Is your freezer a completely random place? Get it in order once and for all.
I hate to be the one who reminds everyone that summer won’t last forever. Soon we will all be back to the busy life of school and Yomim Tovim. Which means that the cooking and baking marathon will soon begin. Sorry not sorry! It’s actually my favorite time of year! So ahead of that, let’s create a system so you’ll actually know what’s inside your freezer at a glance and there’s no pulling out the entire freezer because you are “sure” there is one more round challah somewhere.
Here’s how to create an organized system for your freezer:
1. Measure – Freezers (and fridges) are quite tricky to measure. There’s all kinds of dents and bumps so measure carefully. It’s possible that it won’t be worthwhile to add a bin to some of those “bumpy” spaces. That’s fine. You want to leave some space for larger items anyway! Once you know your dimensions, you can order bins to help contain the space.
2. Categorize – Remove everything from the freezer and put them into categories. Smaller categories can be combined and bigger categories need to be split.
common categories are:
* Challah
* Breads
* Sides
* Home Cooked
* Ready Made
* Meat
* Poultry
* Desserts
* Ice Cream
* Frozen Fruit and Veggies
* Baked Goods
2b. Pro Tip: Get rid of the bulky packaging and boxes. They take up so much space and aren’t necessary in a freezer.
3. Label – Label the bins using large clear labels. You can also write the expiration dates or date an item was cooked.
3b. One more thing” Should you have a freezer inventory list? Only if you’re gonna keep it up! An inaccurate list is useless.
Now that your freezer is organized you can head back to the pool and relax for a bit longer with the satisfaction that you already did something for the busy months ahead!
Good Luck and Happy Organizing!
Shulamis
These are a couple of my favorite freezer and fridge bins:
do you have any ideas for organizing a freezer that is the bottom drawer of a french door refrigerator? mine is like a big black hole.
thanks so much!
Once I saw that someone (maybe Kathryn from Do It On a Dime) froze things flat in a zip top bag and then filed them in a plastic box. This was a chest freezer but it should still work.
Create smaller categories and label
Keep in mind that the grates are there for a reason, AIRFLOW!! A freezer Must have air flow to prevent stale frozen food and smells… You know that freezer smell?? That is why the grates are there. If you put your frozen food in a clear plastic bins, you will not have the air flow, because the clear bin will be blocking the grates. .
The clear plastic bin is not a good idea at all!
The bins I used have holes and have never been an issue.
Hi can you please post the link to the bins that you use in your freezer that have holes? Thanks so much!
There are also bins on amazon that are just wire. or mesh. I use those in my fridge/freezer for that reason.
@ Shulamis Weil –Please can you post the link for the clear freezer organizers with the holes.
I’ve got bins from the dollar store with many many holes.
Thank you That’s awesome! Just would be needing to have the advantage of a clear bin with holes on the bottom for easy access;))
If Shulamis Weil can post the link of the ones she uses , with the holes on the bottom,that would be amazing for your readers thx!
can you give tips on a deep freezer? bins wouldn’t work. nor will by category since its just one big box!
Thank you for sharing!