How do you sort out your freezer?

[outofofficeagain]

I have an American style fridge freezer with two freezer drawers at the bottom.

They’re always jammed with stuff. I could never find anything and I’ve just sorted it out finding three bags of frozen peas, two bags of sweetcorn and loads of freezer bags full of an identified objects.

How do I sort it out so I can see everything and it doesn’t get buried underneath? How do I keep track of what’s actually in there? Do I need containers? Do I need to just arrange it differently or do I just have to except that I’m going to have to rummage?

I like the sound of reusable silicone bags and a 'filing system'.

Do you put them in the dishwasher? How do they wash and dry? I'd want to avoid the faff of hand washing and/or waiting ages for water droplets to dry off.

Do you put them in the dishwasher? How do they wash and dry? I'd want to avoid the faff of hand washing and/or waiting ages for water droplets to dry off.

I want to know this too - we have silicone pouches for snacks and sandwiches, but ours don't go in the dishwasher and you have to kind of turn them inside out and prop them carefully on the draining rack.

I’ve just bought myself a label maker. I find Sharpie rubs off and I don’t know what anything is.

i keep eyeing up those silicon bags but also worry that washing them will be a faff.

I've never thought of putting them in the dishwasher! I will try that today.

I just turn them inside out and wash them in hot soapy water and a scrub daddy. I do tend to dry them and put them away straight away (still in the princess-y stage with the new kitchen, which must be immaculate at all times 😂)

Ooh, waiting with bated breath for the outcome of the dishwasher trial! This could be life-changing!

Don't put them all in at once, @HurdyGurdy19. Some of our ones got a little bit melted and they still do up but the seal is a bit twisty now.

I'm waayy past the princessy stage with my kitchen, if I ever was. I like to drain/air dry stuff rather than dry with a tea towel (shudder) but am equally irritated by a teetering pile hanging round on the draining board too long.

Floppy silicone with damp gussets might be step too far for me. Fingers crossed!

Please don't put them in the dishwasher on my account @HurdyGurdy19 unless you're sure they'll be ok. I'd hate to feel responsible for crashing your freezer filing system!

Mines a chest freezer but I have containers, then a laminate print out on the top of what the containers should have in them. When I ues the last of something I mark it on the list in whiteboard marker.

We have a chest freezer so it's hard to sort internally. We try vaguely but...

To keep up with what's in it, we're using our shared shopping phone app ("OurGroceries" but there are of course many others) - it's really just a shared lists app with multiple lists. One's "shopping" and another is "freezer contents".

When one of us buys something and it goes in the freezer, you can swipe the thing
from the shopping list over to the "freezer contents" list.

I do a lot of batch cooking and add those tubs to the list myself. They get paper labels on the tub lid, and are stackable. They go through the dishwasher after use.

We do have to remember to delete lines from "freezer contents" manually of course; but that's not usually too tricky. Once or twice a year we'll do a defrost and resync anyway.

This probably won't work if you have teenagers :D

This had all come to a bit of a head with fhe teenager - which is why we currently have 6 open bags of various types of chips.

Sounds like you need a small dedicated chips section and a rule that no chips will be replenished until the chip eaters reach the last bag. And then the new one is put underneath it.

I can sacrifice one, in the interests of research. If it means I can just bung them in the dishwasher rather than washing up by hand, it will be a bonus!

I put everything in categories then put everything in each category in alphabetical order. Eg -
Vegetables category from the left goes
Beans Broccoli Peas Spinach Swede… you get the idea.
Same with different types of chips -
French Fries, Hash Browns. Home Fries, Waffles.
Etc….
Works for me and I don’t need to label anything.

Top drawer: ready to eat food like ice-cream, frozen fruit, icecubes.
2nd drawer: veg and chips, pizza
3rd drawer: meat and fish

I keep it roughly like that.

The coffin freezer is a disaster though

How does it work for a chest freezer