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Never underestimate your freezer. Depending on how you play your cards, your freezer can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. If you play them right, you’ve got a treasure trove that can keep your food fresh longer, let you stock up on foods that are on sale without constantly checking the use-by date, and gives you a whole lot of space to store your weekly meal prep so you can save time at mealtimes. If you play them wrong, though, your freezer can become a forgotten wasteland of meals you don’t remember cooking and you definitely can’t identify, and the foods you carefully prepared in advance almost always end up in the trash.
If you want your freezer to work for you, not against you, you’ll want to stay on top of it. Instead of haphazardly tossing things in and hoping you remember what they are the next time a craving for frozen food comes around, invest in some space planning and a couple of organizational products to keep your freezer in check. Keep reading and we’ll cover some tips, tricks, and tools that’ll help you make sure you never fall victim to a messy freezer again.
Know what you need
Perfection is subjective, and so is organization. The perfect layout is always going to depend on the person who it’s for, so to know the best way to organize your freezer, you’re going to want to know exactly who you are and how you intend to use it. If you’re doing weekly meal preps, perhaps you’ll want a way to distinguish what those are and what day to use them. If you’re someone who eats frozen waffles for breakfast every morning to eliminate time making breakfast, likely, you’re not going to want to spend any extra time rooting around trying to find them, so you’ll want those front and center. Know what you’re going to be reaching for most often when you open your freezer and put that up front, alongside the things that you plan on using quicker than the others. Anything you don’t plan on using within the short term you should put in the back for those rainy days.
If you’re anything like me, everything I delegate to the back of the freezer automatically becomes something I don’t have. It’s easy to forget what you don’t see. To rectify this, consider keeping a magnetized dry-erase board or magnetic notepad on the front of your freezer with a list of things inside. This way you can use it to always know what you have, eliminating both food waste and unnecessary trips to the grocery store.
Try Going Vertical
Storing your products upright sounds ridiculous, at first, but trust us. It works. There’s a reason we hang up our clothes instead of stacking them. It takes up less space and makes it easier to flip through to see what we have. You can apply this same logic to your freezer for better organization and additional room. Try opting for Food Grade storage bags instead of plastic containers to store your leftovers and freeze them standing up. You can use this method with soups and sauces, as well as non-liquid foods. It’ll work either way and leave you with an easy way to flip through them.
You can do the same thing with your boxed foods. Stacking your frozen waffles and your microwave meals makes them virtually unreadable and typically means you have to unstack them one by one until you find the box you want. By placing them vertically, you’re leaving that in the past. For optimal benefits, make sure you’re leaving the label on the outside so you can easily see what they are.
Searching for your food with a hanging storage organizer will be a whole lot like shopping for books. All you have to do is see the label you want and slide it out without disturbing everything around it.
Bins and Zones
Sometimes, no matter how much effort we put into organizing our fridge, it always ends up becoming a mess to clean up by nightfall. Living with other people can mean sometimes your organizational vision isn’t shared by others, and it can make it difficult to keep it clean and put together. Before you know it, nothing is in its place. The easiest way to make sure your freezer stays in tip-top shape without constant monitoring is by separating your fridge into designated sections. Pick up a couple of baskets and bins next time you’re out and use them to store like-things in an easy-to-understand way. Group your boxed meals in one bin and your frozen meats in another. This way everything has its place and anyone going through your freezer can quickly figure out your organization system and return things to their rightful place after they’re done rifling through it.
The type of bins you choose will depend on the type of freezer that you have. For a reach-in freezer (these are usually ones attached to your refrigerator) pick up some skinny bins to use inside the door for easier access. You’ll also want to stick some bigger additional organizer bins underneath the shelf that are easy to pull out and then replace like a drawer.
If you have a chest freezer, you’ll want to similarly use bins to organize your space into different sections. Separate your meats, vegetables, desserts, et cetera. Additionally, you’ll want to consider your freezer’s depth. For optimal use, add a wider, flatter bin that can go atop the rest of your food. This adds additional space without needless stacking. Make sure to choose one that’s only half the width of your fridge, so you’ll gain the added benefit of being able to slide it over to access the food beneath it rather than having to take it out each time you peruse.
Track and Label
Even with all this organization, it’s still possible to forget what something is the next time you open your freezer. Things look different or are frosted over in their frozen state, so we’ll forgive you. Next time, stop recklessly throwing your leftovers into nondescript storage bags and start labeling them large and clearly with a label maker and don’t forget the date, so you’ll know when you’re better off tossing something in the bin than in your mouth. If you’re utilizing the vertical method, stick your labels on the side rather than in the front so they’re easier to read and grab immediately. The less time you spend in your freezer is the best time.
Color-coded labels can be beneficial for those quick grabs, but don’t underestimate the efficiency of basic masking tape and a permanent marker. Your freezer doesn’t have to be pretty; it just has to be useful.
At Freshly Fridge, we know just how frustrating it is to waste your hard-earned money on food that goes straight into the trash. Freshly Fridge targets the sources of spoiled food — uncontrolled humidity and ethylene gas in both the fridge and freezer. If you and your family are ready to save money on groceries, enjoy fresher food, and get rid of freezer burn, order the Fridge and Freezer Pack and start saving today
