Please welcome my guest today, Joy from Fearless Freezer Cooking, who is here to talk about how she keeps her freezer organized. Does your freezer needing a little organization? This may help!
I love the focus on menu planning here on I’m An Organizing Junkie! For me, this is a HUGE way to to keep life sane. I recently started meal planning using Google calendar and I love it. I followed a great tutorial posted HERE.
I do lots of freezer cooking to keep meal time simple in our home. But what good is filling your freezer, if you don’t use the food in there?! That is a problem I have recently tried to fix for myself. I headed down to the Dollar Tree to see what I could find.
- I bought these white containers in which to place all the components of an entire meal. I am a part of a freezer co-op and receive six meals a month. I want to keep all the pieces together so these are perfect containers. These white containers are about the same size as a dish pan, maybe a little more shallow and they are STACKABLE! One container might hold soup plus muffins for a quick meal. One container might hold a main dish plus a veggie or a pasta dish plus garlic bread. My goal is not to have to add anything to the contents of each container to make a meal.
- These little blue crates are fantastic for quart-sized freezer bags filled with marinated chicken breasts, marinated pork chops, one meal’s portion of meatballs, or one-pound packages of browned ground beef. These crates would even fit in a side-by-side freezer or an above the fridge freezer.
You might be thinking the same thing my husband did when I brought these containers home. Won’t they take up too much space in the freezer? They do take up some space in the freezer, but to me, it was worth it to see what is available at a glance instead of haven’t to wade through mounds of frozen packages.
Other ways to stay organized:
- Use compartments. When shopping for fridge/freezers look for products with compartments. I love these drawers in our side-by-side freezer. I use one for fruits/veggies and the other for meats like bacon, hot dogs, etc…
- Keep an inventory of what you have. I keep track of my side-by-side and my extra freezer with a printable inventory on my indoor fridge. It makes meal planning so easy, when I don’t have to dig to see what I have. I use THIS inventory sheet from Organized Home. It is simple…mark it when you put something in and “x” it out when you remove something. There are a few other styles HERE and HERE that you may want to check out, too.
- Freeze foods flat. Whether you are using pans or freezer bags, lay them flat. Once frozen, stack the bags or slip them upright into crates for more space.
- Most importantly, do not forget this one….LABEL everything you put in the freezer! At the very least, put the name of the contents on the bag or container. I like to also include reheating directions so I don’t have to look it up when I’m ready to cook it up.
Find Joy on Facebook @ Fearless Freezer Cooking!
Joy is a stay-at-home wife & mother to two wonderful children. She is a fourth generation freezer cook. Growing up with freezer cooking as a way of life made it hard for her to understand how folks could NOT use their freezers. After being asked again and again for help, she started her Facebook page to give her tips & insight so that others will be Fearless Freezer cooks, too!
romney says
Good stuff!
I don’t really do much of that, but I do have labels on my drawers, which keeps things basically under control.
Dairy & Icecream (small drawer)
Veg
Meat & Bread
Fish (small drawer)
The fish are currently invading other drawers, so I’ll relocate them soon.
L. says
where can I buy a shelf for my freezer? I rent an apt. and the freezer did not come w/ a shelf.
Jan says
try using one of those white wire shelfs they sell for organizing cupboards- I use one to stack my dishes- I would think it was a good size for the freezer also 🙂
Laura says
Also you can check online with the fridge’s manufacturer and often can buy replacement parts from them.
Shirls says
I have found it saves a huge amount of time and frustration to make a weekly menu plan then put everything frozen needed for the week’s dinners into one freezer basket on the top layer.
stacy says
well i decided to reorganize with storage containers my upright deep freeze. thanks for the inspiration… will post pics on my blog when done
Bernice @ The Stressed Mom says
When we bought a new fridge 3 years ago, I HAD to have a side-by-side. And I don’t like it. I think it is harder to see what you have. On the other hand, if I use baskets or bins, like you are suggesting here, it would make it much easier to sort and organize stuff. Think I need to find my little tape measure…
Bernice
10 habits for a well-run home
Jenni R says
I had to laugh that this was posted yesterday, when I had just loaded almost 400 pounds of beef into my 2 chest freezers, and there is NO organization at all. It’s just IN. 😀
Chrissie says
“You might be thinking the same thing my husband did when I brought these containers home. Won’t they take up too much space in the freezer?”
That’s often the first thought people have when they look at containerising. It’s funny because, if you think about it, the stuff would be in there anyway, except it would be spreading out through the space rather than contained into one basket.
Having it in a container means you can use vertical space more, whether by stacking or just holding bags that would normally slide all over the shop upright instead, allowing more “floor space” so to speak.
I need to get some baskets like that to keep our smoothie bags under control – I chop and freeze fresh fruit for our breakfast smoothies.
Frugal work at home mom says
Wow I am so jealous of your freezer. I need to get some containers so I can organize a bit better.
Emily @ Random Recycling says
We are overrun by frozen heels of bread to make breadcrumbs, I think it’s time I start with a container at least for this project.
Andrea Merrigan says
Any suggestions for organizing the portion of the freezer above the fridge??? We would love a big freezer, but not in the budget right now. The small freezer about our fridge is just so difficult to keep things organized since it is so small.
Laura says
Hi Andrea, I use baskets from the dollar store to keep things separated and contained. Works great!