dish rackIf our wet dishes could talk, they would agree with us that the counter-top dish drainer can be a marvelous thing. After all, it allows us to use our dishes to construct miniature kitchen forts. And the dish drainer can sometimes be its own little organized square of disorganized stuff. To top it all off, this wondrous invention enables our kitchen items to dry while we fold laundry, mow the lawn, eat dark chocolate, and watch “The Office.” If you’re looking to enhance your version of organizational bliss in the kitchen, following are three things to consider when using your dish drainer.

1. Remove the dry items in your dish drainer before adorning it with a fresh set of wet pots and pans. How often do you purposely spritz yourself with water after fulling drying off following your shower? Same goes for dishes. While the concept of putting away dry dishes first may seem obvious, in practice, this concept sometimes gets overlooked. By putting dry items away first, we create more space in which our wet kitchen items can dry.

2. The dish drainer is not a cabinet. If dishes could talk, they very likely would tell us that they’d rather be stored with their friends. As convenient as it may be to store your cereal bowl in the dish drainer day in and day out, resist the urge to do so. The extra two seconds it takes to put your dry bowl in a cabinet will go a long way in making your kitchen look tidy. When the bowl is dry, away it goes!

3. Precarious balancing acts need not apply. The dish drainer is, indeed, a useful thing. But it’s not auditioning for the three-ring circus that’s coming to town. When drying plates, flatware, kitchen knives, pots, pans, and the like in your dish drainer, ensure that grandma’s favorite platter is not precariously balanced on your mixing bowl.

Have any tips for maximizing the use of your counter-top dish drainer and keeping your dishes happy? Share ’em with us and they could appear in a future blog post.

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