The Mystery of the Mushy Potatoes

So, I have this problem.  I can't seem to keep potatoes for more than a week.  Aren't these supposed to last and last in cool, dark conditions?  I buy small bags of potatoes, 3-5 lbs, so that they will get used up fairly quickly, but just the other day, I reached into the potato/onion bin for a few spuds and found a smelly, squishy, nasty rotten mess where my week-old red potatoes should have been.  This is not the first time this has happened to me. 

At first I thought it was because I was keeping them in the plastic bag they came in. So, I started putting them in a wicker basket on the bottom shelf of my pantry cupboard, next to the onions.  Its a dark cool place and the wicker basket should allow enough ventilation.  Nope, still had mushy potatoes. 

The last time I cleaned/organized the cupboard, I put the onions in this basket too.  Seems logical right?  Not only did this not help the mushy potato problem, it made it worse.  (Here's where it becomes apparent that I am a natural blonde.)  I thought I was buying defective potatoes. 

Then I was talking to my friend the other day, complaining about having to throw out half a bag of potatoes because they were  rotten.  I was ranting about the quality of the potatoes at the grocery store and how there's no reason in the world they should rot so quickly, you know since I keep them in a cool dark cupboard and my onions are right in the same basket and they keep just fine.  That's when she told me that you shouldn't store potatoes and onions together because onions give off gasses that make your potatoes spoil.  

Am I the only person who didn't know that you shouldn't store potatoes and onions in the same bin? I thought that was the whole point of that cute little wooden bin with "spuds & onions" burned into it that my Grandma had.  The aforementioned friend also has one of those nifty little bins, and she pointed out that the onions go in a separate drawer.  I felt like a complete idiot.  Good thing I have her around. :)  She told me that I can keep them in the same cabinet, but not the same bin, and maybe just to be safe put them on a different shelf.

This gave me an excuse to go buy some new bins for the pantry.  Fortunately, a new Dollar Tree store just opened up in town and I was able to swing in and pick up a few cheap plastic bins for the time being.  Eventually, I'll replace them with some cool vintage wire ones, but for now bright colored plastic ones will do.

Here's a look at my freshly organized pantry.  See, potatoes on the bottom left in the pretty little blue basket and onions on the middle right in the snazzy green basket.  

No, this is not a paid advertisement for Wal-Mart or Cub Foods.  Nor do I live with a maniacal husband with a canned goods fetish (name that movie).