HOW TO ORGANIZE POTATOES AND ONIONS

Why would anyone need to write a whole blog post on how to organize onions and potatoes? Well, it’s because you are likely storing them incorrectly! I share the correct way to store these foods and how to store them in a way that works for you and your spaces. And, did you know, you can also organize your spaces according to your organizing style? You can find out what your organizing style is here.

Before organizing your spaces containing your food, in general, you must purge the expired foods and the foods you do not like. Be ruthless and purge the excess so you can more easily store what you do use.

In my freebie library here, I include guides which help walk you through the organizing process and help you decide what to purge and keep. I also include my declutter and organizing challenge calendars and guides to help direct you through each area of your home. These guides ensure you get through every nook and cranny and finally get to the other side of clutter … an organized and functional space!

In this post, we focus on how to organize and store your potatoes and onions. Below, I share ideas on how to properly organize and store your potatoes and onions with different types of organizing solutions that will work for your organizing styles and spaces.

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How to Properly Store Onions

How you store onions will depend on how many you and your household reasonably consumes between grocery trips. Where you store your onions will depend on how many you need to store and the setup of your home.

How to Properly Store Whole Onions

In general, whole onions should be stored away from light in a cool, well-ventilated area. This can be a pantry, basement, or even your garage. Using a wire basket is ideal for keeping the air flowing. An organizing solution like this can be installed on a basement or garage wall or on the floor of or a shelf within your pantry (found here):

If you have the countertop space or a corner on the floor in your kitchen available, you can use containers like these (found here):

If you are like me and you do not have a pantry, basement, or garage, and no countertop or floor space, you can store onions in your refrigerator. You will want to use a drawer where you can adjust the humidity to a low setting. If your drawers are not opaque like the drawers in my seventies fridge, you can use a liner like this to keep the light out (found here):

This liner also keeps everything dry. Lining your fridge drawers would only be necessary if you need to store your onions for an extended period. If you go to the store often enough before your onions expire, you can leave your clear refrigerator drawers and shelves as they are.

How to Properly Store Chopped Onions

Until you need to use an onion, keep those peels on no matter how pesky they may be as they fly around your pantries. Those peels keep your onions fresher longer. Once you do slice or chop up your onions, you will want to store them in a container in the refrigerator for up to one week. There are a lot of gimmicky onion containers available. I say just go for using glass (plastic might absorb the onion odor) food storage containers you already have on hand. Or, you can use bowls you already have on hand and seal them with a cover like this (found here):

How to Properly Store Potatoes

The most common potato storage mistake made in most homes is storing onions and potatoes together or too near each other. The gases from onions cause potatoes to sprout more quickly.

Potatoes should be stored away from light in a cool and dry place. All the same methods to store onions as noted above can be used to store potatoes as well. You simply want to keep these items away from each other. For example, while you store your onions in the pantry, you can store potatoes in a bin within a kitchen cabinet (found here):

If you don’t have the pantry or cabinet space, you can store your potatoes in a sack on some shelves in your garage or basement. Or, for those with limited space, you can hang this sack on a hook on the wall. This is actually one of the most ideal ways to store potatoes for long term storage (found here):

I hope you found some ideas for how to organize your onions and potatoes for your organizing style and/or the space that you have! In my next post, I share ideas on how to organize foil and plastic wrap. Don’t forget to grab my free resources from my freebie library here. Let’s get to the other side of clutter … an organized and functional space!

Happy Organizing!