This Two-Tier Dish Rack Doubled the Drying Space in My Tiny Kitchen

A controversial opinion: I don’t mind hand-washing dishes. I wouldn’t say that I have a favorite chore (because that’s weird) but washing dishes is the task I’ll always volunteer to do. I find that it’s a kind of relaxing and a meditative activity. And, this is coming from someone who was lucky enough to have a dishwasher in a Brooklyn apartment a few years ago — honestly, it never dried the dishes properly and just created more work. The only things I don’t like about doing dishes is trying to play Tetris with the dishes and the dish-drying rack and being able to see dishes clutter up my counter space.

For the past few years, my boyfriend and I have been using a plastic $26 dish rack from Amazon, which was fine. It served its purpose, but it did take up quite a bit of room on our counter and wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing kitchen organizer. I figured there had to be a better product out there. When I got the opportunity to put the Yamazaki Two-Tier Dish Rack to the test for Best List, I jumped at it.

Overall, I’ve had good experience with Yamazaki products. I’ve tested out their makeup organizer and their odds-and-ends organizer and was impressed with both. At AT, we’re big fans of them, so I knew that I was likely receiving a well-made product, especially because this dish rack has a steel frame.

I was the most thrilled about the two-tier design, though. As I was putting the dish rack on my counter, I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t be able to sneak freshly washed plates underneath my low-hanging kitchen cabinets into the dish rack, but that wasn’t an issue at all. Overall, I can fit a day’s worth of dishes (even when my boyfriend and I cook) on this dish rack. The only thing it can’t really accommodate is huge pots and pans, but honestly, those are usually regulated to drying on the drying mat next to the dish rack, anyways, regardless of which dish rack I’m using.

It’s freed up so much counter space for us. We can actually use our kitchen counter as a prep station now, instead of having a huge dish rack take up a ton of much-needed real estate. I’d definitely recommend this rack for people who have small spaces. If you live with more than one person, I will honestly say that this dish rack might not fit all of your dishes, though.

The great thing about this two-tier structure is that it is kind of customizable. The tray (which is on the bottom of my dish rack) can be moved to either the top or bottom row. It just snaps in place. For me, it made more sense to have all of the water drip down to the bottom, so it can run off right into the sink. The dish rack’s drain comes with a stopper, which I thought was a nice feature, and has the ability to rotate 360 degrees. That ensures you can place the dish rack at any angle or configuration to make it work with your sink.

The tray is made out of ABS plastic, which has been durable enough to support my bowls and many glasses the past few months. Even though it’s white, there have been no stains. Every two weeks or so, I clean it with soap and water to get rid of any soap scum.

Ultimately, this dish drying rack has made my life easier and is much less of an eyesore on my kitchen counter. The white blends the white tile and hideous counter top I’ve been cursed with. You can also get this dish rack in black. It’s worth the $88 in my opinion, because I can tell that I’m going to have this for years to come. I loved it so much, in fact, that it earned a spot on our Best Dish Racks list.

Buy: Yamazaki Two-Tier Dish Rack, $88

This post originally appeared on Apartment Therapy. See it there: The Sleek, Two-Tier Dish Rack That Doubled the Drying Space in My Tiny Kitchen