One, two or three bowl sink?

This may turn out to be like a boxers vs briefs discussion but here goes nothing.

I am thinking of replacing my current two bowl stainless steel sink. One bowl is large and deep enough to hold a cookie sheet or fill a large stock pot and the other is a standard sized sink.

When my grandmother designed and built her home which is now my home, she had the wisdom and foresight to give each sink bowl its own drain line so that if one sink clogged in the middle of meal creation, everything did not need to come to a screeching halt to resolve the issue. God bless her for her design sense in addition to being an awesome grandmother and friend. On a side note, she created an open concept home before that was even a buzzword!

I have a dishwasher but also do not mind hand-washing dishes. The idea of just one bowl + one drain has me wondering how you wash, rinse, set to dry without getting the clean stuff dirty without using valuable counter space to hold the dish rack for drying.

Please let me know what you love or what you don't love about your sink. Thank you in advance!
  13 answers
  • Haysha S. Haysha S. on Nov 29, 2016

    We have a single bowl sink and I can't wait to upgrade to a double. There's just not enough room, especially when we have company, for the sink to be usable once it's full of the dirty dishes. Than again, we wouldn't have that problem if we had a dishwasher. Now you got me thinking....

  • Shawna Bailey Shawna Bailey on Nov 29, 2016

    We have a double bowl and I love it, our kitchen is pretty small but when we bought our house a double sink was on my wish list. I also want to make a cutting board the size of one side. That way I can quickly cover up dirty dishes while entertaining in our kitchen.

  • Yair Spolter Yair Spolter on Nov 29, 2016

    We have lived in homes with a single and double, and we like the double better - hands down! It's just so convenient when you need the extra basin. Of course you have to be a little more disciplined about tidying up since there's always the option of letting the dirty dishes stay put and using the other sink.

    In terms of boxers or briefs, I say it really depends on my mood that day.

    • RichandTammy Whiteside RichandTammy Whiteside on Nov 29, 2016

      In our home there is a joke that my spouse has a "clean sink detector" because immediately after doing the dishes something seems to mysteriously appear in the sink. I swear that he's hiding them, lol!

  • William William on Nov 29, 2016

    I would not be able to function without a double sink. Food prep, clean up, convenience, etc.

  • RichandTammy Whiteside RichandTammy Whiteside on Dec 01, 2016

    Well, the decision has been made. I am going with a 60/40 undermount.


    New quartz counters which I got at a seriously unbelievable price (like less than 50% of the price of what Lowe's and Home Depot are charging) and the sink will all be installed on Wednesday so I'll be all clean sparkly before Christmas! They are also giving me the remnant from the sink cutout with a (hopefully large) hole drilled into it so that I can place it over one of the sinks for extra counter space when needed. As an additional courtesy they are rounding and smoothing the edges of the remnant. I will post some before and after photos as I've been doing a good bit of little changes that are making a nice difference.


    Every change made so far has been my spin from something that I've discovered right here on hometalk! When I get around to finally posting all of this stuff, it'll end up being more of a shoutout to the originator than a post!


    Thank you all for your help and advice!

    • Michele Michele on Dec 20, 2016

      I have had double bowl sinks & a single and hands down need the double sinks. We're in the process of getting a qranite composite sink and am seriously looking at the 60/40 with the lower divider so I can was cookie sheets and large baking pans. How do I know this will actually work? I don't...but I'm going to bring a couple of my largest pot/pan/cookie sheet to the stores so I can actually see how they function. Just a thought to those of you who are trying to sort out what might work best for you.

  • Did you ever consider a farmhouse style sink? They do have double bowl versions. I like them as they are deeper and for doing pots and pans that do not fit in most dishwashers it is fantastic.

  • Mary Mary on Jan 18, 2017

    I wondered the same at one time. With so many family functions and the good hearts of my sisters after every diner there was a fight to help clean up. I remodeled the kitchen, put the dishwasher between to double bowl sinks. I would love to send a picture but not techy enough to paste it here. When not in use I have top to cover it. It serves as regular counter space. This brought me to the idea of not enough ovens for big diners. so on my island I bought to GE stainless slide in ranges, one with a double oven the other with a huge oven. These also have matching counter tops when not in use. If I had the money I would have bought one of the six burner ranges with two ovens. I compared 15,ooo.oo to 3,500.00 same results, 10 burners. Great for buffet style eating and the double sinks great for fast clean up. And I do know that when you have guest, you shouldn't allow them to help clean up. Family quit being guest when they know where everything is and have keys to your house. LOL

    • See 1 previous
    • Mary Mary on Mar 13, 2017

      No it was 10 foot long. Corner cabinet, sink cabinet, dishwasher, sink cabinet. If you had a three bowl the cost is of course higher but you could always do a quick wash up in the smaller sink and not have to fill the larger ones.

  • Ltt834476 Ltt834476 on Jan 20, 2017

    Idid away with my dish washer since I always wash my dishes by hand anyway. I prefer to have drawer cabinets in place of the dishwasher. And I love my double sink. Good choice! You won't regret it. :)

  • RichandTammy Whiteside RichandTammy Whiteside on Jan 22, 2017

    Here's my sink and just a glimpse of the new countertop. I love this sink!

  • Mary Mary on Mar 13, 2017

    great for get togethers

  • Eroque022810 Eroque022810 on Mar 15, 2017

    I searched for what was perfect for my family of 5 adults. We go through a lot of dishes in a day and I forgot to mention that they are all males that miraculous don't see dirt,dust,or anything that requires cleaning heck just this morning I came down and 2 work nights so neither ran dishwasher. I hate waking to a sink with dishes so needless to say that I ran machine since they are sleeping. I love my sink faucet. I got the deepest one I could afford it's 9" deep and the faucet is gooseneck so nice and tall so I can wash my turkey and dry it off before I stuff it. It's really important to me that my turkey can fit. It may sound crazy but that's my priority because then I know my stock pot will fit for turkey stock once we finish eating. The faucet is perfect it doesn't get in my way. This house had a 2 sinkso that were tiny. Since we were redoing kitchen I made sure to be wise and buy what was important to me. I would have preferred 2 dishwashers but not enough space.

  • Suellen Hintz Suellen Hintz on Mar 16, 2017

    Our large sink is a large sink with a small bowl sink attached, which is where the garbage disposal is, and the prep sink is round, with its own garbage disposal.

  • Mary Mary on Mar 20, 2017

    I should have suggested that when you do decide you should check out sinks and faucets at Faucets direct.com the prices and options are great and delivery is great.