If it's good enough for the bartender, it's good enough for me.

When the sun goes down and the money is right, my partner is a bartender and I'm a cocktail waitress. Like many restaurant people, we have a set of bar tools like this [bartools] at home.

So my original intent when I scoped out this cute Casamigos bar mat on eBay for $40 was just to use it make cocktails. I know this is the sort of item that liquor brands give to bars gratis for promotion, so I was waffling on whether I wanted to pay good money for something someone got for free. 

Then inspiration struck and I realized this purchase was justified because it also solves a persistent problem every household has but only seems to bother me. 

DISH RACKS ARE HORRIBLE

I'm against them. There has never been a single good looking dish rack. They take up an enormous amount of countertop real estate. They always look dirty and they're always wet. 

We're lucky enough to have a dishwasher but we still found that the sink was  constantly filling up with dirty dishes anyway. The reasons for this basically broke down to out of sight, out of mind. 

So I instituted a new household rule: No dishes in the sink, EVER. Dirty dishes live on the counter next to the sink, on this mat, until the dishwasher is ready for them. If they're piling up, it's time to empty the dishwasher.  

This is better because, even though the are sitting out on the counter, at least they are dry. And as an added bonus your sink is clear, and not a hell hole of bacteria, fungi and filth. 

The color also brings me joy on a regular basis. 

With this system, we run the dishwasher every day, which is surprisingly more environmentally friendly than washing them by hand [youtube video source]

We also got this Clean / Dirty Dishwasher Magnet bring the whole process together. Beware: once it's on, it's on. You'll notice ours is crooked. It simply will not budge.