Kitchen Tips - Onion Storage

I cook for only two people - myself and Mr. Unoriginal Chef.  I used to buy onions individually, but it wasn't always easy to gauge how much I would need, and I wound up making trips to the grocery store to buy one thing, which was extremely wasteful.

I discovered onions were sold in three pound bags at the grocery store, and in a size that was consistent for a dinner for two!  We win!  They were also cheaper per pound, and I stored them in my cupboard.

Over the past month, I discovered my onions were starting to become moldy and rotten on the inside.  Ugh.  Talk about a waste.  I was storing my onions inside the mesh bag (good) inside a dark cupboard (good) inside the plastic bag (whoops.)  In my defense, I kept the onions inside the bag so that I wouldn't be left with a ridiculous onion mess at the bottom of my cupboard to clean up.  Unfortunately, that promoted rotting and molding coupled with how warm it has been recently.

A quick google search directed me to instructables.com and this helpful tip on how to store onions.  All you need is one paper bag.  It is a much more attractive option than taking stockings and hanging them on the wall in my kitchen.

Cut the bag down to above the fold, or as per one of the commenters, fold the bag down to the size you need.  I took this recommendation, as it made the bag sturdier and I could move the bag around easily if necessary.

Oh Trader Joe's - how I love thee.  I chose a Trader Joe's bag over a Whole Foods bag because it was smaller, meaning less folds!  (I'm lazy and not very strong.)

I transported the few onions I had remaining into their new home.

I kept the mesh netting... for now.  I bought a new bag of onions and while I kept the netting (to deal with my OCDness about onion skins all over the bottom of the bag) I broke the netting apart so that the onions have room to breathe at the bottom of the paper bag. 

As a side note, you may have noticed I have white onions.  My current bag o'onions are yellow.  In cooked recipes, there isn't much of a difference between white and yellow onions.  I prefer white because I think they're sweeter and not as sharp as yellow onions when eaten raw.  This would be an excellent point if I actually ate raw onions...

Anyways out of habit I kept picking up white onions, but the last time I was at the grocery store, the white onion bags had 1-2 onions that were either already moldy or soft (I'm that crazy lady in the store feeling up every onion in the bag) and the onion sizes were wildy inconsistent - one large onion, a few medium ones, and a couple of baby sized ones.  Ugh.  I grabbed a bag of yellow onions that seemed fresher, with consistent sized onions, and no rotting or molding visible on the outside. 

Today we learned:

1.  How to store onions (and it works for potatoes too!)

2.  My carpet is whiteish.

3.  My cupboards are really shallow, which I hate.