If you have an organised freezer please tell me all about it.

[mameulah]

We have one with five drawers in the kitchen and I am hoping to get one for the garage. How do I stop it being a big cold muddle?

tia

I have a dry wipe pen stuck to the door with blutack. Whenever I put something in I write it on the door, when I take something out wipe it off.
I know at a glance what I've got in there without rummaging about.

I make sure everything is well wrapped and dated and I'm pretty ruthless about throwing stuff out if it's been in there for a few months without anyone wanting to eat it.

I would like to know this too

Get some of those cheap gloves for having handy when you have to rootless around in the bottom of it. YY to keeping an inventory that you can then base your meal plan around.

root not rootless.

NannyR can I come and live at your house?!

Mine has 3 drawers:

Top one is bread/muffins/pitta and pizza
Middle one frozen veg, chips, ice cream, homemade meals (spag bol etc)
Bottom one meat and fish

Not sure if that counts as organised or not?

Don't do what I did.

Leave Cava in freezer, it will explode into an interesting glass riddled sorbet.

NannyR what a great idea. I did an inventory last year and added/crossed out stuff as I bought/used it. I then lost it so I must start writing on the freezer.

Currently I segment off the drawers;
The small one at the bottom is for frubes, ice cream.

Next one up for potato products, chips, waffles
Next up for fish
Next for veggies and fruits
Next for meats
Next for extras
Well this is how it is on shop day but after a few days I just sling stuff in. I must be more organised

I keep a list of the contents including what sort of pot home-made food is stored in. Very useful as it also reminds me what needs using up first.

Is your freezer very very large, in order for this to be a problem?

Dunno if mine is organised or not.
Meat and fish goes in top drawer
Veg goes in second
Ready made stuff, soup, ice cream and random stuff goes in third
Bread and cakes go in bottom

Batch cooking and leftovers don't tend to stay in there long enough to need labelling.

To save space if we're partway through a pack of bought pies, for instance, I'll decant them into a freezer bag and tear off the cooking instructions from the box to go in the bag with them.

Cider also turns into nasty glass-riddled sorbet if left too long.

Gin on the other hand just sits there being nice and cold.

We have 4 drawers in a standard fridge-freezer, but they're Tardis-like and can hold an impressive amount. To keep it organised I have general categories - sweet things in the small top one, followed by vegetables, then meat & fish, then any food cooked from frozen in the bottom drawer (eg oven chips).

The main way to keep it organised is to use the stuff! I keep it tidy, so things go in neatly instead of stuffed in, newly frozen stuff goes to the bottom of the drawer to avoid putting things in the top, defrosting, and finding some year+ old stuff right at the bottom one day.

At the moment my freezer drawer for meat & fish is starting to look quite bare, I'm deliberately using up everything in there before putting anything else in. I'm doing similarly with the bottom drawer (though may not be entirely empty, that would require eating all of the chips!). I won't add to the vegetables until I start running out. The only exception is frozen leftovers, I'll keep adding to those and they don't take up much space, but again they have to be used eventually so I defrost them within about a month of freezing. Writing on the box helps, as I lose lists.

I don't have specific drawers for items, stuff gets shoved in where theres a space.

We always freeze leftovers and small portions so will label everything with a piece of masking tape and freeze liquids in a bag placed inside a container. When frozen I remove the conatiner and have a nice freezer shaped item. Having learnt that liquids that fall between the wire baskets are hard to remove

Great, thanks everyone!

Mine is quite small, so I keep the top drawer for frozen bread products (hot dog rolls, burger baps, muffins etc.) and ground coffee; the second drawer for frozen meat substitute products (veggie) and leftovers; frozen potato products, risotto, onion rings etc. in the third drawer; and ice cream, ice lollies and frozen veg. in the bottom drawer.

you have to be ruthless about The List

itemise everything, and also try and tie it in with a menu plan, I try to go for a week to ten days, nobble everyone in the house as to when they are in or out for meals and plan.

I have a American Style FF in the kitchen and a mahoosive seven foot chest freezer in the shed

I have two lists, Inside freezer and Outside freezer... they are a thing of beauty and I re-write them when there are too many crossings out :D

Dh is on his FINAL warning sort of a joke, but not really for taking stuff out and not crossing it off....somehow that seems to be where the system falls down. Everyone wants to write stuff on the list, they are less keen to cross it off.

Also, label everything, chilli/bolognese/cottage pie all look very similar as does gravy and soup as dh found to his cost....expecting a nice bowl of soup for his lunch at work turned out to be onion gravy. LOL!

cats lol at DH. I have constant issues that oven chips/fish fingers have been finished by "someone" who doesn't tell the shopping fairy.

Cats - I am loving the list idea. Particularly having two lists inside with In/Out on them.

Now, if we get a second freezer in the garage what type would you recommend? The maahoosive chest freezer or that up and down drawer type?

I'd always go with a chest freezer you can get soooooo much more in them. Can be a pita if you are not tall though and again stuff can get forgotten and lost in the depths.

I also use those bags for life in the bottom of the freezer, under the baskets. Bread/rolls in one, bags of veg in another, milk in another...you get the gist. ANd ideally nothing in the outside freezer is open.....that's the "holding" area...stuff we are using is in the inside freezer.

I tried lists but I couldn't keep it up

The top drawer has ice cream, ice packs and cubes, and ice pops/ ice lollies in the summer.
Next drawer is for home made stuff like soup and leftovers.
Third drawer is frozen foods and meat, so usually chicken breasts, mince, chicken dippers and chips.
Bottom drawer is for bread/ bread products and I keep a spare pint of milk.

3 freezers here

chest one in the wood shed with the meat in ( produce our own)

chest one in the utility room with veg, batch meals, fruit etc

upright in kitchen with the grab and run stuff - fish fingers, chips, waffles, tribes, ice cream etc.

magnetic wipe clean board on the 2 inside ones - outside fends for itself everything is listed and adjusted when I take stuff out. make my weekly meal plan around what is in the freezer as much as I can at this time of the year - summer not so much as we are mainly eating out of the garden.

currently running the contents down in a bid to save money and because they all desperately need defrosting.

We only have the four drawer one in the kitchen atm and I am absolutely ruthless about using everything in there within a month or so of it going in.

Top drawer : fish (fingers, cakes, fillets) and meat
Tray 2: carbs (chips, waffles, bread, baking)
Tray 3: batch cooked meals (usually 10-14 3 portion meals)
Tray 4: veg and fruit

We are just getting to the point where we need an upright in the garage to store the glut of fruit and veg.

I make sure I have a sharpie permanent marker in the drawer next to the freezer so everything that goes in gets labelled with date and contents before it goes in. I also use the freezer bags with tie handles and always have plenty so that I can always bag stuff up easily.

If I'm bagging up several portions of something then I'll even manage to write on the bag before putting the contents in, which makes it easier. But the pen is sacrosanct - I don't allow it to be swiped for other things.

2 drawers, 3 shelves, 2 ice trays.
Drawers have frozen veg in one and frozen fish in the other.
Shelves have bread and bagels on one; meat on one, fruit, ice-cream and left overs on another.
The door has boxes of fish fingers and fresh fruit ice lollies.