5 Tips to Help You Organize Your Chest Feezer
A chest freezer could be the best blessing you can receive or the worst curse.
They’re excellent in making space (especially in the case where the freezer connected to your fridge is tiny) as well as freezing foods is an excellent method to ensure that your food items last longer.
If your chest freezer isn’t well-organized and you’re not able to locate anything in the large pile of ice-cold containers and containers is almost impossible.
Why is ORGANIZING A CHEST FREEZER SO IMPORTANT?
Contents
Although chest freezers are fantastic for storing food items, they can get messy quickly. Each when you remove something from the freezer, other things move around within the deep freezer – meaning that things can are easily lost!
There’s a variety of frozen vegetables or ground beef stuffed into dark corners or boxes of food frozen that you aren’t sure you recognize. (Unless it’s my experience, I hope that I’m not the only one in this.)
There are options to arrange your frozen food and eliminate the stress of rummaging through the mess of a freezer.
This guide will offer helpful tips for organizing your chest freezer and returning it in good working order!
How To Organize A Chest Freezer
It’s easy to throw food in your freezer in the chest when you return home from the shop. We’ve all been there.
However, a well-organized chest freezer will allow you to reduce the time spent cooking. If you keep your freezer organized and know where everything is, you will easily access what you need without searching for hours in your freezer.
Organizing a chest freezer may seem overwhelming or intimidating. It doesn’t have to be!
Here are some suggestions to help you find the perfect, well-organized chest freezer.
1. Toss out everything that HAS been ruined
The first step in organizing the chest freezer is to sort through the contents you keep inside and throw out anything wrong.
Verify the expiration date of the frozen items before arranging them to ensure you eliminate expired items.
You might be amazed at the amount of food that has been spoiled and must be removed.
Please eliminate or recycle all bags, boxes or containers you have stored your belongings in when they’re not being used anymore. (However, you may be capable of repurposing some of the packages – more about that in the future.)
If your food items have burned or been stored in the freezer for an undetermined period, it is best to eliminate them.
While frozen food lasts for a time, it’s not guaranteed to stay for a long time. Be sure to keep track of the time you’ve been eating your food items to aren’t eating anything past the usable date.
Make sure you keep track of the old items in your freezers for chests, so you can use them all before they expire!
- CATEGORY YOUR FOODS
After you’ve cleared out all food items that have gone bad, you’re ready to classify your food items.
Start separating your frozen foods into various groups and categories. I LOVE this image taken by Savory Seasonings.
Please report this advertisement. Specific categories or groups will be minor, while others will be larger. Make a note of what kind of food items you are most fond of since that’s important in the future when organizing.
It’s also beneficial to take large amounts of food items and then break them down into smaller, more efficient portions to ensure that your food isn’t in the trash.
Some good categories to use when organizing a CHEST FREEZER are:
- meat
- fruits
- vegetables
- bread
- baked goods
- dairy products
- snacks
- frozen meals, or meals that are pre-cooked to pop into the oven or microwave (this can include pizza frozen)
You can subdivide these categories, and I’d suggest it.
It will help you sort and organize the freezer in a chest simpler and make it easier to find particular items later.
(Even If you have an upright freezer but not an upright freezer, I’d recommend this step. A well-organized freezer can make cooking more accessible and less stress-inducing.)
Freezer Labels:
1. GET A LOT OF STURDY FREEZER BINS
Freezer bins work excellently to organize chest freezers since they can be placed on the shelves of the chest freezer without taking up too much space.
You can also take them out and discover what’s in each one (particularly useful when looking for specific food items). If you’re looking to have a well-organized freezer, you’ll need to purchase some containers.
Here are some ideas for the various kinds of storage bins that you could use. You should choose one that is efficient and can be used for the entire freezer.
You can certainly use any combination of these choices, but I prefer the pretty homogeneous ones. Therefore, finding sets of containers available in various sizes is usually a good alternative. The containers must stack over one another.
BINS IN THE STORE FOR DOLLAR
There are a lot of bins at the dollar store that can help organize your freezer.
The flexible tubs of plastic range from dividers. Look into The Dollar store for those who want to maximize the space within your chest freezer without costing you a dime.
REPURPOSED CONTAINERS
You can easily recycle old objects to make storage containers. For instance, you could reuse old cans, oatmeal containers, or infant formula containers.
If you’re not looking to spend money on new items and want to arrange your freezer on the tightest budget, you can try using repurposed objects instead of purchasing new plastic tubs!
Some people utilize milk cartons made of old to store small frozen vegetables and other things. Also, I’ve seen folks storing items inside magazine holders.
Explore your creativity and think of how you can reuse your items!
BASKETS FOR WIRE
A wire basket is a simple way to arrange items in your freezer in your chest. Wire baskets are helpful because they’re simple to organize and stack on top of one another.
Additionally, since they’re wires and not completely solid, you can quickly look through them and see what’s inside.
CARDBOARD BOXES
Recycling cardboard boxes as storage containers is an excellent idea since you can utilize the exact sizes you require and arrange your freezer to suit your needs.
It’s also an affordable option for any existing items in your home.
All you have to do is ensure that the stacks are strong enough not to be able to splinter or fall apart when placed on top of one another.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF BAGS
Bags are another option to keep the categories in your freezer in a different place.
You can use all kinds of bags, such as old canvas bags, cloth bags, and even old grocery bags from stores.
The biggest issue is that it is challenging to organize various kinds of food items into bags, particularly if you’re looking for a more precise organization of the contents of your freezer.
When you’re using this technique of managing a chest freezer, ensure that you label the exterior of each bag to ensure that everyone knows what’s inside.
Make sure you organize your chest freezers by using an assortment of these. For instance, you could purchase deep freezer bins and use large, labelled plastic storage containers to store food items in those more giant bins.
You could also utilize an enormous container and then use bags in these bins to categorize. It’s beneficial to arrange food items in your freezer chest if you keep foods in portions within Ziploc bags (or similar silicon bags).
1. Organize your meals based on the foods you use the most.
If you sort your freezer into categories, you’ll be able to pinpoint exactly where everything is when it’s time to cook and consume them.
Therefore, when designing your organizational system for your chest freezer, consider which items should be readily reachable.
If you are using ground meat frequently, it is best to keep it located in a place that offers the ability to access it easily.
If you’re organizing a chest freezer, you’ll have to arrange your containers to maximize space. The best thing to do is to do this when you stack items to ensure that your top layer is filled with items that you’ll be using the most often.
It’s also a good idea to ensure that your top layer contains light things, so you can easily lift the bins when you’re looking for something on the bottom.
You can also arrange your freezer by your temperature preferences. For instance, you can put items which require colder temperatures on the lowest level, while other things can be placed in bins or baskets close to hand.
Make sure you are thinking about the organization of your chest freezer to ensure that it fits your needs and your way of life. You are the best judge of what you will use and want to reflect that in your freezer’s organization system.
2. Label ALL of your bank accounts
Once everything is categorized and put in order, it’s the ideal time to mark. It may seem complicated however it’s an essential element of organizing a freezer chest.
Labelling the items in your freezer’s deep freezer is essential since it can help organize your freezer for the future.
Be as precise as you can with labelling the food items in your chest freezer. Do not just note “meats” on everything within the carcass bin. Note down the type of meat it is, whether it’s marinated, and the date when you purchased it.
Don’t forget to mark frozen fruit or frozen vegetables on the containers. If they are purchased from a store in bags, they will include the name and typically an image; however, if you’ve put fruits in separate freezer bags, You’ll need to identify the bags.
The majority of the time, it’s easy to tell what’s inside; however, at times, it’s difficult to discern if it’s the case of raspberries or strawberries in the point of frozen pieces filled with red fruits.
A good practice is to label every item, even if it’s clear what’s inside the container. The habit of labelling can aid in maintaining an organized freezer compartment for the future. Don’t forget to include the date!
Make A Chest Freezer Inventory
To ensure that you can easily keep track of your freezer space in your chest and frozen products going forward, I’d recommend making an inventory of your chest freezer.
After you’ve labelled everything, this shouldn’t be too difficult. It might be time-consuming, but it’ll bring your chest freezer organization to the highest level and ensure that your chest freezer can be as productive and efficient as you can.
If you’re looking to design an inventory of your freezer in your freezer, then download the freezer inventory worksheet here.
A list of inventory sheets for your chest freezer could contain any or all items listed below:
- Food items you’ve kept in your freezer (with the date on which it was put into the freezer and the purchase location)
- Each category includes a list, such as meat, vegetables, fruits, etc.
- The expiration dates for specific food items so that you can consume them before they reach their expiration dates.
There’s no need to carry around a copy of this. You can use your smartphone to keep track of the contents in your deep freezer, what it was when you purchased it, and the date when it is due to expire.
It’s a simple method to ensure that you’re not wasting any food and refer to it whenever you have to create a shopping list.
Now You Know How To Organize A Chest Freezer!
Organizing a chest freezer isn’t easy, but it may take a bit of time based on the state of your freezer.
Be patient when creating the plan and chest freezer storage system. You need to ensure that the plan is something you can easily maintain.
If you shop and put things away, ensure that you put them in the correct bins. It is essential to keep everything in order so that you do not have to repeat the whole process once more.
Once you’ve enjoyed your life with your well-organized chest freezer, you’ll never want to return!