You know that wire basket everyone has — the one with two tiers, potatoes on bottom, onions on top? I had one for years. It looks practical. It seems efficient. It is, in fact, a vegetable murder device.

Potatoes and onions should not live together. They are terrible roommates. Here is why.

Onions make potatoes sprout faster

Onions release ethylene gas as they age. Ethylene is a plant hormone that tells fruits and vegetables to ripen — and in the case of potatoes, to sprout. Store them side by side and your potatoes will grow eyes about twice as fast as normal.

I tested this once with two bags from the same grocery run. One bag in the basket with onions. One bag alone in a paper sack in a dark corner. The basket potatoes sprouted in eight days. The paper-sack potatoes were still firm at three weeks.

Potatoes make onions rot

It goes both ways. Potatoes are about 80% water. As they sit, they release moisture into the air. Onions need a dry, well-ventilated environment. Stick them next to a moisture factory and they will get soft and moldy fast.

I once pulled an onion out of that basket and the bottom half had turned into brown sludge. The potato next to it was perfectly fine. The onion took all the moisture damage. I felt oddly guilty about it.

How to store them the right way

Potatoes want: cool (45-50°F), dark, and ventilated. A paper bag in a pantry or basement corner is perfect. Not the fridge — cold converts potato starch to sugar and they taste weirdly sweet when cooked. I learned that one the hard way with a batch of roasted potatoes that tasted like they belonged in a dessert.

Onions want: cool, dry, and ventilated — but away from potatoes. A mesh bag hung on a hook is ideal. Or a basket in a different part of the kitchen. Give them at least a few feet of distance from the potatoes and both will last weeks longer.

Garlic wants the same as onions. Same treatment — mesh bag, dry spot, not near potatoes.

One more thing: do not store onions near apples either. Apples pump out ethylene too and will make your onions sprout. My produce-drawer setup was apparently a disaster zone for years before I learned any of this.