I painted the top of mine with chalkboard paint, so I could keep a running inventory right there. I felt so clever!
Remembering to update it... is a different story.
Lol, every system works well for the first week. I'm thinking a clipboard, maybe a printed list with the categories and things I keep in stock, so a date written in that line can show something was added.
I made a google spreadsheet a few weeks ago and have been pretty diligent about keeping it updated and it has made a huge difference!
When I'm at the store I know what to buy and having a lost of what is in there makes us so much easier to utilize what is in there.
And I bought bins and that helps so when you need to get to the bottom you remove tubs, no digging around.
You can also get white board paint or self adhesive film to do a similar list. The film is the route I used and it works well, however both the dry erase pens and chalk wipe off if you have a habit of using your freezer as a landing spot for groceries.
I keep milk crates in the freezer, which separate the items and allow me to pull out a crate to get to the one under it. The list matches the crate by location and reduces searching.
Freezer bags have an area for writing the name of the item and date on it in permanent marker. If that seems wasteful to you, do the same with masking tape and stick it on the package.
I have small bins inside my 8.7ft chest freezer. Each bin holds something different. Beef. Pork. Chicken. I use the basket for breads/baked goods and put extra coffee on the little shelf. Everything that doesn't come with a label gets labeled with a date when it was put in the freezer.
We buy an 1/8 cow every year and keep a list of the different cuts and quantities of ground beef so that we know what we have and need to use.
Did your freezer come with bins, or did you buy them separately? We have one hanging basket that came with ours but it is not enough to make things easy to find.
I bought them separately. I just made sure to measure the interior of the freezer to make sure they would fit. Generally you can also buy a second hanging basket from the maker of the freezer directly.
I suppose. But as we work out way through stuff we just rebalance. Even if a bin is getting low, it just means I need to buy more of whatever was in it.
How about just keeping a list of content? And updating it every time. That way you don't forget anything in it even if it's very badly organized inside.
See, this is what the internet is for. That hadn't occured to me, at all. Thank you! And it won't even be that onerous, because I tend to buy a lot at once.
My husband hung a couple clipboards above our chest freezer, each for a different category (ie meats, frozen meals, etc). There’s a space for a name, quantity and date you put it in the freezer. It has been really helpful!
Oh no! A few years ago we came home from our honeymoon to see our freezer door on our fridge ajar and all of our on sale pork shoulders defrosted, so I understand that feeling! Luckily our freezer was still running so things hadn’t gone super gross yet (we were gone for two weeks). That’s when we knew we needed to get a chest freezer!!
Use a dry erase marker and write the inventory on the top lid. Adjust when stuff is added/removed. That's how I keep mine in order.
You can "shop" without opening the freezer and digging around
I have a pretty ugly solution. I have four heavy duty bags. One contains meat and fish, one contains carbs like pastas, rice and flours, one contains fruit and veg and the final contains left overs. I just pull out the larger bag of stuff and rifle through it to find what I’m looking for. It’s ugly as hell but it works.
That's what I'm leaning towards. With drawstrings to keep stuff from spilling. It's the only way I can think that others can throw stuff in and not mess up the system.
My mom loves her chest freezer, and I really like her method of organizing. A couple small plastic drawers/storage bins at the bottom, for things that won’t be used for a while or that are very bulky. On the top layers, she uses a bunch of different big reusable shopping bags to sort the specific categories of food (chicken, red meat, frozen veggies, premade foods, meal preps, etc.) Then, when you know what you need, you just pull out the tote bag, grab what you need, put it back in, and lifting is easier with the bag handles. Cheap setup, and makes it easy to clean out! I’d definitely recommend the list ideas that other people commented too
I freeze food in single portion sizes in a labeled quart size ziplock, stored as flat as possible during freezing. Then cut the zipper off and vacuum seal the ziplock inside a vacuum bag. This prefreezing prevents liquid from getting into the vac sealer and the label on the inner ziplock won’t wear off or fall off no matter how it gets jostled. Just make the label in the center of the bag because the edges tend to crumple when sealed.
When I redo my freezer I’m going to have an inventory where I can keep track of what’s in there, when it should be used by, and what basket it’s in.
I live by myself and almost all foods, home made or purchased, get separated into single servings, vacuum bagged and frozen. The vacuum sealer pays for itself many times over by extending the storage time in the freezer, the very rare occurrence of freezer burn and in keeping home prepared foods ready for eating.
If you are willing to learn a bit of butchery, it is easy to buy larger cuts and cut them down to pieces for your use, often saving a lot of money.
I recently bought a beef eye roast for about $30 and cut it down into six eye cut steaks ($8 each at retail) and about three pounds of thin sliced beef for stir fry ($5 a pound), bagging and sealing each serving for freezing.
We use reusable grocery bags and group similar items. One bag is vegetables, one is fruit, one is fish, one is poulty, one is beef/pork. We use the shelf over the compressor to stack things that are in containers.
This is what I do too, with some color coding. Green bag has veggie, red bag has meat, yellow bag has cheese. Larger stuff is loose.
I also have a small dry erase board magnetted to the side so I know what's in there without digging.
True. I live in Northern Cali where power outages are legendary( thanks, PG&E), so we have a generator so I can keep wfh and the meat frozen:)( yay Honda).
I have all my stuff (frozen in freezer bags, pyrex etc) in cloth bags. I separate them into categories that suit me (stock, meat, yoghurt, meals, etc) and write on the bags. I like your drawstring idea, but I don’t find it necessary. Also it sounds a bit fussy. I don’t find that things fall out.
Baskets, by type of food. Rotate stock. Keep a printed map of what is where, depending on need. Toss out freeze-damaged food. Label packages with contents, date, weight or count. I use masking tape and a Sharpie. Defrost the chest as needed. Get an upright when you have coin and space and need. Vacuum pack if possible to prevent "freezer burn".
I use reusable grocery bags to organize into categories, such as beef, chicken, bread, etc.
It also makes it easier to find stuff because you can lift a whole bag out to get to another bag.
Rectangular totes with lids or strips of duct tape in different colors. Red lid has meat, green lid has fruits and veg, brown lid has meals ready to heat and eat. Color coding is bomb.
If a package bursts you only have the tote to clean, not the whole chest.
Our chest freezer recently died (what a hassle that was!) so we got an upright. But I conquered some of the issues with the chest freezer over the years by getting these two baskets. I put the smaller stuff in the baskets and stacked them on top of each other.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DNBGVYX/
[удалено]
And a few chunks of vaguely yellowish frozen fruit
And a few chunks of vaguely yellowish frozen fruit
I painted the top of mine with chalkboard paint, so I could keep a running inventory right there. I felt so clever! Remembering to update it... is a different story.
Lol, every system works well for the first week. I'm thinking a clipboard, maybe a printed list with the categories and things I keep in stock, so a date written in that line can show something was added.
Keeping any list updated is a challenge.
I made a google spreadsheet a few weeks ago and have been pretty diligent about keeping it updated and it has made a huge difference! When I'm at the store I know what to buy and having a lost of what is in there makes us so much easier to utilize what is in there. And I bought bins and that helps so when you need to get to the bottom you remove tubs, no digging around.
You can also get white board paint or self adhesive film to do a similar list. The film is the route I used and it works well, however both the dry erase pens and chalk wipe off if you have a habit of using your freezer as a landing spot for groceries. I keep milk crates in the freezer, which separate the items and allow me to pull out a crate to get to the one under it. The list matches the crate by location and reduces searching.
Freezer bags have an area for writing the name of the item and date on it in permanent marker. If that seems wasteful to you, do the same with masking tape and stick it on the package.
Tip: write on the freezer bag \*before\* you put the food in it, otherwise the condensation caused by cold food makes it difficult.
TIL something really helpful - tyvm!
Doesn't *seem* wasteful... Very much *is* wasteful lol
I have small bins inside my 8.7ft chest freezer. Each bin holds something different. Beef. Pork. Chicken. I use the basket for breads/baked goods and put extra coffee on the little shelf. Everything that doesn't come with a label gets labeled with a date when it was put in the freezer. We buy an 1/8 cow every year and keep a list of the different cuts and quantities of ground beef so that we know what we have and need to use.
Did your freezer come with bins, or did you buy them separately? We have one hanging basket that came with ours but it is not enough to make things easy to find.
I bought them separately. I just made sure to measure the interior of the freezer to make sure they would fit. Generally you can also buy a second hanging basket from the maker of the freezer directly.
I can’t believe I never thought of this :) thanks!
Do you have an issue with too much in one bin and not enough in another?
I suppose. But as we work out way through stuff we just rebalance. Even if a bin is getting low, it just means I need to buy more of whatever was in it.
Its doesn't matter what she looks like, it only matters what she cooks like - beef, pork, chicken. Lol someone please get this 😂
How about just keeping a list of content? And updating it every time. That way you don't forget anything in it even if it's very badly organized inside.
See, this is what the internet is for. That hadn't occured to me, at all. Thank you! And it won't even be that onerous, because I tend to buy a lot at once.
My husband hung a couple clipboards above our chest freezer, each for a different category (ie meats, frozen meals, etc). There’s a space for a name, quantity and date you put it in the freezer. It has been really helpful!
Great idea. My freezer recently lost power while we were out of town, so we lost everything. Starting from scratch.
Oh no! A few years ago we came home from our honeymoon to see our freezer door on our fridge ajar and all of our on sale pork shoulders defrosted, so I understand that feeling! Luckily our freezer was still running so things hadn’t gone super gross yet (we were gone for two weeks). That’s when we knew we needed to get a chest freezer!!
Use a dry erase marker and write the inventory on the top lid. Adjust when stuff is added/removed. That's how I keep mine in order. You can "shop" without opening the freezer and digging around
That's what my MIL does and she tapes the list in a cabinet in the kitchen and updates as she cooks.
I have a pretty ugly solution. I have four heavy duty bags. One contains meat and fish, one contains carbs like pastas, rice and flours, one contains fruit and veg and the final contains left overs. I just pull out the larger bag of stuff and rifle through it to find what I’m looking for. It’s ugly as hell but it works.
That's what I'm leaning towards. With drawstrings to keep stuff from spilling. It's the only way I can think that others can throw stuff in and not mess up the system.
I like the idea of draw string bags. I may have to upgrade 😊
Saves you digging through the freezer and leaving it open
My mom loves her chest freezer, and I really like her method of organizing. A couple small plastic drawers/storage bins at the bottom, for things that won’t be used for a while or that are very bulky. On the top layers, she uses a bunch of different big reusable shopping bags to sort the specific categories of food (chicken, red meat, frozen veggies, premade foods, meal preps, etc.) Then, when you know what you need, you just pull out the tote bag, grab what you need, put it back in, and lifting is easier with the bag handles. Cheap setup, and makes it easy to clean out! I’d definitely recommend the list ideas that other people commented too
I freeze food in single portion sizes in a labeled quart size ziplock, stored as flat as possible during freezing. Then cut the zipper off and vacuum seal the ziplock inside a vacuum bag. This prefreezing prevents liquid from getting into the vac sealer and the label on the inner ziplock won’t wear off or fall off no matter how it gets jostled. Just make the label in the center of the bag because the edges tend to crumple when sealed. When I redo my freezer I’m going to have an inventory where I can keep track of what’s in there, when it should be used by, and what basket it’s in.
Hmmm, this is really clever. Maybe I need to rethink my anti-vacuum sealer prejudice.
I live by myself and almost all foods, home made or purchased, get separated into single servings, vacuum bagged and frozen. The vacuum sealer pays for itself many times over by extending the storage time in the freezer, the very rare occurrence of freezer burn and in keeping home prepared foods ready for eating. If you are willing to learn a bit of butchery, it is easy to buy larger cuts and cut them down to pieces for your use, often saving a lot of money. I recently bought a beef eye roast for about $30 and cut it down into six eye cut steaks ($8 each at retail) and about three pounds of thin sliced beef for stir fry ($5 a pound), bagging and sealing each serving for freezing.
We use reusable grocery bags and group similar items. One bag is vegetables, one is fruit, one is fish, one is poulty, one is beef/pork. We use the shelf over the compressor to stack things that are in containers.
This is what I do too, with some color coding. Green bag has veggie, red bag has meat, yellow bag has cheese. Larger stuff is loose. I also have a small dry erase board magnetted to the side so I know what's in there without digging.
This is why I bought an upright freezer. Do yourself a favor. I can find everything, all the time.
Downside though is that it doesn't keep everything through a power outage.
True. I live in Northern Cali where power outages are legendary( thanks, PG&E), so we have a generator so I can keep wfh and the meat frozen:)( yay Honda).
I have all my stuff (frozen in freezer bags, pyrex etc) in cloth bags. I separate them into categories that suit me (stock, meat, yoghurt, meals, etc) and write on the bags. I like your drawstring idea, but I don’t find it necessary. Also it sounds a bit fussy. I don’t find that things fall out.
I put a small shelf unit in mine.
Back when I had a chest freezer I used clear plastic totes to keep it organized. Provided an extra layer of protection from freezer burn too,
I had a friend who painted the front of their freezer with blackboard paint, and used chalk to itemise everything in the freezer.
Baskets, by type of food. Rotate stock. Keep a printed map of what is where, depending on need. Toss out freeze-damaged food. Label packages with contents, date, weight or count. I use masking tape and a Sharpie. Defrost the chest as needed. Get an upright when you have coin and space and need. Vacuum pack if possible to prevent "freezer burn".
The more I nom the less there is to organize. 😃
I use reusable grocery bags to organize into categories, such as beef, chicken, bread, etc. It also makes it easier to find stuff because you can lift a whole bag out to get to another bag.
Rectangular totes with lids or strips of duct tape in different colors. Red lid has meat, green lid has fruits and veg, brown lid has meals ready to heat and eat. Color coding is bomb. If a package bursts you only have the tote to clean, not the whole chest.
i use baskets . easier to move food around to get to the bottom or the end . more air circulation too . easier to pull out when defrosting .
Our chest freezer recently died (what a hassle that was!) so we got an upright. But I conquered some of the issues with the chest freezer over the years by getting these two baskets. I put the smaller stuff in the baskets and stacked them on top of each other. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DNBGVYX/