Two Tiered or Double Decker Dish Drainers

Even if you have the nicest of dishwashers, sometimes you need to hand wash dishes. If you don't have a dishwasher, then you already know the necessity of a good dish drainer.

I love to putter in the kitchen, cooking up meals to feed my family. As strange as it may seem, I consider a good dish drainer equally important to an efficient kitchen as a good whisk or a quality spatula are.

What makes a good dish drainer? I look for these characteristics:

• sturdy construction to hold plenty of dishes without toppling
• quality materials that won't rust, crack, or warp
• attractive appearance
• large enough to hold a large quantity of dishes, including pots and pans

But that last characteristic is the hard one. When I get on a roll with washing dishes, I really don't like to stop to dry them and put them away because my dish drainer is too full to hold more. But a dish drainer large enough to hold a lot of dishes takes up too much of my precious counter space.

What's the solution? It's a two-tiered, space saving dish drainer.

Compared to the small amount of counter space it uses, my double decker, chrome plated dish drainer (pictured above) holds plenty of dishes and glasses.

This dish drainer is almost identical to mine. It's sturdy, large enough to hold all the dishes from an entire meal (cooked from scratch), and saves counter space. On the right is a basket for cutlery, forks, and spoons. On the left are special holders for six glasses or mugs. The top has slots for plates, and the bottom is open for whatever you want to put there.

I do find that over time, the bolts loosen somewhat and the entire structure tends to wobble. But the fix is easy. Simply hand tighten the four nuts at the top and the bottom to keep the dish drainer rigid and ready for a load of clean plates and mugs. I do this every couple of months, and I wash a lot of dishes!

As unsightly as a dish drainer can be, soggy dish towels piled with a teetering tower of clean dishes is no alternative. That method is messy and prone to result in chipped dishes or a shower of falling pans.

If you don't like the looks of a dish drainer on your counter, put it inside a cabinet or in the laundry room when the dishes are put away. That is a great incentive for quickly getting the dishes washed, dried, and put away.

I find that these double decker dish drainers in chrome plate are not as unattractive as plastic ones or the plastic coated wire, so I don't mind keeping it on my counter top at all times.And surely anyone would agree that a dish drainer laden with clean dishes is much more pleasant to look at than a sink and counter full of dirty plates and pots.

This dish drainer is similar to mine. However, it is a few inches smaller and does not have the attachments on the sides for silverware and for glasses.