Tiny Kitchen, Useless Dishwasher, Sensible Space-saving Solution

I love my apartment, and I especially love the large private walled courtyard. I HATE the kitchen which has absolutely no counter space and smaller than usual sinks, which evidently is supposedly made up for by having a dishwasher.  NOT!


The Dishwasher Problem

I cook/prepare at home everything I eat and I work at home, so there are dirty dishes every day. Because there is no counter space or sink space, I was thrilled that there was a dishwasher. The only problem is that with so few dishes, it takes me forever to fill it up to run it, and in the meantime, I'm pulling dishes out to wash and use on a daily basis. The second problem is that this is an old dishwasher and it just doesn't clean dishes well. I've used every dishwasher detergent imaginable, but it still leaves some things dirty or grease on the silverware.

The Solution

My solution? I just stash the dirty dishes in the dishwasher now to get them out of the way, and wash them up every night. I asked if I could have the dishwasher removed or replaced, but they said unless it isn't working at all, they can't replace it and it comes with the apartment, so they can't remove it.

I'm thinking of simply moving all the dishes from my china cabinet into the dishwasher and using that for something else. Clean dishes on the top, dirty on bottom so they don't drip down mess on the clean dishes. I know that may sound weird, but I'm trying to figure out how to get extra storage space, so that makes sense to me, especially for the cups and glasses, which I have way too many of.

The china cabinet, which is in the LR/DR, could then be used for more attractive items. I really hate having people see it with all the dishes, plus I hate having to walk out there from the kitchen to get something when I need it. This way, at least the dishes would be close by where I'm using them.

O.K., so this may sound crazy, but until I get some sort of door or screen between the kitchen and the LR/DR area so people can't see the dirty dishes piled up in the sink, this is going to have to do.

Update

This didn't work at all. The dishwasher ended up getting filthy from the dirty dishes and started to smell. I ended up putting everything back the way it was and now I'm looking for a better solution.