This Dishwasher Hack Could Help Make Your Dishes Dry Faster

Your dishwasher can pull off some impressive feats, from steaming salmon to washing old flip-flops (though we don't recommend doing both at once). One thing it's less capable of is drying your dishes as well as you would by hand. If you love the convenience of your dishwasher but hate touching slippery plates and silverware, there's an easy way to get your dishes close to bone-dry using an item you likely already have at home.

TikTok creator brunchwithbabs shared this dishwasher hack in a video last year, and it was recently reported by Lifehacker. According to brunchwithbabs, the secret to drip-free dishes is adding a clean dishtowel to each load. Once your machine has finished "drying" the contents to the best of its abilities, open it and drape the cloth over the door. Close it and wait several minutes before unloading the appliance. When it's time to put the dishes away, they should be dry as well as sparkling clean.

Though it may seem like it, this hack isn't a work of magic. Much of the water that accumulates on clean dishes comes from steam inside the dishwasher condensing after the dry cycle ends. By immediately popping a towel inside the door, you give that excess moisture somewhere else to go. The cloth then absorbs most of the water droplets without requiring any manual labor on your part.

Despite their questionable drying abilities, dishwashers are surprisingly efficient. Washing dishes in a machine actually saves more water than washing them by hand, which is one reason why you shouldn't rinse your dirty plates before loading them. Here are more things you didn't know your dishwasher could do.

[h/t Lifehacker]