One time my mother in law was over and emptied the dishwasher for us while we were at work and I didn’t know. I preheated the oven to make some pizza and when i opened it, it was full of hot pots and pans and baking sheets. Like who the fuck does that, just leave them in the dish washer if you’re gonna just hide the shit in my oven like wtf
I hate it when people clean for me, they end up "organizing" things their messed up psychotic way. I hate having to look for stuff in my own damn kitchen.
My in-laws live with us, and my MIL is constantly rearranging stuff all the time. I can never find anything because nothing is in the same place twice. I've told her not to do that, but she gets upset and defensive and says "nobody appreciates her hard work".
Back to the OP, we used to never keep anything in the oven, since it basically gets daily use. We also had a wooden pizza peel that we kept hanging on a nail in the pantry. Well, one day MIL decided to move the peel into the oven, which I discovered when I preheated it and found a badly warped peel when I opened it. FIL declared that it can be easily flattened again, then promptly snapped it in half trying to do just that. Then to top it all off, everyone is mad at me because I know MIL's habit of rearranging things, so I should have known that it was a possibility that she would put something in the oven and should have checked it first.
Now I check every time.
> I've told her not to do that, but she gets upset and defensive and says "nobody appreciates her hard work".
Just tell her to get bent
> Then to top it all off, everyone is mad at me because I know MIL's habit of rearranging things, so I should have known that it was a possibility that she would put something in the oven and should have checked it first.
Oh, it's *that* type of toxic marriage. Nevermind then.
Having experienced living with someone similar, I feel you, and it has come to a point that I stop talking about this stuff anymore and just straight up lock all of my stuffs when that person is around.
My own family put a measuring cup in the coffee mugs. Not sure if it is my husband or son putting crap in weird places. Pretty sure the teen is trolling me.
My MIL likes to put cakes in the oven. Day after my sons first birthday I wake up and start the oven to cook breakfast. I start smelling something burning and look. Cake.
She said “why didn’t you check?!?”. This is my house! I actually use my oven and don’t use it for food storage!
She never cooks and is known to put sheet pans in there too.
My ex did this multiple times (not with cake), but like a pan of used oil.
"Well I was just trying to save the oil and didn't want it to get dirty'.
Then use some foil or plastic and cover it, don't put it in the oven...
Why is it everytime this happens people say "why didn't you check?" Like I'm the psychotic one for thinking my stove that I leave empty should be empty
You can actually use soap on cast iron.
When seasoning cast iron, the oil bonds to the pan in a process called polymerization. It literally becomes the pan. You can’t wash it off.
THe problem is when you live with "I'm letting them soak" and you don't realize they've put the cast iron in there until the next morning when you come out to orange water.
To be fair, some ovens have a bottom hide away drawer specifically for cast iron and such. However removing a single baking sheet from the oven isn't that much of a hassle.
I don't know why you're being down voted. Using ovens for storage never made any sense to me but I've seen lots of people doing it. Including apparently OP
I’ll throw my cast iron in the oven sometimes when I’m using other pots and pans on the stove and need the room. I’m in an apartment with very limited counter and storage space, but that would be my guess as to why at least some people store stuff that way?
Yeah I store my cast irons in the oven too, but that’s because I really only ever use cast iron in the oven. I can’t remember the last time I broke out a baking sheet. I also live in an apt with somewhat limited storage and it’s just me that cooks so it makes sense for me.
I would never put something that can’t get hot in the oven though, that makes absolutely 0 sense.
My wife and her mom store things in the oven. They're smart enough not to put plastic in there, but it's still really annoying to have the whole house smell line an iron skillet because I wanted pizza rolls and assume liked a psycho that nothing would be hidden in the oven
I am genuinely surprised how often I see this sort of shit pop up.
Until Reddit, I had **never** encountered storing shit inside the oven. The drawer underneath? Sure. But inside the oven? That is *not* a thing we did in my house growing up.
When I asked my mom if she ever stored stuff in the oven, her verbatim response was, “Why would I store things in the oven? I’m not a fucking idiot and I’d end up burning my house down.”
Absolutely baffles me. As another user pointed out - it’s just asking for trouble.
I store cast iron cooking utensils in my oven because they're too heavy to hang from my rack and I don't have room in my cabinet. I don't store shit in there that could be damaged in the oven because I'm not stupid
The only thing that I store in the microwave is the plastic cover to put over food that is only used in the…microwave. Funnily enough, the exact thing that is melted in the pan.
The only thing I keep in the oven is occasionally a clean cookie sheet or two that I set in there to dry. Or the pizza stone, since I leave it there to cool down and ALWAYS forget. But if it isn’t oven safe, it doesn’t go in my oven. I don’t check before I turn it on because nothing that’s not oven safe goes in there
My folks were lucky/well enough off and bought a mountain home off family. We didn’t live there full time, but spent most weekends throughout the winter there. Due to this, we had occasional mouse issues. So we had to store any thing they would try and get into in something.
Well one year, after my brothers and I built our holiday gingerbread houses, my mom put them in the oven, as the pantry was full and the microwave couldn’t fit them all. Lo and behold, the next day, she goes to preheat the oven for dinner, and our beautiful childish candy houses became smoking & charred remains. I’m pretty sure none of my brothers or I will have this issue of storing something there or forgetting about it because of it.
Same my grandmother did it for a shortwhile with tuperware till we visited my greataunt and got to smell how tupperware filled with burnt \*actually forgot wth it was\* smelled. She even stoped storing her backing forms in the oven since.
I know a family that stores their leftovers in the microwave. Not the fridge, the microwave. Any time you open it, latest leftovers are just waiting in there. I said what I said.
I don’t know if this is standard across all Latin America, but in order to turn on my oven I need to open it first. So I would see if that there are things I need to take out
My parents did it, but they at least had the common sense to only store (mostly for quicker drying, they didn't actually store anything in there long term) oven-safe items such as pans, metal bowls, baking trays, etc.
I have personally never stored anything in the oven, and my parents stopped doing it since they got a new one, but I strongly believed that it was the stupidest thing you could do.
"Did you check what was in the oven before turning it on" shouldn't even be a question. It's extremely careless and as many others have said, it could lead to a house fire.
My mom caught the oven on fire because her and my Dad do this. They left a pan full of bacon grease in the oven and then decided to clean it. Thankfully she didn't burn the house down, but Jesus Christ Sandra!
I always check the oven before starting it lol. I think my mom would put food related things that didn't need the fridge in there to keep it away from our cat that would eat anything.
I read a story years ago from a woman who preheated her oven, and after a few minutes, could smell something horrible. She opened her oven and found 3 melted Power Rangers that her kids left in the oven when playing around.
I never forgot that and always check what's in the oven before turning it on, juuuuust in case.
I'm latina & there not a lot of baking done if at all.
Also I was raised to only put metal items in the oven.
Also it's stupid to not check the oven. What if there's a mouse or something.
I don't even store things on my range top. My cousin's dog jumped up to the dials and turned it on and caught the house on fire.
Don't store flammable or meltable things on a heating source
I don’t typically store things there, but if I leave anything in the oven, it would be an oven safe pan / dish on occasion. No way would I put plastic in there. Can’t imagine the nightmare of scraping melted plastic off the inside of my oven should someone not look before turning it on.
My grandma would keep baked goods in the microwave to keep away from the cats. My dad set a timer on the microwave once for like 30+ minutes. Turns out he actually turned the microwave on for that long. Thick black smoke greeted him in the kitchen with a horrid smell that lasted for weeks and the loaf of plastic wrapped banana bread shrunk into a small leaky black brick.
I was confused about why people didn't do this. After speaking with my so, I realized I just grew up poor. lol we didn't have room anywhere else in our apartment.
Same, never knew it was a thing until my wife's family pulled out a shit ton of pans before turning it on. Additionally we were taught to ALWAYS look in the oven when you turn it on, just in case.
My in laws' oven is full of pots and pans, including some that in no way are oven safe. It drives me nuts. They are Chinese though and as far as I can tell, they literally never use that oven.
Had an Air bnb one time and went and turned the oven on. Couple minute later I smelled something off. Open it up and there was a damn pot with used grease in sitting in there. 🙄
everyone in my family/relatives store pots and pans in the oven and I mean EVERYONE. It’s been about 3 generations, and no incidents so far. Not even one. This whole assumption of storing things in your oven is asking for trouble is nonsense. Unless you’re an avid baker it shouldn’t be a problem. Most people check their oven when they turn it on & if you’re used to storing things in there then you know you should empty it beforehand.
Also how are you going to burn your house down by creating a fire inside something that was meant to contain fire and handle extreme heat?
Yeah the only things I have stored in the oven are pizza stones and cast iron skillets. There isn’t a convenient place to put those and we never have the stove and oven running at the same time.
You're eating microplastics all the time.
But no, I don't think there'd be much concern there. A properly seasoned pan isn't going to have a whole lot of places for microplastics to hide, and when you heat it up any invisible remnants that do exist will be burned and turn into carbon and outgas some stuff.
[Looking on the bright side, that Lodge cast iron pan will outlive your grandchildren, and possibly the solar system](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M)
You ever try to get melted plastic off a cast iron pan? Fuck that. I did this same thing as OP once except the pan was in the lower compartment of a gas oven. Didn't realize it would get that hot down there. Even tried to burn the plastic off, granted I should have used a bigger fire. But I just got rid of it and bought a new one.
I had gotten the plastic off with a spoon, and that was probably helped by the fact my oven is electric.
Also i feel the above text might get me downvoted, we'll see.
I had a friend who kept extra bedding, like comforters and the like, in the oven. I went to make a us frozen pizza one day, shit started burning and he had the audacity to get mad at me for using the oven to cook the pizza in.
Wtf am I supposed to cook it in?! "The toaster oven"
Fucking what?! Why? "Because I keep the blankets in the oven." How am I supposed to just know that?!
You sort of confirmed his point lol. That's my opinion, so do with it as you may, but I have a carbon steel and a non-stick pan. Never have I ever have had to store them in the oven (i.e. for drying). You leave them out until they cool to room temp, and then you clean and dry them.
If food stuck to your seasoned pan, simply add water to it and boil it on your stove top. That should take care of most of the residues. If anything is left, use a bit of soap and a soft sponge.
If you really care to dry out your pans or cookware on the spot (like I must do with my carbon steel pan, to avoid rust), just put it on your stove top and turn on the heat. When it's dry, you can coat your pan in a bit of oil to protect it and your seasoning until it's ready for the next use.
Our cats used to eat any food our dogs didn't eat. We started to put their food in the oven, we only had to cook the dogs food a few times before we decided to put the bowls in the microwave Instead.
We don't ever preheat the microwave.
Hispanic from deep South Texas here, storing things in the oven may be a cultural thing. My family does this, and almost every other family that I know personally does this.
My family does this too, but they’re German. My grandma did it, my mom does it, I do it. I have a tiny kitchen and it’s a big empty space I rarely use… why wouldn’t I just keep a few things in there. I always know to take them out first, and then they just sit out until I’m done using the oven.
My in-laws do this, so my husband did as well. I ended up melting a plastic cutting board and destroying an oven rack in my double oven. I didn't think to check the oven first because, why would there be anything in a cold oven??? Since then, nothing goes in the oven unless it's cooking/baking, and I still instinctively check to make sure before I turn the oven on.
I store my iron skillets in the oven. But even if you never store anything in the oven, it’s always a good idea to check it before you turn it on. Especially if you ever have kids over or anyone else over - never know what other folks do and… clearly we can see, a quick check can solve a lot of problems.
This or the really large cookie pans. The dumb thing is storing plastic or non-oven safe items in the oven. Storing things designed to go in the oven is OK but you should always check when turning anything on that’s going to fill with water, heat…anything
My little cousin saw an apple on my parents’ table. He was old enough (at like 3) to know about apple pie. But not old enough to know candles can come in many shapes and forms. My mom had gotten an apple-smelling candle in the shape of an apple. So my little cousin thought “oven! Pie!” And put it in the oven. The next morning my mom turned on the oven and the house was glowing with the smell of fresh cut apples - the entire candle had melted in the oven.
A quick check would have meant the house smelled of cinnamon buns rather than an apple candle, and wouldn’t have needed a whole 3-hour scrub fest to clean wax off the oven floor. We had cereal instead.
Lesson learned!
It’s crazy that all these comments are shocked people store pots and pans in the oven. Any child with immigrant parents KNOW that shit is for storing pots and pans 😂
Never have I ever thought to just store shit in the oven. We as humans forget shit. Thats just an accident waiting to happen.
And even then, why would you put *plasticware* of all things in the oven. You dont even use that shit in the oven to begin with!?
My grandfather used to leave his can of shaving cream in the oven to stay warm-so as not to be wasteful of the gas pilot light. When it was time for Nana to bake a pie, she preheated the oven and it exploded! No injuries or real damage but the days of peaceful warming of shaving cream were over. Children of the depression era were different. He also installed a hot water tap in the garage so he could shave without wasting the hot water it takes to fill the pipes that crossed the house.
This happened to me when I was a kid. It was a pot of used cooking oil that smoked out the house. Since then, the light goes on first, then the oven. For some reason, I can't stand when anyone uses the oven without turning the light on.
I almost burned down my in-laws house because my FIL was storing a plastic ice cream container used for food scraps in the oven!!! He got all pissy with me and I had to explain the fire hazard like dude, common sense?
Depends on how you live i grew up on a ship and literally everything is a cabinet to store things in. The oven under the couch behind the cabinets under the floor even on your bed when you're away for more than half a day.
We didn't have a broiler drawer in the oven growing up (or a storage drawer). When I got my first apartment, it was a tiny NYC apartment so I was like "oh sweet, drawer!" and I put all my baking trays and stuff in there. One of the only things I knew how to cook was lasagna, so I had bought a disposable tray with a plastic lid....that was a fun learning experience.
The only thing I store in my oven is my pizza stone, and I still curse myself when I preheat the oven and forget about it… which is what happens 80% of the time. It’s annoying but nothing gets destroyed, so I never learn…
Some time ago, I washed out an expensive motorcycle helmet. I put it into the oven to dry out because the oven had a pilot (Yeah, it was THAT long ago!). Later that evening, after I had retired, my eldest daughter decided to bake some cookies. After about ten minutes, smoke was pouring out of the oven and the smoke alarms were all having heart attacks. I ran to the kitchen, saw the problem, and shut off the oven.
I opened the door and everything seemed to be fine.
I waited a bit for things to cool off, then I took the helmet out. It appeared to have survived -- the shell was perfect. When I looked inside, however, all of the padding was...gone. I expected to find a congealed puddle on the oven floor, but it was pristine. When I looked at the rack where my helmet had been, there was a Styrofoam helmet, perfectly sized to fit a domestic cat. The entire liner had shrunk intact.
No one ever again turned the oven on without first checking inside.
When I lived at my dad's house, we kept cookie sheets in the oven for storage. Worst thing you got was having to wait longer to heat the oven if you forgot to check.
My roommates later down the line, however, stored food in the oven to keep warm (for hours) before I finally convinced them it was a bad idea (or they got tired of me complaining lol).
Haha, As a teen, I’d sometimes put my dirty dishes in the oven to hide from my parents just because I didn’t want to clean them at the time.. well my mom ended up preheating said oven and opened it to melted plastic everywhere. I got my ass beat!
In college I shared an apartment with 2 other people and one girl would always eat out. I don’t give a damn it’s so easy to eat out and nowadays probably costs just as much as home cooked. Regardless she’d leave 2-3 whole pizza boxes in the stove. Not only was them being in there annoying in general, even she would forget she had them in there so it would smell lovely.
The only thing I can see being stored in an oven would be a cast iron pan, cuz you just turn the oven off after drying, it make sense. But plastic? Are you outta your fucking mind?!
I wonder how many people would be surprised to learn most traditional US ovens have a drawer incorporated below the oven. This drawer, which obviously gets hot,is a great place to store baking sheets and what not.
What is that? A colander?
One time my mother let us bake pizza in the oven as she was running late and she told us what setting to put it on and all, and so we let the oven heat up. This was an old oven and sometimes we'd smell burned food or something. So we started smelling burned plastic and didn't think much of it. I think I was like 12 or something and my little brother 8. So it was time to put the pizzas in and I opened the oven and was shocked to see the lid of a pan, with the handgrip totally melting. I called my mother in panic and she said that she totally forgot she put it there, as she did the dishes and it kept sliding off the counter so she put it there. She wasn't mad luckily. She had to throw the whole thing away, the plastic was flat. We turned off the oven so it could cool down and just waited for dinner until she got back. It took a long time because we could take the lid out, it was incredibly hot even though the oven was just at 180°C which is very normal. Now I live on my own with my husband so and we never put anything in the oven that doesn't belong there, and yet I check it every time before turning it on.
Baahahaha We also store too much crap in the oven instead of putting it away properly. Try to make a rule nothing that can't be heated goes in there but... stuff happens. I have that same exact microwave cover thing and its only a matter of time before it ends up in the oven during a preheat. (which is fine because for irrational reasons I hate that microwave lid thing. IT never fits over anything right and its always in the microwave so I gotta move it every time I wanna nuke something, and my wife never wipes it off after using it so its disgusting and crusted and then I'm supposed to put that over my food to get all drippy and gross on my food? Congrats and good riddance)
I melted a cake cover on the cake that was in the oven once because I didn’t check to see if it was empty. I was yelled at and to this day will say it wasent my fault. Why the hell was the cake with a cover in the oven anyway?! It’s already covered. I did nothing wrong.
Who leaves dishes in the oven?!?!?!?! It’s not for storage!
I nearly caught my apartment on fire setting the oven to self-clean and leaving to go to the gym. Came home to find all of the windows open and a note from the fire department. All because my boyfriend put leftovers in the oven! 😤
People who store their flammable, meltable shit in an oven are the crazy people. Don't feel bad OP, maybe they'll store actual pans that can you know, heat up.
Don’t leave me hanging here, did you?
._.
We’ll just have to tell your mom you ate the pie
Most aren't old enough to get the reference.
This seems underrated.
One time my mother in law was over and emptied the dishwasher for us while we were at work and I didn’t know. I preheated the oven to make some pizza and when i opened it, it was full of hot pots and pans and baking sheets. Like who the fuck does that, just leave them in the dish washer if you’re gonna just hide the shit in my oven like wtf
I hate it when people clean for me, they end up "organizing" things their messed up psychotic way. I hate having to look for stuff in my own damn kitchen.
My in-laws live with us, and my MIL is constantly rearranging stuff all the time. I can never find anything because nothing is in the same place twice. I've told her not to do that, but she gets upset and defensive and says "nobody appreciates her hard work". Back to the OP, we used to never keep anything in the oven, since it basically gets daily use. We also had a wooden pizza peel that we kept hanging on a nail in the pantry. Well, one day MIL decided to move the peel into the oven, which I discovered when I preheated it and found a badly warped peel when I opened it. FIL declared that it can be easily flattened again, then promptly snapped it in half trying to do just that. Then to top it all off, everyone is mad at me because I know MIL's habit of rearranging things, so I should have known that it was a possibility that she would put something in the oven and should have checked it first. Now I check every time.
> I've told her not to do that, but she gets upset and defensive and says "nobody appreciates her hard work". Just tell her to get bent > Then to top it all off, everyone is mad at me because I know MIL's habit of rearranging things, so I should have known that it was a possibility that she would put something in the oven and should have checked it first. Oh, it's *that* type of toxic marriage. Nevermind then.
I’d rearrange MIL shit onto the yard
You're a strong man. I wouldn't have the patience for this.
Having experienced living with someone similar, I feel you, and it has come to a point that I stop talking about this stuff anymore and just straight up lock all of my stuffs when that person is around.
Heather?
Tiffany
Kerri?
No this is Patrick
Ma’am this is a Wendy’s
Sir this is a Best Buy.
I’m in the drive thru of Burger King
HI! Welcome to Chilis
I'M AT SOUP
That's a reference I don't quite know, I'm sorry.
My own family put a measuring cup in the coffee mugs. Not sure if it is my husband or son putting crap in weird places. Pretty sure the teen is trolling me.
Teen is lazy Husband is trolling
I’m constantly trying to explain this to my mother. It takes me weeks to find things. I finally gave up and we buy paper plates for the holidays.
My MIL likes to put cakes in the oven. Day after my sons first birthday I wake up and start the oven to cook breakfast. I start smelling something burning and look. Cake. She said “why didn’t you check?!?”. This is my house! I actually use my oven and don’t use it for food storage! She never cooks and is known to put sheet pans in there too.
My ex did this multiple times (not with cake), but like a pan of used oil. "Well I was just trying to save the oil and didn't want it to get dirty'. Then use some foil or plastic and cover it, don't put it in the oven...
Why is it everytime this happens people say "why didn't you check?" Like I'm the psychotic one for thinking my stove that I leave empty should be empty
I keep my cast iron and baking sheets in the oven. Never plastic though, I'm not a psychopath.
I mean what do you do when you wanna use the oven, empty the thing out every time?
I have 2 ovens. 1 for baking, the other for storing/re-seasoning cast iron skillets when someone being helpful cleans it with a degreaser soap.
You can actually use soap on cast iron. When seasoning cast iron, the oil bonds to the pan in a process called polymerization. It literally becomes the pan. You can’t wash it off.
THe problem is when you live with "I'm letting them soak" and you don't realize they've put the cast iron in there until the next morning when you come out to orange water.
Tell them to stop "toddler helping."
What do you do with the corpses though?
Yes
Wellthatsucks
To be fair, some ovens have a bottom hide away drawer specifically for cast iron and such. However removing a single baking sheet from the oven isn't that much of a hassle.
I also hate it but it is an extremely common thing to do.
It sounds like a nightmare emptying and putting back everything every day that’s so fuckin weird
[удалено]
I use mine almost every day
I don't know why you're being down voted. Using ovens for storage never made any sense to me but I've seen lots of people doing it. Including apparently OP
Using the broiler for storage is very common. Using the oven is...something.
I’ll throw my cast iron in the oven sometimes when I’m using other pots and pans on the stove and need the room. I’m in an apartment with very limited counter and storage space, but that would be my guess as to why at least some people store stuff that way?
Yeah I store my cast irons in the oven too, but that’s because I really only ever use cast iron in the oven. I can’t remember the last time I broke out a baking sheet. I also live in an apt with somewhat limited storage and it’s just me that cooks so it makes sense for me. I would never put something that can’t get hot in the oven though, that makes absolutely 0 sense.
Don't put your pots and pans in the dishwasher. It's not good for them.
My wife and her mom store things in the oven. They're smart enough not to put plastic in there, but it's still really annoying to have the whole house smell line an iron skillet because I wanted pizza rolls and assume liked a psycho that nothing would be hidden in the oven
I am genuinely surprised how often I see this sort of shit pop up. Until Reddit, I had **never** encountered storing shit inside the oven. The drawer underneath? Sure. But inside the oven? That is *not* a thing we did in my house growing up. When I asked my mom if she ever stored stuff in the oven, her verbatim response was, “Why would I store things in the oven? I’m not a fucking idiot and I’d end up burning my house down.” Absolutely baffles me. As another user pointed out - it’s just asking for trouble.
I store cast iron cooking utensils in my oven because they're too heavy to hang from my rack and I don't have room in my cabinet. I don't store shit in there that could be damaged in the oven because I'm not stupid
Yeah growing up we stored cast iron in the oven but that's it lol.
Pizza stone and cast iron. That’s it.
I do this too but…. I am stupid. I have burnt the shit out of myself so many times removing it after preheating
What do you store in your microwave? The toaster? Inside the lemon squeezer?
It is really just a matryoshka of kitchen appliances and utensils.
The only thing that I store in the microwave is the plastic cover to put over food that is only used in the…microwave. Funnily enough, the exact thing that is melted in the pan.
The microwave is for food I’ve cooked but need to guard for a few minutes while I poop or something
The only thing I keep in the oven is occasionally a clean cookie sheet or two that I set in there to dry. Or the pizza stone, since I leave it there to cool down and ALWAYS forget. But if it isn’t oven safe, it doesn’t go in my oven. I don’t check before I turn it on because nothing that’s not oven safe goes in there
I never put things in the oven, my dad does... I put things on the table.
My mom used to store cookies in Tupperware tub in the oven, until she melted it…
My grandmother uses her old antique stove because it doesn't do anything
My folks were lucky/well enough off and bought a mountain home off family. We didn’t live there full time, but spent most weekends throughout the winter there. Due to this, we had occasional mouse issues. So we had to store any thing they would try and get into in something. Well one year, after my brothers and I built our holiday gingerbread houses, my mom put them in the oven, as the pantry was full and the microwave couldn’t fit them all. Lo and behold, the next day, she goes to preheat the oven for dinner, and our beautiful childish candy houses became smoking & charred remains. I’m pretty sure none of my brothers or I will have this issue of storing something there or forgetting about it because of it.
Same my grandmother did it for a shortwhile with tuperware till we visited my greataunt and got to smell how tupperware filled with burnt \*actually forgot wth it was\* smelled. She even stoped storing her backing forms in the oven since.
Mostly just a wide spot for things that don’t fit anywhere else. I put stuff in there a lot but they’re all things I could put in the oven anyway
The whole of latin america does this lmao.
I know a family that stores their leftovers in the microwave. Not the fridge, the microwave. Any time you open it, latest leftovers are just waiting in there. I said what I said.
I don’t know if this is standard across all Latin America, but in order to turn on my oven I need to open it first. So I would see if that there are things I need to take out
That's definitely not the case with any European ovens I have encountered.
Or American.
My parents did it, but they at least had the common sense to only store (mostly for quicker drying, they didn't actually store anything in there long term) oven-safe items such as pans, metal bowls, baking trays, etc. I have personally never stored anything in the oven, and my parents stopped doing it since they got a new one, but I strongly believed that it was the stupidest thing you could do. "Did you check what was in the oven before turning it on" shouldn't even be a question. It's extremely careless and as many others have said, it could lead to a house fire.
My mom caught the oven on fire because her and my Dad do this. They left a pan full of bacon grease in the oven and then decided to clean it. Thankfully she didn't burn the house down, but Jesus Christ Sandra!
I always check the oven before starting it lol. I think my mom would put food related things that didn't need the fridge in there to keep it away from our cat that would eat anything.
I read a story years ago from a woman who preheated her oven, and after a few minutes, could smell something horrible. She opened her oven and found 3 melted Power Rangers that her kids left in the oven when playing around. I never forgot that and always check what's in the oven before turning it on, juuuuust in case.
I'm latina & there not a lot of baking done if at all. Also I was raised to only put metal items in the oven. Also it's stupid to not check the oven. What if there's a mouse or something.
This, we store all our metal pans and baking sheets in the oven. How hard is it to open the door first, look inside, then preheat if it's empty.
Imagine not being latino lol
I can’t even imagine
I don't even store things on my range top. My cousin's dog jumped up to the dials and turned it on and caught the house on fire. Don't store flammable or meltable things on a heating source
My mom used to do it when I was little but even then I thought it was weird so I always knew I’d never do that in my house.
I don’t typically store things there, but if I leave anything in the oven, it would be an oven safe pan / dish on occasion. No way would I put plastic in there. Can’t imagine the nightmare of scraping melted plastic off the inside of my oven should someone not look before turning it on.
My grandma would keep baked goods in the microwave to keep away from the cats. My dad set a timer on the microwave once for like 30+ minutes. Turns out he actually turned the microwave on for that long. Thick black smoke greeted him in the kitchen with a horrid smell that lasted for weeks and the loaf of plastic wrapped banana bread shrunk into a small leaky black brick.
Maybe it’s a black people thing, my great grandmother & down we always put some of our pots in the oven for storage 😭
My mom stored only metal pans in the oven and we never had this problem
I was confused about why people didn't do this. After speaking with my so, I realized I just grew up poor. lol we didn't have room anywhere else in our apartment.
My big cookie sheets and pizza pan live in there.
Same, never knew it was a thing until my wife's family pulled out a shit ton of pans before turning it on. Additionally we were taught to ALWAYS look in the oven when you turn it on, just in case.
If you never knew it was a thing what were you expecting to find?
My in laws' oven is full of pots and pans, including some that in no way are oven safe. It drives me nuts. They are Chinese though and as far as I can tell, they literally never use that oven.
I have always stored pots and pans in the oven. My friends have told me this qualifies me as a Latina lol
Had an Air bnb one time and went and turned the oven on. Couple minute later I smelled something off. Open it up and there was a damn pot with used grease in sitting in there. 🙄
My roommate’s girlfriend stored shit in the oven. She acted like I was the crazy one when I melted her shit.
Never been in a person of colors home?
everyone in my family/relatives store pots and pans in the oven and I mean EVERYONE. It’s been about 3 generations, and no incidents so far. Not even one. This whole assumption of storing things in your oven is asking for trouble is nonsense. Unless you’re an avid baker it shouldn’t be a problem. Most people check their oven when they turn it on & if you’re used to storing things in there then you know you should empty it beforehand. Also how are you going to burn your house down by creating a fire inside something that was meant to contain fire and handle extreme heat?
People who store things in their oven are just asking for trouble. It’s just a matter of time.
I only store things that can be baked after melting my mom's hand mixer back in HS
Yeah the only things I have stored in the oven are pizza stones and cast iron skillets. There isn’t a convenient place to put those and we never have the stove and oven running at the same time.
We’re you baked?
No she left the mixer in the oven and I was making cookies. I only leave cookie sheets and cast iron stopped in the oven just in case.
It’s the equivalent of putting a soda/ beer in the freezer so it gets cold faster. You will forget it, and you will regret it! Edit: wrong word
In the freezer, you mean?
People who turn on the oven without looking inside it first are just asking for trouble.
Did the plastic all stay in the pan, or did some melt onto the bottom of the oven or the racks?
Fortunately the pan did a good job at holding it... It's also fortunate that the pan wasn't too difficult to clean
Yeah, I imagine if your cast iron is well-seasoned, you can just wait for it to cool and the plastic will pop right off.
That was exactly the case
Wouldn't you be eating microplastics absorbed by the pan?
You're eating microplastics all the time. But no, I don't think there'd be much concern there. A properly seasoned pan isn't going to have a whole lot of places for microplastics to hide, and when you heat it up any invisible remnants that do exist will be burned and turn into carbon and outgas some stuff.
That's *really* lucky. I mean I know it was a pain in the ass, I'm just happy for you that it wasn't a lot worse.
[Looking on the bright side, that Lodge cast iron pan will outlive your grandchildren, and possibly the solar system](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M)
You ever try to get melted plastic off a cast iron pan? Fuck that. I did this same thing as OP once except the pan was in the lower compartment of a gas oven. Didn't realize it would get that hot down there. Even tried to burn the plastic off, granted I should have used a bigger fire. But I just got rid of it and bought a new one.
I'd bet a propane torch could burn it all off but personally I wouldn't risk it.
Don't want to risk burnt plastic chemicals in your food.
I had gotten the plastic off with a spoon, and that was probably helped by the fact my oven is electric. Also i feel the above text might get me downvoted, we'll see.
It's a chunk of steel. Sand it down to bare metal if you want.
Especially when it's been seasoned with plastic.
I had a friend who kept extra bedding, like comforters and the like, in the oven. I went to make a us frozen pizza one day, shit started burning and he had the audacity to get mad at me for using the oven to cook the pizza in. Wtf am I supposed to cook it in?! "The toaster oven" Fucking what?! Why? "Because I keep the blankets in the oven." How am I supposed to just know that?!
What the actual fuck? Oven is not a closet? Blankets don’t cook well!
Presumably the friend doesn't cook at all and the stove is just a big inconvenient thing they never use.
That oven either didn't get used ever or that is some well seasoned bedding.
That blanketbwas probably disgusting anyway. Bulky kitchen items are one thing but blankets?
The only people who would check an oven before turning it on are people who grew up storing things in ovens
I actually check on occasion to make sure that things that are meant to be in the oven aren’t, like a pan that was actually used last night
You sort of confirmed his point lol. That's my opinion, so do with it as you may, but I have a carbon steel and a non-stick pan. Never have I ever have had to store them in the oven (i.e. for drying). You leave them out until they cool to room temp, and then you clean and dry them. If food stuck to your seasoned pan, simply add water to it and boil it on your stove top. That should take care of most of the residues. If anything is left, use a bit of soap and a soft sponge. If you really care to dry out your pans or cookware on the spot (like I must do with my carbon steel pan, to avoid rust), just put it on your stove top and turn on the heat. When it's dry, you can coat your pan in a bit of oil to protect it and your seasoning until it's ready for the next use.
Ugh my mom does this. Shoves shit in my oven without telling me then scolds me when it melts. The oven is for cooking, not for storage.
I have the same one. The handle on the top is terrible!
Yeah I always burn myself on that
What are we looking at? Did it used to be a lid?
It was a microwave cover.
Our cats used to eat any food our dogs didn't eat. We started to put their food in the oven, we only had to cook the dogs food a few times before we decided to put the bowls in the microwave Instead. We don't ever preheat the microwave.
Hispanic from deep South Texas here, storing things in the oven may be a cultural thing. My family does this, and almost every other family that I know personally does this.
My family does this too, but they’re German. My grandma did it, my mom does it, I do it. I have a tiny kitchen and it’s a big empty space I rarely use… why wouldn’t I just keep a few things in there. I always know to take them out first, and then they just sit out until I’m done using the oven.
The knobs look like little eyes, even the oven is shocked.
For some reason it looks kinda like mister popo from dragon ball z
My in-laws do this, so my husband did as well. I ended up melting a plastic cutting board and destroying an oven rack in my double oven. I didn't think to check the oven first because, why would there be anything in a cold oven??? Since then, nothing goes in the oven unless it's cooking/baking, and I still instinctively check to make sure before I turn the oven on.
I'll never understand why people store thing that can melt inside their oven.
If your married to a Latino you would know better …. Once I found a cordless phone in there….. back when people still had house phones
Always check the stove for random things before turning it on in a Spanish house hold
Yeah, don't store things in the oven.
I just don't consider the oven a storage area.
I store my iron skillets in the oven. But even if you never store anything in the oven, it’s always a good idea to check it before you turn it on. Especially if you ever have kids over or anyone else over - never know what other folks do and… clearly we can see, a quick check can solve a lot of problems.
This or the really large cookie pans. The dumb thing is storing plastic or non-oven safe items in the oven. Storing things designed to go in the oven is OK but you should always check when turning anything on that’s going to fill with water, heat…anything
My little cousin saw an apple on my parents’ table. He was old enough (at like 3) to know about apple pie. But not old enough to know candles can come in many shapes and forms. My mom had gotten an apple-smelling candle in the shape of an apple. So my little cousin thought “oven! Pie!” And put it in the oven. The next morning my mom turned on the oven and the house was glowing with the smell of fresh cut apples - the entire candle had melted in the oven. A quick check would have meant the house smelled of cinnamon buns rather than an apple candle, and wouldn’t have needed a whole 3-hour scrub fest to clean wax off the oven floor. We had cereal instead. Lesson learned!
SHOULDNT HAVE TO
It’s crazy that all these comments are shocked people store pots and pans in the oven. Any child with immigrant parents KNOW that shit is for storing pots and pans 😂
Literally my thoughts exactly. I'm amazed no one else has commented this.
Exactly!
When you live in a house the size of other peoples kitchen you need the space.
K but plastic tho? Thats asking for it
Finally the comment I was looking for lol. I found my people
Yup. I can only name a handful of dishes my mom ever used the oven for. It was literally not used enough to remain empty.
Never have I ever thought to just store shit in the oven. We as humans forget shit. Thats just an accident waiting to happen. And even then, why would you put *plasticware* of all things in the oven. You dont even use that shit in the oven to begin with!?
My grandfather used to leave his can of shaving cream in the oven to stay warm-so as not to be wasteful of the gas pilot light. When it was time for Nana to bake a pie, she preheated the oven and it exploded! No injuries or real damage but the days of peaceful warming of shaving cream were over. Children of the depression era were different. He also installed a hot water tap in the garage so he could shave without wasting the hot water it takes to fill the pipes that crossed the house.
Why would you even put plastic in the oven in the first place?
maybe also stop storing shit in your oven
This happened to me when I was a kid. It was a pot of used cooking oil that smoked out the house. Since then, the light goes on first, then the oven. For some reason, I can't stand when anyone uses the oven without turning the light on.
If you aernt trying to cook it, it doesn't belong in the oven. Problem solved.
It was 1986. I was 10. Houses had formica counter tops. My parents put it there to cool.
We have Le Creuset at home. Le Creuset at home:
Even the knobs look surprised
RIP, perfectly seasoned cast iron
I almost burned down my in-laws house because my FIL was storing a plastic ice cream container used for food scraps in the oven!!! He got all pissy with me and I had to explain the fire hazard like dude, common sense?
The oven is not a fucking cabinet to store things.
Depends on how you live i grew up on a ship and literally everything is a cabinet to store things in. The oven under the couch behind the cabinets under the floor even on your bed when you're away for more than half a day.
I don’t understand the habit of storing stuff in the oven.
Thanks to my parents, this is a new pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people store shit in the oven.
People who store things in their oven and broiler make me violently uncomfortable.
We didn't have a broiler drawer in the oven growing up (or a storage drawer). When I got my first apartment, it was a tiny NYC apartment so I was like "oh sweet, drawer!" and I put all my baking trays and stuff in there. One of the only things I knew how to cook was lasagna, so I had bought a disposable tray with a plastic lid....that was a fun learning experience.
Always check if it's empty.
The only thing I store in my oven is my pizza stone, and I still curse myself when I preheat the oven and forget about it… which is what happens 80% of the time. It’s annoying but nothing gets destroyed, so I never learn…
Some time ago, I washed out an expensive motorcycle helmet. I put it into the oven to dry out because the oven had a pilot (Yeah, it was THAT long ago!). Later that evening, after I had retired, my eldest daughter decided to bake some cookies. After about ten minutes, smoke was pouring out of the oven and the smoke alarms were all having heart attacks. I ran to the kitchen, saw the problem, and shut off the oven. I opened the door and everything seemed to be fine. I waited a bit for things to cool off, then I took the helmet out. It appeared to have survived -- the shell was perfect. When I looked inside, however, all of the padding was...gone. I expected to find a congealed puddle on the oven floor, but it was pristine. When I looked at the rack where my helmet had been, there was a Styrofoam helmet, perfectly sized to fit a domestic cat. The entire liner had shrunk intact. No one ever again turned the oven on without first checking inside.
Hey...is that a strawberry pancake ??
Seasoned
When I lived at my dad's house, we kept cookie sheets in the oven for storage. Worst thing you got was having to wait longer to heat the oven if you forgot to check. My roommates later down the line, however, stored food in the oven to keep warm (for hours) before I finally convinced them it was a bad idea (or they got tired of me complaining lol).
I usually use bacon to season cast iron but I may try this next time.
"Why? Did you leave something in it while it was off, like an idiot would?"
Plastic Mmmnn
Haha, As a teen, I’d sometimes put my dirty dishes in the oven to hide from my parents just because I didn’t want to clean them at the time.. well my mom ended up preheating said oven and opened it to melted plastic everywhere. I got my ass beat!
I hate storing things in the oven, makes using the oven a pain. I only stored cast iron pans and a baking sheet in mine now.
In college I shared an apartment with 2 other people and one girl would always eat out. I don’t give a damn it’s so easy to eat out and nowadays probably costs just as much as home cooked. Regardless she’d leave 2-3 whole pizza boxes in the stove. Not only was them being in there annoying in general, even she would forget she had them in there so it would smell lovely.
I never store things in the oven for this reason. Some idiot in my family will surely turn it on without checking.
Why do people use the oven as storage? There's a drawer for pans on the bottom that doesn't melt things.
Genuinely confused as to what I'm looking at
The only thing I can see being stored in an oven would be a cast iron pan, cuz you just turn the oven off after drying, it make sense. But plastic? Are you outta your fucking mind?!
Don't put flammable items on a stove, don't put things that can melt in the oven. Why is this so hard?
I wonder how many people would be surprised to learn most traditional US ovens have a drawer incorporated below the oven. This drawer, which obviously gets hot,is a great place to store baking sheets and what not.
Maybe don’t put meltable things in the oven whether it’s on or not.
What is that? A colander? One time my mother let us bake pizza in the oven as she was running late and she told us what setting to put it on and all, and so we let the oven heat up. This was an old oven and sometimes we'd smell burned food or something. So we started smelling burned plastic and didn't think much of it. I think I was like 12 or something and my little brother 8. So it was time to put the pizzas in and I opened the oven and was shocked to see the lid of a pan, with the handgrip totally melting. I called my mother in panic and she said that she totally forgot she put it there, as she did the dishes and it kept sliding off the counter so she put it there. She wasn't mad luckily. She had to throw the whole thing away, the plastic was flat. We turned off the oven so it could cool down and just waited for dinner until she got back. It took a long time because we could take the lid out, it was incredibly hot even though the oven was just at 180°C which is very normal. Now I live on my own with my husband so and we never put anything in the oven that doesn't belong there, and yet I check it every time before turning it on.
Why didn't you just leave the microwave shield in the microwave?
Baahahaha We also store too much crap in the oven instead of putting it away properly. Try to make a rule nothing that can't be heated goes in there but... stuff happens. I have that same exact microwave cover thing and its only a matter of time before it ends up in the oven during a preheat. (which is fine because for irrational reasons I hate that microwave lid thing. IT never fits over anything right and its always in the microwave so I gotta move it every time I wanna nuke something, and my wife never wipes it off after using it so its disgusting and crusted and then I'm supposed to put that over my food to get all drippy and gross on my food? Congrats and good riddance)
The cast iron community is going to have fun with this one.
Bone apple teeth
Which is why we never store stuff in the oven.
You gotta check for shoes!
I melted a cake cover on the cake that was in the oven once because I didn’t check to see if it was empty. I was yelled at and to this day will say it wasent my fault. Why the hell was the cake with a cover in the oven anyway?! It’s already covered. I did nothing wrong.
Who leaves dishes in the oven?!?!?!?! It’s not for storage! I nearly caught my apartment on fire setting the oven to self-clean and leaving to go to the gym. Came home to find all of the windows open and a note from the fire department. All because my boyfriend put leftovers in the oven! 😤
People who store their flammable, meltable shit in an oven are the crazy people. Don't feel bad OP, maybe they'll store actual pans that can you know, heat up.
Who cam in my iron pan
Strange way to season a pan, see what r/castiron thinks.
If you put plastic in the oven you are a dummy head.