The Most Stylish Yet Functional Ikea Find For Stashing Onions And Potatoes In The Pantry

A thriving vegetable garden can provide organic, sustainable food options year-round. But once your garden starts flourishing, you need to figure out the best way to store vegetables to keep them fresh longer. Luckily, Ikea offers the perfect pantry storage solution for preserving onions and potatoes from your garden.

Ikea's KNAGGLIG boxes are the best place to store onions and potatoes. Made from natural, untreated, and unfinished pine, these boxes are a stylish, affordable, and lightweight choice for food storage. Onions and potatoes should be stored with a little room to breathe, and these boxes have slats to improve ventilation. Storing your veggies in them can lower the risk of your vegetables molding or rotting.

The KNAGGLIG boxes are available in two sizes. The 18 inch by 12 inch box ($19.99) is perfect for storing larger vegetables like onions. The smaller box is 9 inches by 12 inches ($14.99), making it the ideal choice for smaller veggies like potatoes. Boxes of the same size can also be easily stacked on top of each other.

The best way to keep potatoes fresh is to store them in a cool, dark, and humid place like a pantry or cellar. They will keep longest if the storage environment is kept between 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit and 90-95% humidity, but that might be hard to achieve inside your home. However, you can extend their shelf life if you make sure that the potatoes have adequate air flow and minimal exposure to light and heat.

Storing potatoes on the counter or in a plastic bag or tightly sealed container may actually cause them to rot faster. Ikea's KNAGGLIG boxes are made of a lightweight pine, and have slats that provide the perfect ventilation. If you use these to store potatoes, they could keep for two weeks or longer depending upon the temperature and humidity conditions.

Picking a storage spot that is cool, dark, and with limited exposure to light and moisture is the best way to keep onions fresh. All varieties of onions, as well as shallots, can be stored in KNAGGLIG boxes. They do best in temperatures between 30-50 degrees Fahrenheit and can last for a year or more in the perfect conditions.

Just make sure to never store onions and potatoes together. Your onions will release ethylene gas as they age, which could cause your potatoes to sprout, rot, or develop bitter spots. Likewise, the moisture that potatoes release as they age could increase the chances of your onions rotting or molding.