What is a safe way to put Wine Glasses in the Dishwasher?
Problem: Long stem wine glasses tend to be unstable in the dishwasher, either hitting the side wall or each other. Unless you have a newer dishwasher with wine glass supports, chances are they will come out chipped or broken.
Solution: Use an inexpensive plastic sink mat to create a dishwasher wine glass holder that will keep your stemware upright and secure in the dishwasher.
Note: You should never wash fine crystal in the dishwasher. This solution is only for inexpensive, every-day wine glasses.
Wine Spectator offers some tips on How to Store and Clean Wine Glasses.
What you will need for this project:
- Plastic sink mat – purchased at the Dollar Tree
- Hole Punch
- Scissors
- Permanent marker
This inexpensive plastic sink mat from the Dollar Tree has a convenient grid pattern that is easy to cut with regular scissors. Depending on the size of your stemmed glasses, you may opt to cut the mat to a different size than what I used in this example. Measure the widest part of the wine glass, it will be either the base or the globe of the glass. Take this into account when cutting the plastic mat.
I made two different types of cuts in the above example. The cut on the left will allow the wine glasses to easily slide in and out. The cut on the right will hold the glasses a little more securely. This is a good option for more delicate wine glasses or champagne flutes. Experiment with your glasses to see which option works best for you.
How to make the wine glass support:
- The mat used here was a 11 x 13 grid. I Cut the mat long-ways into a rectangle – enough for 4 large wine glasses. (there will be enough left over to create an additional wine glass support for the opposite side of the dishwasher.)
- Hold the cut portion of the mat on the top shelf of the dishwasher and mark where the side wires of the dishwasher rack are. The support is designed to be used on the outer sides of the top rack of the dishwasher tray.
- With a hole punch, punch a 1/2 circle where you just marked the dots on the mat. The half circle hole punch will hold the wine glass support securely in place along the outer edge of the dishwasher tray.
