What do you do to separate meat or dairy if you only have space for one sink? Do you need sink racks? Rabbi Elefant explains the best way to keep meat and dairy separate in a small living space.

One Kitchen Sink for Dairy and Meat

If one lives in an apartment where they only have one sink in their kitchen and they need to use that sink both for dairy and meat, for fleishigs and milchigs, and they want to be able to wash their dishes and their pots and the spoons and the silverware, what should they do?

Racks Are the Solution

You should buy two separate racks. One rack for dairy and one rack for meat. And always be careful to use the proper rack when you're using that type of utensil. Use the dairy rack for dairy utensils, and use the meat rack for meat utensils.

The Floor of the Sink Absorbs Both Dairy and Meat

Try to be careful not to let the spoons or the plates or whatever you're washing actually touch the floor of the sink because the floor of the sink is really not kosher because it's absorbing from dairy and meat. Because when you wash your dairy food, the dairy rolled off your plates and off your silverware onto the floor of the sink and then that same floor of the sink absorbed from your meat side.

However, if something did touch the floor of the sink because it just fell through the cracks of your dish rack, it's fine. But you should try to be careful and of course you should always be careful not to get mixed up. And always use the dairy rack for dairy and the meat rack for meat and try to use the sink as little as possible. As soon as you finish washing a dish, dry it - not in the sink, but outside the sink.

For more with Rabbi Elefant, watch OU & You!