In many kitchens, it is common practice to use a turned-off oven as a “storage” space for trays, pots, and pans. This is actually empty space when the appliance is not in use, which can be very useful, especially if you don't have large furniture or have a lot of cookware.
However, this habit is wrong because it can lead to many problems, concerning both the “health” of the pots and appliances and the quality of the food you serve. The oven is not a piece of furniture. If you fill the inside of the oven with pots and pans with handles, you risk damaging the internal walls of the appliance, which are coated with materials necessary for even heat distribution.
Therefore, to avoid the risk of irreversible damage to the oven, you should immediately remove the cookware you keep inside. Damage to the oven's interior lining also poses a risk to the integrity of the food you bring to the table. Namely, tiny particles of these materials, toxic to your health, could end up in the food during baking and contaminate it, making it inedible.
Furthermore, most baking sheets and pans have an inner coating that, if damaged, compromises the safety of the food cooked in them. Stuffing several baking sheets or pans into each other to fit them all in the oven can lead to long-term scratching of the interior of the cookware and damage to this coating, with dangerous consequences for your health. The risks of this wrong practice increase if you also put utensils such as knives, forks, or tongs in the oven.
Finally, the last risk is related to the possibility of forgetting the presence of cookware in the oven and turning it on, perhaps to preheat it, without removing everything inside. In that case, there is a risk of burning plastic or silicone handles and irreversibly damaging the cookware stored in the oven but not suitable for use in this appliance, as reported by Novi list.
