Even though cabinets are the place to store all your goods, placement matters. Upper cabinets in particular are the prime real estate in your home, second to the roomy base cabinets of the kitchen. However, just because you can store a bunch of items in the upper cabinets does not mean that you have got to. Let’s take a look at 10 things you should not store in upper cabinets.
1. Cleaning Supplies
Cleaning supplies must be kept miles away from all food items, ideally, in places like the space beneath the sink. Such an arrangement is necessary as these cleaning supplies contain toxic elements that can produce fumes and emit odours that contaminate their surroundings.
As such, even if the cleaning supplies and other goods, like food and utensils, do not come in direct contact, the former can taint the latter and make it unusable – now imagine what happens when they do come in contact!
2. Rarely Used Appliances
Do you have a dough kneading machine, an ice cream maker, or a rice cooker that you use rarely? Do you like to keep them in the upper cabinet for a “just in case” situation? Well, then this habit has got to change. You see, even though you may think that you are “prepared,” you are effectively blocking out useful space that could be put to better use. The best way to store these rarely used appliances would be to place them in their original packaging and put them away in a loft.
3. Heavy Utensils
You may think, “this one is obvious!” However, several people make the mistake of putting their heavy utensils in the upper cabinets. Putting too heavy items such as woks, kadhais, and even pressure cookers in the upper cabinets poses a safety hazard as they can very well topple over and injure you. And while the resulting military-like extraction is tricky as it is, you are also at risk of denting the utensils in the process. So, a lose-lose situation both ways.
4. Perishable Items
Remember the saying “out of sight, out of mind”? That’s what will happen if you were to store perishable items in the upper cabinets. Even though one may argue that their cabinet doors are made of glass, the sheer fact that the item is outside the eye line makes it more likely to get ignored.
Given this trait, you may think that the upper cabinets are the perfect hiding spot for your kids’ treats. But do bear in mind that they will find out about it eventually and would be willing to go to any heights (quite literally and figuratively) to get their hands on it, which will be unsafe.
5. Dry Grocery
While we’re on the topic of restricting food items from the upper cabinets, it is also worth mentioning how you could ruin your dry grocery by putting it here. Items prone to ruining through moisture, such as spices, coffee, flour, pasta, sugar, and salt, can go bad in the upper cabinets due to unseen damp spots or entry points for moisture. Further, chances are that if they were to spoil, they would just sit there in the upper cabinet, skipping your notice.
6. Breakable Items
Avoid storing breakable items such as glasses, coffee mugs, and other crockery made of glass and ceramics in the upper cabinets. One slip-up and it will go hurtling on the floor until it shatters. Moreover, if such an accident were to take place, it would be your responsibility to clean up the area, making sure that no shards are left behind (especially if you have kids!). Think to yourself, is the risk worth it?
7. Containers and Lids
Let’s face it, storing containers and lids separately in the lower cabinets is frustrating as it is. You will have a container of another size and shape and a lid of different sizes and shapes. If it is so annoying when you have a full view of all the containers, lids, etc., imagine how much worse it would get if you have to carry out a touch-based reconnaissance of the items stored in the upper cabinets! Think of it as doing a jigsaw puzzle with a blindfold!
8. Sharp Items
As discussed already, you are more likely to touch your way through the items stored in the upper cabinets than actually have a good visual of the items there. In such a case, putting sharp items such as knives, blades, forks, etc. will only put you in danger.
Plus, it’s a whole another story if these were to fall! Sharp items should ideally be kept in areas where you can easily see and retrieve them to prevent any accidents.
9. Plates and Pans
You may be tempted to stack up flat items like plates and plans in the upper cabinets. After all, it is rather space-saving, right? But what happens if you wanted to get your hands on plate or pan #3? Perhaps in the initial few days, you’d get the entire stack down onto the counter, take the desired item and place everything back in place.
Such a system is risky as it is as they may slip and slide over each other and end up on the floor. However, with time you will get bolder and try and lift parts of the stack and remove the item of choice – making it worse by many folds!
10. Cutting Boards
There are so many ways in which you can store a cutting board correctly – on the countertop, in a pull-out drawer, in a magazine holder, propped against built-in dividers, in a basket, or hanging from hooks! With so many accessible options available, why would you want to store it in the upper cabinets?
With this, we come to an end of our list of 10 things you should not store in upper cabinets. Stay tuned to the HomeLane blog for more tips and tricks on how to make your home efficient, safe, and liveable!
