Open shelving: glasses up or down?

[MountainMomma]

Hi!

I'm renovating an old farmhouse and have gotten around to the question of cabinets in my kitchen. This farmhouse is a true antique and has never had cabinets. I'm strongly considering mounting fixed shelves and then creating upper "cabinet doors" that either swing out or slide laterally using re-purposed window sashes that we removed when we replaced all the windows.

All this to ask: if some/all of my shelving remains open, what is the collective wisdom here about how we stack clean glasses for maximum sanitation: up or down? (Up means kitchen dust/grease goes in while they're waiting to be used; down means that the glass rims touch a surface while waiting for us to use them.)

Opinions?

 

[Kayelle]

Welcome to Discuss Cooking, and congrats on your new kitchen.
I've always stored my glasses down, because that's what my mother did. Actually, I never thought about the rims touching the surface but you have a point. Keeping that in mind, I guess glasses that are used daily should be stored up, and glasses that are rarely used should be stored down. On the other hand, I store wine glasses up, but I only use two of them daily. Me thinks I'm over thinking this.
I'm a big help, huh?

 

[gadzooks]

down.

 

[Zhizara]

Down. If you live where there are any bugs, it's horrifying to find a dead one in your upright glass!

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Down. If you live where there are any bugs, it's horrifying to find a dead one in your upright glass!

My sediment exactly!

 

[Addie]

Down. Line the shelves with shelf paper that can be changed every few months. It will help keep the rims clean and healthy for use.

 

[MountainMomma]

OK; those make sense. On to bowls and other serving/storage items on the open shelves... Comments? Concerns?

Then, also, how many of us use a pot rack that's out in the open. This kitchen that I'm doing comes with an antique, dual fuel wood-burning/electric cook stove. I am thinking of installing a pot rack above it both for space use reasons and for the rustic effect. (Oh, btw, there's no range hood/exhaust at all in this kitchen, nor likely to be unless absolutely necessary.)

I'm concerned, though, that I'll have to wash each and every pot before using it. True or false?

 

[Andy M.]

If you hang pots over the stove, they will be dirty in no time and keep getting dirty. Not only is that a pain in the butt if you want to cook with one of them, it will also gross to anyone walking into your kitchen.

 

[Kayelle]

Wouldn't it be fun to have a window back in time and be able to see that antique kitchen that never had any cabinets? My guess is that pots and pans were hung all over the walls without the smallest concern about soot or dust.

Andy has a point however. Could the pot rack be hung somewhere else, rather than over the stove?

 

[GLC]

You know, I don't think it matters much. (Unless you have the aforementioned bugs.) Kitchens tend to have a lot of stuff floating around in the air, and if glasses sit out for long, they're going to get visually soiled, whether up or down. But you're not going to come to any harm from anything that might land on them. Aesthetically, up looks more "magazine kitchen." When I survey commercial photographs, I find them pictured on open shelves both ways, with the majority going to open end up.

Still, something in me wants to turn them top down when they're out in the open.

I store bowls strictly upright. An exception would be copper bowls that will be used for egg whites. I leave them down so as not to catch airborne kitchen grease that will have to be rigorously cleaned up to avoid spoiling the whites.

Prior to 1900, kitchens almost universally had everything stored on open shelving. It was about that time that the "modern kitchen" began to be touted as being exemplified by closed cabinetry. Of course, those were the upper-upper class kitchens, not tenement kitchens where it wasn't unusual for the kitchen "counter" to be laid on top of the bathtub or to have a sink large enough to bathe in. The old homes around here (South Texas) didn't even have kitchens. Cooking was done in the detached cook house. It was just too hot to have it inside.

 

[MountainMomma]

Yep; it's fun to have an antique kitchen. I'm really enjoying the challenge of thinking through what I can do to look retro without compromising modern conveniences. As I was noodling the pots and pans issue, I was remembering those wooden ladders that people use as pot racks in some rustic kitchens, hence my above question. I totally take Andy's point, so I'm thinking of putting my pots/pans in lower (closed) cabinets, but I'm now conceiving of mounting the ladder on the ceiling to hang drying herbs from it. I think it will be both practical and evoke the old world charm.

Meanwhile, I'm planning out my upper cabinets. We had to replace every window in the farmhouse for energy reasons, and I now have about 60 window sashes that are each about 29" X 28". I have 9 spots where these could be mounted to fixed shelves to form DEEP doors that would let me see what's there, but keep them a bit shielded from the dirt of the kitchen. This is now my plan for the kitchen... I think!

If you want to see what I'm dealing with here in pictures, you can go here: The Clanstead | Renovating, Homesteading, and Decorating

 

[CharlieD]

Down.

 

[Bigjim68]

I have my pots hung over an island cooktop. They gather some grease, but a quick cleaning gets them ready for the stove. Those I use daily do not need the cleaning.

If you can get below the range top with a vent pipe, you can install a downdraft popup vent. I did that and it works very well. It is about 2" wide and is hidden when not in use.
It will save a lot of cleaning in your cleaning.

 

[MountainMomma]

If you can get below the range top with a vent pipe, you can install a downdraft popup vent. I did that and it works very well. It is about 2" wide and is hidden when not in use.
It will save a lot of cleaning in your cleaning.

With a wood/electric cookstove like this one?

 

[Aunt Bea]

Down

I think the open kitchen storage idea is a good one if you have an honest working kitchen where things are used on a regular basis and they are out for a reason.

If it is only a "look" then I think it would drive me nuts because of the grease and grime on the staged items.

 

[FrankZ]

We alternate them.. so they all fit.

 

[Zhizara]

Down

I think the open kitchen storage idea is a good one if you have an honest working kitchen where things are used on a regular basis and they are out for a reason.

If it is only a "look" then I think it would drive me nuts because of the grease and grime on the staged items.

I agree with you about open shelving. Not so much because of getting dirty, but because it just looks unfinished.

 

[Alix]

Down here too.

 

[Dawgluver]

Down with glasses. Up with bowls!

 

[PattY1]

I like the open look.