That's what dishwashers are for! I've always found the dish drains were pretty ugly, although places like Williams-Sonoma have stainless steel or chrome ones that look nicer than plastic ones.

Pretty much everything except large pots and knives here goes into the DW here. Those I do tend to dry but if i'm feeling lazy, they sit on a towel (but I have granite and not wood).

for my everyday life, I usually have the drainer "in" one side of the sink. If I am having company, or am feeling neat-freakish, I store it under the sink. It is black, so it is pretty much unseen in my deep sink, even if I have a surprise guest.

I keep one out; I know it looks messy and DH is not enthralled by it but we almost always have something drying in there. Knives, large pots/colanders, and plastic (because plastic seems to hold water instead of air drying in the DW, and yes it would be nice to not have any plastic but we use BPA-free plasticware for the kids' lunchboxes so there you go). Also toys that the dog got hold of and need a quick wash in the sink. I don't leave the dish drainer in the sink because one side is the prep side and the other side holds dishes that are on their way to being washed or loaded into the DW. Anyway. I have no real advice, I am just going to be watching your answers because I am also interested in wood countertops. The perfect solution in my opinion would be a double sink with built-in double drainboards (one for the dishes, one for wet produce) but short of that, I don't know... we'll see what other people have used. Currently I have a chrome dish rack sitting on a tea towel (laminate countertop), which is a better looking setup than my old plastic one. They make clear plastic drainboards for those metal dish racks; they probably look more unobtrusive on wood than the white or black ones.

Good question! We just redid our kitchen and went from a double sink with one side holding a dish drainer to a single large sink. We have changed our routine so that we dry and put the dishes away immediately. Sometimes there will be one or two things on the counter but that's about it.
Our new, beautiful kitchen and counter tops are worth it.

At first I searched for
richelieu dish drainer.
Then
richelieu dish rack
This got me to their site.
I saw a tab saying "dish shelf"
This got me to
"plate rack"
Here it is.
http://www.richelieu.com/produit/index.php?&id=1003166

It's all in the terminology.

One GW person, alexr, posted about this Mar 2nd in a thread in Appliances forum: "Did anyone decide to skip the dishwasher?"
He said he made his own, out of wood.
He called it a dish drying rack and a cabinet dish drainer.
It goes above the sink, like in European kitchens.
You can put it behind cabinet doors, too.
" It makes all the difference. "
HTh

Growing up we always had a dish drainer in one side of the sink, and I didn't think anything of putting my chrome drainer in our stainless sink when we got married; it seemed like part of the sink. However, to my husband it was "clutter" even when empty. So, the dish drainer is going to goodwill...but I still often have dishes drying in one side of the sink. Less efficient, but to me it's too big a bother to drag the drainer out and put it back every time I do dishes. (How's that for lazy?)

I have a collapsible one that is used for pots and pans and corning ware. We run the DW about every 2 to 3 days with just the plates, glasses, etc. If I stuck the other things in there we would run it almost every day and even if we didn't, chances are that I would need one of the pots or baking dishes sitting in the DW. then it's take it out and hand wash in order to use.
I put the hand washed stuff in the drainer, let it air dry until morning, empty it, then put away until the next night.

Our new home isn't done yet (they're installing cabinets today ... oh my, they are gorgeous), but I did buy a really nice looking SS dish drainer at TJ Maxx. The new kitchen will have a large 3 basin sink, and my plan is to put the dish drainer in one of the basins. Of course, plans do change.

To hold a small number of items, I repurposed a funny "Ice cube tray" made of rubbery silicony material. It stays put, doesn't slide around, has never made me break anything.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60146194
$2

Here is a link that might be useful: Plastis ice

We have a draining rack in one of the sink basins. My DH really, really wanted it off the counter.

Ours is out all the time. Air drying is actually way more sanitary then towel drying, so that is what we do. If people don't like my clutter, so be it. Most things go into the dishwasher unless it is wood, non-stick, or knives, however there are always things that come out of the DW a bit wet, especially plastics. It is a constant rotation here of items going from dw to dish drain to cabinets and so on. :) I'm not sure what we'll do to change it, or just get better at putting things away as soon as their dry, with the new kitchen. Clean up sink will be on the island, and I'd rather have that kept clear. I do want to have runnels or a drainboard installed into the soapstone counter.

i posted a thread with a lot of different dish drainers to look at: Dish Drainer Thread

also andrea345 has cupboard drainer... linked below.

we always have ours out now. :(

when we get our dish(washer) drawer in the new kitchen, my hope is not to have a dish drainer. we'll see. ;)

Here is a link that might be useful:

Thanks for the dish drain round-up. We don't have much cupboard space, but I love that cupboard drainer!

Our dish drainer is out all the time on the counter. It's part of the kitchen landscape and it's an extremely useful tool. It folds up and can be put away--but that really only happens when we're taking pictures :)

My mother's drainer is in one sink of her double sink. I find it very awkward. It's difficult to use the sink without splashing or dripping on the dishes that are supposedly drying. It's difficult to pour cooking water out of a pot when one sink is full of sudsy water and the other sink has clean dishes. I prefer the better air circulation on the counter top.

I wash quite a few dishes. We're home all day long (dh and I both work from home) so the rack is constantly being used. I like to hand wash easy-to-clean cooking pots (i.e. ones used to steam veggies or cook pasta). I find it easier than loading them into a dw--plus I don't like taking up a lot of space in the dw with bulky items. We also wash all plastic, wood, cast iron and any pots that aren't all stainless steel.

I prefer air drying to towel drying. Our dish drainer sits on a sloped drain board built into our stone counter.