Just curious...

Do you have a dish drainer or do you just use a dish towel beside your sink to lay dishes on when you wash dishes?

Do you always, almost always, or never put up your dishes right after or soon after you wash them?

My dishes air dry in a drainer, or in the dish washer. Never use a towel, they harbor too many germs.

We have a dishwasher, so any dishes needing hand-washing get put on a clean towel. Takes less space than a drainer that doesn't get used much.
Before the dishwasher, I used a drainer all the time.

I have a double sink so one side for washing and one side for drying - or rather storing unill needed, I hate putting away dishes.

That is until the BF moved in, now it is a suspended drainer that I hate. But whatever, on baking days out it comes b/c the darn thing is no way big enough for that payload!

I also have a double sink and keep a dish drainer in it all the time. I don't wash many dishes by hand, mostly just my cake pans and sometimes my other cake decorating stuff, but when I do I let them air dry in the drainer. I also use it when I rinse out glass, plastic, cans for recycling.

I use a big towel. I can fit way more dishes on it than a drainer.

When I put them away depends on what else I am doing. Sometimes they sit there for an hour, sometimes for days

Towel..As far as germs go, I've seen some pretty cruddy dish drainers in my time, so that's a toss up

Both! I have a drainer next to the sink which is usually enough for anything that doesn't go in the dishwasher, but when I get baking it fills up quickly and the overflow goes on a towel next to the rack. I normally leave them out to air dry unless I need to re-use something right away, or fill up the towel too. I really hate drying dishes--blame it on all those years doing it as a kid...

I always put them on a big clean towel. Dish drainers take way too much space in my small kitchen, and I hated taking a toothbrush to the inside of the racks to keep them clean.

I don't have a dishwasher, so everything gets hand washed.

I've had a drainer, but it doesn't drain the water off back into my sink. I'm pretty sure the cabinets don't sit level. And I've always ended up with a kitchen towel beside it for the over flow, so then it seems to take up twice as much room. And I'm really bad about letting the dishes sit there and sit there and then finally putting them up when I need to wash more.

Last night I put the drainer off to the side and laid out a towel. I was cleaning out my bottom cabinets and needed more space since I was washing all the pots and pans.

I think for now I'll put the drainer under the sink and see if I miss it in a week or two. I did end up going to bed with dishes on the towel still drying but that was because I was tired from cleaning all the bottom cabinets and rearranging a few things.

I'm hoping though, now that I can see more space there that I'll do better at putting the dishes up. Amazing how you start to look at the drainer as part of the kitchen and you forget there is really is counter space under and around it.

I've also been bad about leaving things behind the drainer against the wall that I didn't make a home for or never put back in it's home. Hoping this will help me to put those things away right away, rather than leaving it there.

I have a dishwasher - but anytning that gets handwashed gets dried straight away with a clean teatowell.

I go through about 3 teatowells and handtowells on any given day - and thats just for our personnel cooking - not cake related.

The stainless steel dishdrainer goes into the dishwasher once/twice a week -that way i know every inch of it gets a hot blast and then a hot steam dry.

All teatowells and handtowells get ironed with a shot of steam - thats what opens the weave and after flapping around on the clothes line in the sun - then ironed - my towells are clean.

I aslo use the Chux cloths to wsh my dishes with - every night it gets thrown in the bin - and a clean one comes out for the next day... sometimes i go through 2 a day or more.

http://www.google.com.au/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1021&bih=618&q=chux+cloths&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=


...never a sponge.
IMO i think all sponges should be banned -
Dirty germ harbourinng things they are - even putting them on the top shelf of a dishwasher will never get them clean - blahhhh...

Just my 2 cents worth
make that 5 cents worth.

Bluehue

I have a huge single bowl sink. You could wash your car in it.

Next to the sink I have a dish drainer on a drainage mat on a wire sink liner. With this contraption, water from the washed dishes flows directly back into the sink. Before I realized the mat was too low and not tipped toward the sink enough, I thought I had a plumbing leak!

I do as Bluehue and pop the dishdrainer in the dishwasher every week.

Like Bluehue again, I go through a million towels a day. I have flour sacks for drying dishes, bar towels for various jobs, and hand towels for, well, hands. I also have a microfiber dish rag. I change out all the towels at least twice a day. The rag even more often. All my kitchen linen take up a tall cabinet and a drawer. I launder and steam every couple of days.

Oh - UNLIKE Bluehue, I do use a sponge. It gets replaced every few days. If I find them on sale, I'm like a crack addict at a coca farmer's convention.

I use a clean dish towel to set all my cake decorating bags and such to air dry.All other stuff goes in my dishwasher.

I use both. For everyday stuff I use the dishdrainer, but when I am baking...I'm not taking the time to stop every five minutes to put stuff away, so I lay out a big towel and put all the dishes out on it and the dishdrainer. Once all those pans and bowls are washed...the towel goes into the laundry.