# Completely dry dishes before putting away?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [November 29, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977 "2008-11-29T22:08:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/1 "2008-11-29T22:08:19Z")
Do you? Why?
My mom taught me to make sure the dishes are completely dry before putting away. I think she implied some horrible mold would start growing on them if I didn’t, and we’d all die of food poisoning.
At some point as I grew older, it occurred to me if the dishes are clean, and assuming the dishes aren’t made from burlap or something, putting them away with a few drops of water still on them isn’t going to do a damn thing. A little water will dry off soon enough.
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### Author:  [@InterestedObserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InterestedObserver)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/2 "2008-11-29T22:24:26Z")
Yes, I do, but I do so with a dish drainer, not by hand.
Why? Not fear of mold or anything, but if plates or bowls are put up really wet, you get water on you when you reach up to pull one down. And force of habit, I suppose.
But I suppose it IS possible that some sort of funky organism could grow in water left on dishes for more than a brief time, and in closed cabinets with no air circulation, if it’s more than a trace, evaporation takes a while.
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/3 "2008-11-29T23:15:12Z")
I wash them, dry them and put them back in the cupboards straight away. I don’t want them lying around the place.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/4 "2008-11-30T00:29:52Z")
Sometimes I just can’t get glasses completely dry before they go back into the cupboard, for fear of breaking the glass just to get that oooone last drop. So yeah, I put those away slightly wet sometimes, but upside-down so they at least drain.
I don’t really have a problem with other dishes. If you rinse them with hot enough water, put them in the dish drainer and then put them away, nature seems to do most of the work for you.
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### Author:  [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/5 "2008-11-30T01:28:10Z")
Dishes often have an inner rim and a bottom rim to make them easier to stack. If there’s water on them there is the possibility that they’ll stack more or less airtight… or tight enough so that barely any air gets into or out of the plate sandwich. Leave that alone for a week and eat off it… Probably won’t be anything visible unless you’ve got some sort of food specks on there for something to feed off of… but a closed off quarter inch thick pool of water for a week at room temp in the dark…
I wouldn’t want to eat off it.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2008, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/6 "2008-11-30T12:08:51Z")
I put them away after they’ve dried, because I don’t want a lot of extra humidity trapped inside my cabinets.
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2008, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/7 "2008-11-30T15:10:36Z")
Mine go through a dry cycle in the dishwasher, but the glasses and coffee cups manage to have a bit of pooled water on them because the dishwasher isn’t designed to tilt them at an angle steep enough for it to drain off. I just shake it off and put them away a bit damp. No biggie here.
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### Author:  [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/8 "2008-11-30T20:55:11Z")
It’s not so much about water on the dishes themselves, but rather, it’s more about water getting onto the wood of your cabinets.
A few drops here and there isn’t really a problem. But over a prolonged period, the wood may start to warp and/or discolor.
Even if your cabinets are lined with paper, the water can still seep through.
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### Author:  [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/9 "2008-11-30T22:05:19Z")
I don’t dry them myself, I let them become completely dry before stacking them into a dark cupboard.
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### Author:  [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/10 "2008-11-30T22:56:59Z")
I pretty much just use paper plates and plastic cups and eliminated the hassle entirely. Of course, I’m a single guy, so its much easier to pull off.
Back home, we just left plates in the rack to dry before putting away(or grabbing them out of the rack to be used again immediately). Cups are easy to just shake a bit, then put them upside down. I imagine the water would damage the bottom of the cupboards eventually, but in our house, a bit of warping was no big deal.
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### Author:  [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2008, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/11 "2008-12-01T05:05:47Z")
I let them air-dry. If they’re little bit damp I usually don’t worry about it, but it almost never happens. The only ones I set aside to make sure they’re dry, dry, dry are ones that nest pretty tightly. My measuring cups sit out until I’m sure there is no residual moisture on them, even if I’ve towel-dried them. I don’t put the cap on the food chopper until I’m sure about it, either, for the same reason. Other than that, a drop or two won’t bother me, but there usually isn’t anything there anyway.
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/12 "2008-12-04T04:15:22Z")
Yes, of course I do. If you don’t, you may warp the cabinent in time from the moisture. 😉
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### Author:  [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2008, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completely-dry-dishes-before-putting-away/474977/13 "2008-12-04T06:22:44Z")
Oooh boy! Am I the first to admit to letting my dishes be still damp before putting them up? 'Cause I’ve indeed had some that a bit of water will drip off on me when reaching up to pull them down from the shelves. \< shrug \> I’m 40 and have never had a problem with doing that so far.
Of course, I was raised in a barn. 😛