How I Organize My Deep Freezer Chest

I’ve longed for a deep freezer ever since I started couponing. I felt so limited in my stockpiling by that little ice box on top of my fridge.

When we moved into our new place in February, my husband and I splurged for a new* Fridgidaire 7.2 cubic feet freezer chest. Of course, as soon as we started filling that deep freeze, I learned one of the major drawbacks of secondary freezer storage: Black Hole Syndrome.

That puppy was deep … and cold. Which meant I wanted to spend as little time as possible digging around in there. Then I remembered this freezer inventory post I read from Life as Mom, and thought to myself: That’s brilliant!

So, here’s what I did, thanks to a little lot of inspiration from Life as Mom. First, I made a list of all the contents on a sheet of lined notebook paper. As we put new items in the freezer, they get added to the bottom of the list.

Next, I noted the number of units. I did this by writing a #1 with a circle around it for each unit. So, for example, when I ordered a case of Miller’s cheese sticks, I wrote the following on my list:

Cheese Sticks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @

(imagine those little @ signs are really 1s with a circle around them)

Finally, I updated my list by crossing off a circled 1 every time I pulled out a unit.

I keep this list in a plastic sheet protector, which I taped to the top of the freezer chest with clear heavy-duty box tape. To help me stay on top of the list, I hooked a pen onto the sheet protector.

Voila! Super quick and easy solution to the freezer black hole!

*We had actually wanted to buy a freezer second-hand on Craigslist, but after stalking the used household items list for weeks, we couldn’t find any viable options. In the end, we decided that the price tag at Costco was affordable enough, and we do like the energy savings of the newer models.

Do you have a clever little kitchen hack that keeps your life running smoothly, so you can save money while cooking up awesome kosher meals for your family? Please share your ideas in the comments section. I’d love to hear from you! 🙂

Comments

  1. Another trick for the chest freezer I found online: use milk crates to organize stored food. I ordered a set of six milk crates from WalMart for $23.10 total. I can fit five of them in my huge freezer. It makes getting to the bottom, finding things and moving things around so easy – even easier than when we had our upright freezer last year!

  2. Scraps are so fun…are you into quilting?

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