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Freezer storage seems to be a catch-all for holding anything and everything that needs to stay frozen. Things can easily get lost and forgotten about if your freezer isn’t organized in a way where you can see everything. Sometimes, items that you have big plans or best intentions for, go to die here as well. Let's try and avoid this, shall we?
Though I have two freezers, these tips will work for any type of freezer, small or large, one or more. It’s about making good use of your space and keeping things organized and dated so you use what you have and don’t waste it.
What Do I Stock In My Freezer?
- Mostly single-ingredient items
- Farm fresh
- Ingredients to make meals
- I think long term and buy season to season (Ex. I buy enough berries to last at least 3-6 months, if not longer)
What Do I Keep In Each Freezer I Have?
In my kitchen freezer, I keep….
Things that I use all the time, like smoothie ingredients (kale, spinach, and fruits), homemade chicken strips (here is how I make them), gluten-free bread, and bagels. Occasionally there may be some ice cream in there as well. If you want to take a peek at my smoothie bin, check it out here!
In my garage freezer, I keep…
Things that I use occasionally, like a bin containing all I need to make homemade pizzas. I have mozzarella cheese and different toppings all ready to go. I brown the sausage and put it into smaller, Ziploc sandwich bags so it is pre-cooked and ready. I also keep batch-cooked meals, or meal ingredients like pulled pork, taco meat, meatballs, and spaghetti meat sauce. I make one meal a week that I can freeze for another meal to have later on.
We buy meat for the year from a local farmer/butcher and store it in the garage freezer. Even before grocery prices increased, we noticed how much money we were saving by purchasing meat one time a year. This purchase is something that we save up for each month. The peace of mind it gives you, not worrying about the shelves being empty, is priceless.
Some other things I keep in my garage freezer are my yearly purchases. These include seasonal fruits, (here is how I freeze my berries) and veggies, including spinach (I talk more about this here).
For people looking to buy a garage freezer and trying to decide between a chest and upright….. I am short and hated our chest freezer we had when we were newly married. I always felt like I was going to fall in on my head with my feet in the air. They are hard to keep organized and items get lost at the bottom. Uprights are my favorite and so much easier to keep track of items in the freezer. Organizing tips for chest freezers if you do have one is a lot of people use milk crates and reusable grocery sacks to be able to pull items out easier.
How Do I Organize My Freezer?
- I use these acrylic baskets or these wire baskets to help with the airflow. This will help your freezer not have to work so hard.
- This food saver, and the bags that go with it, allow me to extend the shelf life of anything I want to keep long-term in the freezer.
- If I want to portion something out, I like to use these. They make it so easy (this variety pack has several sizes to choose from depending on how much you want to store)!
- I place new items in the back of my organizer and the older ones in front so they get used first.
- Baskets help with keeping things organized and rotated
- Make sure to measure your shelves before buying baskets.
Extra Tips
- I only use wide-mouth jars for the freezer. The “shoulder” of a narrower jar cannot expand and will crack under pressure.
- If I am freezing something liquid and it is starting at room temp, I first move it to the fridge overnight before transferring it to the freezer. Make sure to leave enough space at the top for the liquid to expand.
- There is a cool trick you can do and it involves a coin in a cup. I keep a jar of water in the freezer with a coin at the top of it. This is helpful in the event of a power outage or door not fully closed and allows me to see if my freezer was affected. A freezer alarm can also be a helpful tool to alert you if something is wrong.
- If you plan on buying a freezer, buy the biggest one you can afford. You may be able to find a good one on Facebook Marketplace, or a number of other apps like Offer Up. Even local buy/sell/trade groups may have some if people are moving or upgrading.
- When I used to buy boxed stock from the store, I never liked how you could never see how much you had used up. If you don’t use it all for whatever you are making, you can always store them in the freezer.
Even with the freezer alarm and using the coin in the jar of water, it is always good to have a backup plan so you don’t lose all of that food in your freezer. It can cost a lot to replace all of it. According to the CDC, your frozen food will stay good for 48 hours with a full freezer (all the items packed close together help retain the cold) and 24 hours with a half-full freezer.
If you have smaller freezer space, check out the chapter in the ebook. You can access that by joining our email list.
We have some awesome freezer inventory print-outs that you can download by joining our email list as well.
If you are still curious about how I stock my freezers, check out this tour I do on YouTube!I’m not sure if you know this, but there are so many different things that you can store in your freezer. I go through this in the video which is linked above, but some other things I like to store in my freezer are: flour tortillas, yeast, hamburger buns, bread, and cheeses (shredded and blocks, cream cheese, some sliced cheese, and ricotta). I’m not sure why, but I have noticed with sliced cheeses that swiss cheese tends to fare better than sliced cheddar. Just something to keep in mind.
I also take stock of what I have in my pantry and freezers at different times throughout the year. Check out what I do here. It can really help to know what you have so it doesn’t go to waste.
When I go through my freezer in the winter, for example, I make sure that we are using up all of my batch-cooked meals that need an oven, so we don’t have to add extra heat to our house in the summer. One meal we make sure to use before summer rolls around is our lasagna.
I hope these tips help you to figure out a system that works for you! It’s all about working with what you have and making it work for you.
Stay well friends and happy organizing!
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