Convert Dishwasher space to ... Drying Rack System

We had an old, cheesy dishwasher taking up a 2' space under our kitchen countertop, which we never used. We'd already decided to yank that out one day, and replace it with some sort of cabinetry. By not using the old dishwasher, we estimate we're saving about 3 to 5 gallons of water, and a bunch of electricity, per load of dishes. What we were doing is just opening its door, and pulling out the wire racks for "dish drying space".

We had recently put in place a countertop portable dishwasher, to get to a scheme of reusing our water as much as possible, as described here:

https://permies.com/t/166434/Water-skipping

With the new dishwasher in place, saving us water and electricity, we needed to tackle a few remaining issues:

1. yank out and recycle the dishwasher (we recycle all our appliances, where possible)

2. replace the old dishwasher space with a modern drying rack system, hopefully built-in to the 2' cabinetry space, with nice pull-out shelves holding drying racks.

Recycling a Dishwasher:

Most people just get it yanked out, and it gets taken to the dump or to an appliance graveyard, depending upon your area. When it comes to appliances, we first try to fix it, then if no luck, we disassemble it to it's component pieces, and use those (screws, motors, etc.) for other projects, or recycle them (plastics, metals, etc.) ... nothing to fix here, so it's straight to recycling.

It took just a few hand-tools, a specialty bits kit (these allow you to take apart anything), and we had most every component stripped off of the interior plastic shell (the main part of a dishwasher), and in their respective pile for sorting.  With everything apart, it was easy to get it all out the door and into the recycle bins. The motor was very nice, and will go towards a wind-system or some other use ... or I'll swap or ebay it to someone who needs it even more than I do. All screws into my screw holding bins.

In taking it apart, the two wire racks inside jumped right out, and they immediately seemed useful as purpose-built to hold dishes. I didn't need to buy anything, I just needed to figure out how to use them.

2' hole (where the dishwasher used to be):

One day, we'll redo the kitchen, and really rethink and rework the design and cabinetry. Not today, though ... I have to do something right now. In looking at the hole, and the two drying racks, I was struck by the fact that they came out of that hole, and could just as easily go right back in it. A quick trip down to my homestead parts area, and in 5 minutes, I found a wheeled rack with adjustable wire shelves that would work (this is why you save everything on a homestead ... it gets multiple uses sooner or later).

I carried the rack up, zip-tied the two drying racks to it (with two drying pads held underneath each rack), and was done. It now slides in and out of that hole, as we stack up dishes, pots and pans. When all dried stuff is put back in their places, the rack is wheeled right back into the hole, and a curtain hides everything.

I must have saved $10k or more, as we didn't have to redo the kitchen (although I can't put this off forever) ... and, the old (ugly) dishwasher is gone. We now have a pull-out rack system that is making better use of that space!

Kitchen layouts in the old days?

Our kitchen perhaps just got a step closer to the old days, where a kitchen was a space filled with purpose-built furnishings & appliances! No modular cabinetry needed. I may have to talk with my better half about such a design for our future kitchen rework effort. Yank out all of the old cabinetry, put in hutches, tables, firewood cook stove to keep the water hot all the time, and so on ... hmm.

I have never been a fan of dishwashers.  I like washing dishes by hand. To me, something about washing dishes by hand is relaxing.

My houses all came with dishwashers except the one we live in now.

That said, my previous 3 or 4 dishwashers have been used as a drying rack.  They are expensive dish drying racks but I would not have wanted to get rid of them as a dishwasher is a big selling point when it comes to buying/selling a house.

Thanks for sharing.

v2.0 of the drying rack system will be needed .... this is because nature (and  better halves) abhors a vacuum.

Vacuum defined as "it doesn't matter how much you've done up to this point, there's nothing there because you did it without my input".

v1.0 was cobbling stuff together to solve a problem, something I'm very good at. If there is a problem, I throw a workaround at it, and move on to the next dozen problems still remaining. I'm good with that workaround until some number of winters down the line, when I can tackle the same problem again ...

Homesteading law #2 - put a workaround in place, and move on ...

v1.0 lasted long enough to see the light of day .... v2.0 has now begun. The drying rack system lives on, but I'll start another thread to sort things out ...

Homesteading law #1 - the boss (the better half) is always right ...

How did you repurpose the space previously occupied by the old dishwasher into a functional drying rack system, and what specific steps did you take to adapt the wire racks from the dishwasher for this purpose?

Karen, welcome to the forum.

If I had a dishwasher that I was going to remove and wanted a drying rack in its place I would use something like this:



https://www.ovisonline.com/21-in-Cookware-Organizer-Two-TierChrome-P627.aspx



https://www.ovisonline.com/21-inch-Double-Pull-Out-Chrome-Wire-Shelf-P642.aspx