Organize the Freezer

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This week I tackled my disastrous freezer. Yes, I am embarrassed to say that it really, truly was a total disaster. My freezer sometimes seems to be the bane of my organizational existence. The side by sides are really tough to organize, and things are constantly going in and out. Lest you doubt me, here’s some photographic proof:

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I searched high and low for containers that would work well for this. I had originally planned to use Sterlite small (4.5 quart, I think) shoe containers from Dollar General for a dollar each. I still think those could have worked, but they stopped carrying them! The 6 quart ones there and at Target are way to big and would end up wasting tons of space.

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I ended up using the Sterlite flip top containers from Dollar General ($3.50 each). The are easy to pull out, because they aren’t too big. Since our ice maker is in the door and our refrigerator is next to the wall, we have a hard time pulling out any sort of larger container.

I pulled everything out and tossed a couple expired items. I also put a couple seldom used food items into our little deep freeze in the garage. (By the way, items will more likely avoid freezer burn in a deep freeze, because it doesn’t self-defrost.)

Next, I quickly placed everything into containers by category, and placed them all back inside. It was much better already! The containers are at most two deep, so it’s not too hard to access anything. The biggest downside, I will admit, is that it really does waste some space. I would not be able to fit nearly as much in the freezer after using the containers. However, that’s not a huge deal since I have a deep freeze, plus it’s totally worth the peace of mind!

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Of course no project is complete without beautiful labels, so I made some up and put them on the containers with sticky tack. I also laminated them since they would be in the freezer. I did have to force them to fit on the two shallow containers on the top, but they worked.

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I’m also going to update my freezer inventory sheet to reflect what is actually in there!

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Posted Under: Organizing