5 Things You Should Never Store Under Your Kitchen Sink

Plus 5 things you should!

Stacey Ballis is the author of ten novels of culinary fiction including, Off the Menu, Out to Lunch, Recipe for Disaster, Wedding Girl and How to Change a Life as well as a digital cookbook, Big Delicious Life. Her nonfiction essays have appeared in several anthologies, and her food writings and recipes have appeared in Food & Wine Magazine, EatingWell Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Bake From Scratch Magazine, Plate Magazine, MyRecipes.com, ExtraCrispy.com, TheTakeout.com, AllRecipes.com, and a recipe of hers was adapted for use in The New York Times. She was the recipe developer and culinary consultant for The Self-Care Cookbook by Frank Ardito. Stacey lives in Chicago with her husband and is currently at work on a new full-length work of fiction.

If your kitchen is anything like my kitchen, there is never enough storage. So, that large open cabinet under the kitchen sink seems like such a terrific place to stash some of your overflow! But while you should absolutely organize and utilize that space, there are some things that you definitely should not store in there! Here are some of our "absolutely don't" under-sink items, as well as some suggestions for how to best use this cabinet!

Moisture and electricity do not go well together. Moisture can cause corrosion and damage delicate electrical connections, plus create a hazard if the appliance you plug in has moisture anywhere in the unit, visible or not. Was the infamous This Is Us crock pot stored under the sink? We'll never know, but we do know your coffeepot should wake you only with its caffeine, not by electrocuting you.

Sure, the sink is right there next to the dog bowls, or near where you are making your breakfast. But anything that any member of your family is going to eat, furry family included, should not be stored under the sink. But, plastic sealable containers, you say! And still, we say it's a no-go. Just because you keep your pet food in a container, or use those cute dispensers for your cereal, under the sink is still both a warm and moist environment, which encourages fast staling, mold, mildew and bacterial growth. No one needs Moldy Flakes for breakfast, and your pooch or kitty deserves kibble that is crunchy. Keep everything edible in the pantry or regular kitchen cabinets, please.

Just because you aren't storing food under your sink, doesn't mean it should become a repository of poisons. Whether it is household bleach or other dangerous chemicals, or anything flammable, these are items that can spontaneously combust in the wrong conditions, so keep them in a garage, basement or laundry room in cool, dry conditions, where they can only be accessed by adults.

Paper towels, paper grocery bags, extra sponges or toilet paper shouldn't go here either. Your sink doesn't need to have a leak to create that damp environment, so stash these items somewhere they can stay super dry.

While the moisture isn't great for these, it is actually their delicacy that makes lightbulbs not terrific for under-sink storage. They are so easy to break, and when they shatter, they SHATTER, and trying to clean up tiny shards of glass under the sink is a giant pain. Keep these where you are unlikely to accidentally smash them.

Now that your under-sink cabinet is totally empty (we know we were guilty of all of the above), how to make it work for you? Here are some things you might not have thought to store under the sink that are totally safe.

Warm and moist are actually good for composting, so if you have a garden or window boxes, try a little compost bin!

This can be a smart place to wrangle your recyclables, especially since most plastic and glass containers need rinsing anyway, so you are already at the sink.

Stash all those vases from floral deliveries that you cannot get rid of, or ones that you have collected over the years. Again, floral arranging tends to happen in or near the sink, so it makes a lot of sense to keep these right there and free up some shelf or cabinet space elsewhere.

That giant gallon of white vinegar, basic dish soap or dishwasher detergent or pods, these are all perfectly fine to keep under the sink.

In our house we have big black garbage bags, regular white kitchen garbage bags, recycling bags and small bags for the little trash cans in the bathrooms and bedrooms. Keeping them under the sink is a great way to have easy quick access to whatever you need.

While you absolutely should take advantage of the space underneath your sink, there are some do's and don'ts when it comes to what you should store there. Even if your sink doesn't leak, that cabinet can still be warm and humid, so store food and electronics elsewhere.