Potatoes are a staple ingredient in many household kitchens up and down the country. Whether it’s making crispy and golden French fry style chips, or serving a plate of perfectly roasted potatoes alongside a Sunday dinner, there’s no end to the many different ways you can use potatoes. Cooking them, however, is one thing, and many of us have likely struggled with keeping potatoes fresh.

Reaching into a pack only to find they’ve gone soft and started sprouting is an easy way to ruin dinner, but when stored correctly, potatoes can stay fresh for up to five months in the kitchen. While there are plenty of recommendations out there for how to store them, with experts even finding it safe to keep them in the fridge, finding a spare bit of space in the kitchen can also be an issue. So you might want to think about placing them somewhere else in the house where they’ll happily last for a few months.

But before you go rummaging around in dark corners, it’s important to first remove potatoes from the plastic packaging they’re often sold in. Plastic is one thing you should absolutely avoid when looking to keep potatoes fresh for longer. 

Instead, it’s advised to use a more breathable material like a paper bag, or if you’ve got quite the collection of potatoes, a cardboard box with holes in it. Plastic is notorious for trapping moisture, which can accelerate spoilage in potatoes and lead to them sprouting in just a few weeks.

Once you’ve transferred them, if you’re short on space in the kitchen, storing them in one slightly unusual location that’s approved by a garden expert will preserve potatoes for up to four months. 

On his website, gardening expert Randy Lemmon shared that the ideal storage space for potatoes is cool, dark and somewhere that has good airflow to prevent them from going mouldy.

Despite traditionally being kept in the kitchen, Randy suggests that you could instead put your spare room to use and place them under an unused bed in shallow boxes. 

An unused bed makes an ideal storage spot, maintaining a steady airflow and keeping potatoes away from light and other produce, like onions, which release gases that can lead to their spoilage.

While they can be kept for up to four months here, it’s important to check in on them every now and then and look out for any sprouting or green patches. Remove spoiled potatoes from the box to ensure the rest stay fresh.