Storing glassware and mugs – which side up?

[heidih]

This post about drying dishes got me thinking about something I have never understood. I grew up putting the glasses in the cabinet just like bowls - with the open side up. Then I went to houses where they were stored with the surface you sip from touching the shelf. I suppose it keeps the dust out, but how clean is the surface? I never understood, saw it at my step-mom's the other day and thought I would pose the question. What do you do and why?

[LindaK]

I'm a store it upright person too, even with glassware that's on an open shelf and might collect some dust. It must be habit, I don't think I ever considered doing otherwise.

[dcarch]

Glass is not a solid, it is a liquid. As a matter of fact, if you store glasses up side down.

500 years later, the rim of the glasses will be thicker.

dcarch.

BTW I keep mine upside down because that minimizes breakage. The top is always heavier.

[janeer]

Upright. Storing a good glass or crystal on its rim would damage the glasses and also tend toward breakage. I think storing them upside-down is meant to keep them from getting dusty, but so does the rest of the glass. Wipe them.

[heidih]

I should have added that I see it with ceramic mugs as well. I want to take the mug and wipe the rim - I suppose the difference between fear of dust and what is on the shelf surface..

[SylviaLovegren]

Most of the people I know who store their drinking ware upside down have shelf liners. I'm too lazy to have shelf liners to I store my drink ware right sight up.

[annabelle]

I was raised by a German grandmother and a French mother who, between the two of them, were the cleaning police. Several times a year we removed all the items from all the cupboards and washed and wiped them out, washed the items themselves, and returned them to the shelves. Twice a year we replaced the shelf-paper, as well. The everyday glasses went in upside down. Stemware and crystal had its own cabinet and was stored sitting on its base.

One of my friends had a large family and they stored their glasses right-side up and by the end of the day the cupboard was usually empty until all the glasses were washed and returned to the cupboard. I store my mugs upside down, too.

[curls]

Similar to Annabelle.... Shelf liners everywhere, the cross hatched mesh ones that allow for some air circulation. Everyday glasses upside down; mugs right side up. Stemware, crystal and specialty glassware in the china cabinet or behind the bar (in cabinets) right side up. Don't know what my reasoning was but that is what feels right to me.

Never really thought about it until now; I am curious to see if I change the layout now that I am thinking about this!

Edited January 2, 2012 by curls (log)

[Mjx]

I don't actually have a preference – I've heard solid arguments for both approaches – although I stagger the ordinary drinking glasses we have, so they fit together more neatly (i.e. alternating right side up and upside down; the glasses flare towards the top). I do make sure that the shelves with the dishes, cups, and glasses on them are kept very, very clean, though.

[budrichard]

We have built in racks for storing wine glasses inverted. Rims touch nothing, bowls stay clean and do not collect dust. If you are serious about your wine glasses and storage, I suggest you consider that type of storage.-Dick

[sparrowgrass]

I have limited storage space and big glasses, so I alternate them, like mjx. Mugs are stackable.

Might be time to wash the shelves. I will put that on my to-do list.

[Edward J]

Glasses don't really matter for me, if I have the space, I like to hang them upside down.

Mugs are a different story. Pick up your mug and turn it upside down. If it is ceramic, odds are that the underside rim is not glazed--it will be chalky white. This is actually quite abrasive, and will scratch the glaze on the drinking rim if stacked ontop of each other.

[Dianabanana]

I store them right side up because otherwise the air inside them smells and tastes like the cabinet when you go to use them. Logic would dictate that that would also happen if they are stored right side up--after all they are sealed inside a cabinet all day long. But I only notice it when they are stored upside down.

[Snadra]

I have open shelves, and store all my glassware bowl down as I prefer risking schmutz on the rim to potential insects crawling around the interior. My best glasses live in a different location and are more carefully stored.

[Jaymes]

This post about drying dishes got me thinking about something I have never understood. I grew up putting the glasses in the cabinet just like bowls - with the open side up. Then I went to houses where they were stored with the surface you sip from touching the shelf. I suppose it keeps the dust out, but how clean is the surface? I never understood, saw it at my step-mom's the other day and thought I would pose the question. What do you do and why?

Boy, I'm with you. I know how dirty surfaces get in the kitchen. Look at the top of your fridge, or wipe your finger along the bottom of pots that haven't been used in a few weeks. I don't care how clean you are, those cooking greases and other airborne residue settle everywhere. And even in the cleanest homes, I suspect there is the occasional insect that wanders along most surfaces in the night. In my view, you'd have to wipe down those shelves, or change the shelf paper, every single day for that surface to be clean enough for me to want to put my mouth on it.

I suppose it's possible that a miniscule amount of dust might settle in those glasses, and although it's likely that it's all in my head (and intellectually I do understand that this is really a "to each his own" sort of issue), I'm much better thinking about that than about putting my lips on the rim that's been setting down on that dirty shelf. As for bugs, I think anything that might have crawled into the glass would likely still be trapped there, so I'd know it. But even if not, it's for absolute positive that if it got into the glass, it had to crawl on the shelf to get there.

I have a dear friend that stores all the glasses, cups, mugs, etc., with the rims down. And although she's definitely a pretty conscientious housekeeper, I know for a fact she doesn't wipe down those shelves, or change the shelf paper, more than several times a year. I don't want to hurt her feelings, so I've never said anything, and would never do something so crass as to wash off the rims right in front of her. I just try really hard to get my glass or cup or whatever right out of the dishwasher. Then I haul that one glass around all day, refilling it.

If I can't manage that, I just don't have anything to drink.

I'm fortunate enough to have some really good crystal. I'd never store it with the rims down. As Jorge Perez, the national spokesman for Waterford, Wedgwood and Royal Dalton says, “The rim is the weakest part of a glass, and that thin edge can chip if set against a hard surface."

I think good crystal is designed to rest on its base, and not on that thin, delicate, fragile rim.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Jaymes (log)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Mugs with their lips down (on my very clean wooden aparador shelves, so I'm not worried there) because they stack better that way. Stemware is suspended by its feet, and glasses are lips-down as well.

[Katie Meadow]

What a weird thread. It has caused me to look at my peculiar storage habits and see what my reasons for up or down really are.

Fine glassware (gold rims, inherited, rarely used) are stored in a closed cabinet, rims up. They get looked at more than used, so they look a lot nicer right-side up. Plus I agree with posters above that resting glassware on a thin delicate rim seems counter intuitive.

Mugs. My mugs are restaurant style and have a rather flat rim. If they are not bone dry when removed from the dishwasher they hold condensation if stored upside down. I store them right-side up. All 12 get used pretty often, so I don't really worry about dust.

Cheap Ikea wineglasses get stored upside down. They also get used fairly frequently, and are durable enough, so I have no rationale for this. Drinking glasses that get used frequently are stored right-side up. Those that are used not so often are stored rims down. I think it's to prevent dust settling in them, although it seems like a toss-up: dust inside or rims touching a less than pristine surface? Luckily there are only two choices. Now I might rethink and store all glassware rims up, since I am sure most glasses get used faster than visible dust can accumulate inside them--and I am pretty sure that I don't have a shelf-cleaning fetish.

Frankly, in a kitchen that sees cooking every day and with wooden cabintery built in 1960 it's hard to imagine a germless dustfree environment. And here's the thing: if a glass looks dusty I will wash it before using it. Same for a rim that doesn't look spotless. Besides, I've never once had a documented episode of getting sick from drinking out of my own glassware, nor has any family member or guest. And I hate shelf paper, it's totally annoying.

[Jaymes]

You know, what I really think (and I've thought about this a lot) is that, no matter how rational and well-thought-out you believe your personal choice to be (and I believe mine to be extremely rational and well-thought-out), what it probably comes down to is how yo' mama did it. If yo' mama was rims up, you're probably going to be rims up. Rims down, then rims down.

Unless you live in a household with somebody that is determined it be the opposite.

Very, very determined.

[Shel_B]

This morning Toots and I had a brief discussion about how and why we store cups and glasses. She stores them rim side down in a closed cabinet and I store mine right side up, also in a closed cabinet. She's concerned about dust and dirt getting into the vessel, and, frankly, I never thought much about why I store my cups and glasses the way I do. I've always done it that way, perhaps because that's how my parents did it.

In any case, I don't see much chance of debris getting into the glasses and cups in a closed cabinet. Additionally, she stores her bowls right side up. If something could get into the glasses, why not the bowls, at least the top bowl(s)?

So, how do you store your glasses and cups, and why do you do it the way you do?

[Edward J]

Wine glasses don't get used every day. For us, growing up, the cups, bowls, and plates got used every day, 3 times a day, not really much of a chance for dust to settle on the bowls/plates. Wine glasses got used maybe twice a month, which was enough time for dust to settle in.

I prefer my glasses hanging upside down--less chance of tipping over

[Kouign Aman]

Upside down. Just because.

[sparrowgrass]

Both ways. Limited storage, so one glass is up, the next is down. They are all bigger at the top than the bottom, so i can fit more that way. Cups are stacked, so they are rightside up..

[andiesenji]

Upside down. Stemmed hang, others on shelves with the waffle-padded lining stuff so the don't slide around and stay put in all but the most active earthquakes.

Cups and mugs are all hung.

Bowls are stored nested but with a jumbo bowl cover over the batch.

Here in the desert a lot of dust/sand gets into the house no matter what I do and I want clean bowls when I start cooking or baking.

The very large stainless steel bowls are upside down on one of the wire storage racks in the pantry.

Edited September 25, 2012 by andiesenji (log)

[haresfur]

If your glasses/mugs have a deep foot ring, they can trap water and come out of the dishwasher still wet. Storing them upside down allows the foot to dry.

And the bugs can't walk around the inside...