Kitchen Tools You Can Use For A Makeshift Dish Drying Rack

A long time ago it was traditional for people to stand at the sink and wash and dry dishes. The advent of the dishwasher changed that for many people in the 1970s, according to Home Stratosphere, and now about 68% of American homes have one. All you have to do is load the dishes and glassware and utensils into the appliance and turn it on. But some people do not have dishwashers and even if they do, prefer to use the old-fashioned way to clean them; after all, there are usually good conversations while you wash and dry. There are many pros and cons to both methods, including the argument that are some items that shouldn't go into the dishwasher, like delicate goblets and plates, and steak knives.

If you don't want to stand there individually drying every washed item, you can use a dish rack. This is a metal or plastic contraption with grooves that holds the dishes up off the counter so they dry evenly. This Old House has a list of the five best drying racks currently on the market.

But what happens if you don't have one? Well, find a substitute! There are many items in your kitchen that work perfectly well as a makeshift drying rack.

When you look around your kitchen you'll be surprised at how many common items can be used for dish drying racks (per America's Test Kitchen). After all, the only real requirement is that they are perforated so let the water drip off and elevate the dishes and glassware off the kitchen counter surface so the air can circulate around them. The only thing these items lack is a place to collect the water that drips off the dishes. Here's an easy solution: just put a towel under the rack.

The first good choice is an ordinary cooling rack. These racks are great for drying delicate goblets since the mesh is usually finer than the dish rack. Just make sure that the cooling rack is clean before you use it. You don't want to dirty your newly cleaned goblets with butter left over from cooling cookies! If your cooling rack doesn't have little feet to elevate it above the counter, you can balance it on some plates at the corners. 

Inside your oven is another easy kitchen tool you can use as a drying rack — the oven rack. This is usually large enough so you can balance it right over the sink, eliminating the need for the towel to soak up drips. Genius!

Since this rack typically has bars that are further apart than cooling racks, it's a good idea to use the oven rack to air dry pots and pans and sturdy dishes. And, again, make sure it's clean! Any grease or drippings on the racks will transfer to your clean dishes. Bob Villa has great advice on getting those racks clean.

Another choice that may not seem as obvious is a colander. You can just pile silverware in the colander in the sink and the pieces will drain and dry. But there is yet another choice; a colander with extending arms that are made to fit on top of the sink. This strange contraption looks like a regular colander but has "arms" that pull out to reach the sides of the sink like this one from IKEA. Depending on what you're drying, this utensil can be a good dish-drying substitute.