Is your freezer messy and overwhelming? Follow these 6 steps to organize your freezer and make finding ingredients and leftovers a breeze.
Benefits of an organized freezer
Ever felt overwhelmed or frustrated when searching through your freezer? I put together the ultimate guide on how to organize your freezer so finding things (and freezing things!) is a piece of cake.
Whether you have a top freezer, a chest freezer or a drawer freezer, organization is key. Everything should have a place and it should be easy to access things that you need.
There are several benefits to organizing your freezer:
- Saves time: You can forget about rooting through your freezer for ages trying to find that bag of chicken you swore you put in there. Everything is organized by category with the oldest items at the front, so you won't have to spend ages hunting through for your frozen foods.
- Saves money: Before going out and spending a bunch of money at the grocery store, you want to shop your pantry and freezer first. If your freezer is organized, you'll easily be able to see what you already have on hand, and won't waste unnecessary money on groceries you don't need.
- Saves space: If your freezer space is limited, maximizing your storage space is key. Organizing everything by zones or groups will ensure your making the most of what space you do have.
- Reduces food waste: Ever found a pint of ice cream or a bag of frozen veggies buried at the back of your freezer that you totally forgot was there? By organizing your freezer, you'll be able to easily find and use items before they expire and reduce food waste.
How to Organize Your Freezer
Step 1: Empty Out Your Freezer
First things first – empty that freezer out! Pull out all the frozen pizzas, ice packs, leftovers, etc. It's going to get worse before it gets better, and you want to start with a clean slate.
Step 2: Sort and Declutter
Once the freezer is empty and you have all the items on the counter, take a freezer inventory. Throw-out anything that's expired or got freezer burn, and start to sort through the items.
Step 3: Group Similar Items Together
Start making stacks of items that should be stored together – put all the frozen vegetables together, the sauces together, the protein together, the soups, broth and chili together, etc. This will help determine how many different categories you'll have, and you can group everything together in freezer baskets or bins.
Step 4: Clean Out Shelves
Your freezer needs to be cleaned just like the rest of your appliances! Before adding everything back into the freezer, you want to give the freezer bins and shelves a good scrub. Rinse them out or wipe them down with some dish soap and water.
Step 5: Label and Date Items
Use labels to mark down what an item is and its expiration date (i.e., ground beef, expires October 2024). You can use a permanent marker for items that go in a freezer bag and homemade labels (or masking tape and a sharpie) for glass food storage containers. You'll want to sort the items in order of date, with oldest at the front and newest at the back, so you're using things up by their expiration date.
Step 6: Utilize Storage Containers and Bins
For next level freezer storage, I'd recommend investing in storage bins or baskets. It makes it way easier to sort through all your items when you have different use bins, like a bin for protein, a bin for veggies, a bin for grains, and so on. This is especially useful if you have a chest or side-by-side freezer!
Tips for Maintaining an Organized Freezer
Now that you have a beautifully organized freezer, you want to keep it that way! Here are some of my top tips by ensuring your freezer stays as organized as possible:
- Organize by date: Keep the oldest food at the front of the freezer, and the newest food at the back. Every time you freeze something, add it to the back of the stack or bin to ensure you're using everything up while it's still fresh.
- Store items upright: This mostly works for items you're storing in Ziploc bags, but if possible, freeze the food flat then stack the bags upright. They're way easier to sort if they're upright than if they're layered on top of each other.
- Keep an inventory: You can always save all the items you've frozen in the Notes app of your phone. This makes it even easier when you're doing your meal prep and grocery list for the week, because you can just pull up your phone vs. having to rifle through the freezer.
- Stay within the zones: Once you've gone to all the work of grouping items together by zone, you want to keep up with that system. Don't just throw an item in the freezer – make sure you're taking the extra few seconds to store it with similar items.
Frequently Asked Questions
I recommend arranging your freezer food in zones. You can have a zone for protein like frozen chicken and beef, a zone for grains like frozen rice and quinoa, a zone for frozen soups, a zone for frozen cooked meals and so on. I'd also suggest arranging the food within each zone by date, with the oldest items towards the front and newer items towards the back. That way, you're using up items before they expire.
To declutter your freezer, get rid of anything that has expired or has succumbed to freezer burn. From there, you can group everything into zones, to ensure the freezer isn't just one big free-for-all of frozen food!
If you're using plastic storage bins in the freezer, make sure they're made of a sturdy plastic and are safe to use in the freezer. Some plastics may not hold up in the freezer and can crack, so ensure the label says they're safe to freeze.
In order to maximize space in your freezer, freeze any items in Ziploc bags so they're flat then store them upright. I'd highly recommend vacuum sealing, which will make the most of the space you have! You can also use storage bins and baskets to make sure everything stays nice and organized.
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