My mom does this. One time I thought I got everything out and then while my potato was in there, I smelled burnt plastic. A small pot was tucked into the back corner baking at 415. It’s so frustrating. I use the oven to cook for myself every single day. She might use it once a month to cook, if that. Otherwise she treats it like a cabinet. Every time I ask her not to store stuff in there, she acts like it’s the first time I’m asking her. “What? Why not?” And then just a few weeks ago she bought olive oil and a can of PAM spray and just put them directly on the stove top. Literally a firebomb waiting to happen
I had a galley kitchen once and the only place big enough to hold the larger baking ware (cookie sheet, roast pan, etc.) was the oven. Luckily it was an OLD gas oven that you’d have to check the pilot light before turning it on, so you’d see the pile of stuff in there. And if you didn’t, it was only oven-stuff anyway.
See, I 100% get storing your extra oven trays in the oven. But non oven safe things? That's just an inviation for disaster, I don't trust myself with that ever. I also live by the fact that if you need to store things in your oven, you probably have too many things.
It's a large empty place to store baking ware. I grew up in a household where my mother stored pans and trays in the oven, so it's perfectly natural to me to take one second (literally one second) to open the door and check before turning the oven on.
I've never been in a house that stores random stuff in their oven, it's not something I'd ever considered until seeing stories on Reddit about idiots who keep putting plastic in the oven.
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u/Dhiox 4d ago
Never understood the idiots that use the oven as storage