot worse.

I think I'm leaning towards using a microfibre pad (or something) and just drying up. We might even try it now to see how it goes rather than leaving a stack of dishes on the side till the morning - and often having them topple over!

We’ve got a wall mounted IKEA thingy, which keeps the surface clear and makes it easy to wipe drips away rather than drying dishes sitting in them.

If we were super minimalist we could fold it back after use but we aren’t so we don’t.

I have an open plan kitchen + living area so everything has to be PERFECT and minimalist in my kitchen.
I have an elegant and minimalist small black drying rack, and I dry everything with a kitchen towel so the sink area is always clear of drying dishes.
I have 15 (identical, dark grey) microfibre kitchen towels and use one or two per day.
No ugly hand wash or washing up liquid packaging, everything is in nice reusable pump bottles.

Always a pleasure to get in the kitchen in the morning and to see that everything is clean and empty.

You get roll up slotted racks/mat that can be laid over a sink to drain dishes on.

Dunno how to insert link, google roll up drainer, Amazon and b&q do them

@FastFood please would you tell me more about your nice reusable pump bottles ...
Are they see-through or not, please?

We use an Umbra Tub Dish drying rack that stands on the worktop. It has a spout that drains into the sink so can be placed at the side of the sink whilst the sink is in use. I think Joseph Joseph do something similar with a longer spout too.

[quote TurnStone]**@FastFood please would you tell me more about your nice reusable pump bottles ...
Are they see-through or not, please?[/quote]
Yeah they are, they're dark green but you can see through them. But anyway I have put some vintage embossed Dymo labels on them.

The bottles come from Amazon, got a lot of them between the bathroom and the kitchen.

@FastFood thank you x

I chose a classic porcelain sink with large draining board. I need my kitchen to work so I don't really care what's trending this year. My kitchen needs to last 10years so whatever I choose will be off trend at some point anyway.

Choose what works for you and your family.

We have a drainer with a detachable drip tray - a bit like this one.

It lives under the sink when not in use. Although I don't find draining boards by a kitchen sink an eyesore. I had no idea that anyone did TBH. #The grooves in our draining board don't go grungy because I clean it after every use.

A draining cupboard over our sink wouldn't work because we are both tall and would be constantly bashing our heads against it, and the sink is in front of the window.

We really like the under mount look (fashionable or not 😂) we'd have had it for the last kitchen but we couldn't afford a stone worktop so had to go for a lay on top with laminate.

We also like the 'sleek' everything in its place look we just don't live that way IRL 🤦‍♀️

Also our DD is 2. There's a lot of plastic goes through the dishwasher, sooooo many snack pots 😬 drying them is what my mum does would def take longer than the 5 min I devote to emptying the dishwasher each morning!

I'm going to try the microfibre drying mat and see how it goes. Thanks MN!

We have a draining slope instead of grooves.
(picture isn't our kitchen)

I need a Finnish dish draining cupboard. Does anyone know if you can buy them in the UK?

We have a silicone roll up mat that sits on the surface and drains into the sink. Mostly just dry as I go though, it’s only for a few bits

@10YellowTulips here you go
www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/utrusta-dish-drainer-for-wall-cabinet-20204614/

We just use the grooves or put a tea towel down.
It’s just a few saucepans and the colander rather than lots of plates though.

Wow - hopefully I won't offend anyone by saying there seems to be a lot of overthinking going on!

Why don't you just run the dishwasher more regularly?? Often they have fast cycles which take only 30 mins - it'll be far more time saving, tidy and energy efficient than doing lots of stuff in the sink!

When I'm in a cooking spree (I go through periods of batch cooking and freezing) the dishwasher will be running nearly constantly!

That would be a perfect solution
@notrub , but in the US for some reason the new dishwashers take over an hour for a quick wash and over 3 hours for a regular wash
I put a tea towel down on the worktop and the pots, etc are almost dry by the time I'm finished washing them...I then take the damp tea towel and touch up the smudges left around on the cabinets, fridge, etc.
I miss those older model quicker dishwashers!

Doesn't all this create extra washing with those soggy tea towels?

Serious form over function. Kitchen design is aimed at women so impracticality and extra work seems acceptable. Sod that.

@Sweetpea1532

That would be a perfect solution *@notrub* , but in the US for some reason the new dishwashers take over an hour for a quick wash and over 3 hours for a regular wash I put a tea towel down on the worktop and the pots, etc are almost dry by the time I'm finished washing them...I then take the damp tea towel and touch up the smudges left around on the cabinets, fridge, etc. I miss those older model quicker dishwashers!

Haha - progress!

In a decade or two when there is ONLY the economy program and it takes at least 8h, and only if the wind is blowing in the right direction and we'll all be reminiscing about the time when you could wash dishes in 3h