Q: My boyfriend's apartment doesn't have a dishwasher, and with all of his roomates living there, and everyone cooking each night, dishes are a real problem. There is limited counter space as well, so we are trying to find a multi-level dish rack — hopefully something with at least two full levels if not more.
Short of building shelves for multiple standard dish racks I haven't seen anything. There is no cabinet above the space next to the sink so height isn't an issue, but the space isn't much bigger surface wise then a standard dish rack from Target.
Sent by Laura
Ok, I thought I was so clever for thinking of this but have since learned that many people do this:
create a multi story dishrack!
put an ordinary dishrack next to a wall. Then use the ikea grundtal wall drainer to create a second story by screwing it directly into the wall. Then repeat for as many stories as you require.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20022765
Everything drains into the ordinary dishrack. It has doubled the capacity of my dish rack!
view juice's profile
You could always dry your dishes with a towel. I know that doesn't answer your question, but that's what we do when we've filled our dishrack and still have dishes to dry.
view Emily G.'s profile
To add a little to what juice said.
The Ikea GRUNDTAL system is truly amazing. Basically it is a bunch of different racks (spice racks, dish drainer, etc) all designed to hang off the same bar which is mounted on the wall or under cabinets.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/series/08006/
When I lived in a tiny apartment I got a rail long enough to span the whole length of my miniscule kitchen tucked up under the cabinets. The big dish drainer (that folds flat against the wall) was hung over the sink, just high enough to still work under it when in use. The rack can hold a TON of dishes and much more weight than I thought it could handle.
I also had the spice rack and paper towel holder.
That system really made the best use of my tiny space!
view ScottyT's profile
I had the Grundtal dish rack in my tiny Hollywood apartment right above my sink. It was so great I put in another right next to it. I wish I had room for this at the apartment I am at now. If Ikea doesn't have this exact rack anymore, I know I saw others like it there but just looked a little different.
view shannona's profile
i purposely bought the tiniest dishrack for the plates since everything else gets set out to dry on towels. if it weren't for the plates, i wouldn't even have a dishrack.
view kdkaboom's profile
I love the "Italian dishwasher", which is essentially a wall-mounted rack inside a cabinet over the sink! (the bottom is open so the water drips away) It hides everything away nicely.
view keltrue's profile
We end up placing a lot of things on our stovetop (next to our sink) to dry because we're plagued with the same situation and have no room between our low-hanging cabinets and the counter to hang an IKEA system...
view lotusmoss's profile
I got a dish rack that fits into the sink. It takes up about half the sink so I lose some space, but it's worked really well for me (having half the sink space makes me do dishes more often!). It wouldn't work if your sink was small and narrow, but mine is a pretty standard smaller sized rental sink and it fits fine.
view shlowzi's profile