I have a garden and don't consume that much meat so my categories combine beef and pork and add veggies. Prepped foods would include things like chopped peppers, onions, etc., prepared sauces such as marinara, or perhaps shelled nuts. Prepared foods would include casseroles ready for the oven, meatballs ready to cook, etc. This seems to work for me. I purchased my small plastic baskets for around $1.50 at the dollar store. Of course these are just suggestions. Each of us have different tastes and needs. However you choose organize it, the baskets seem to do the trick!
I also have quart size canning jars for small packages of chopped nuts, ginger nubs, nutmeg, etc. This prevents the small packages from falling into cracks and getting lost. Gallon size resealable bags would also work great for these small items.
When I freeze in plastic bags, I try to make them as flat as possible and place on a cutting board in the freezer. (Remove cutting board when packet is frozen.) The flatter the better for storing!
By Mom L from Graham, TX
I have the items listed under sub-titles, such as:
I leave room under each sub-title for items that I need to add at a later date. Every 6 months or so, I'll re-do the list as it does get a bit messy looking. But, that's easy, I make the list on "Wordpad" on my computer and save it, so I can easily go back to delete items and add items.
By Kathy from Beaumont, CA
By quilterj from NE
Also everything has a label or it is written on the package what it contains. It makes life so much easier than digging through all that's in there for what you want.
By Elayne from Dalhousie, Nova Scotia
How do I keep my cube freezer organized?
By Theresa from Aston, PA
By cckarl
01/02/2011
I want my $$$ worth, so found just too much valuable space being wasted by using asst. boxes and fancy containers in my freezer. Plastic bags eventually became brittle from the cold and ripped at the wrong time. Nobody knew where the spilled contents went, so they just tossed it back onto the pile. Grr.
Someone suggested using different color pillowcases for freezer foods. Stopped at the local thrift shop to pick up a variety of cheapie pillowcases, washed them thoroughly and tried it. It worked! No more brittle broken plastic bags, more room. Pillowcases can be moved around to fill in the chinks, are more sturdy, easy to clean, and most of all easily identified.
Tan-breads; yellow-dairy; dk green-summer veggies; lt. green-winter veggies; purple-chicken; orange-pork; white-fish; red-beef; blue-boxed foods (onion rings, tater tots, etc.); plaid-precooked meals; stripes-fruits & nuts; flowered-to be canned/sundry. Now even hubby & kids find anything we need-no excuses! The pillowcases hold less but are easier to lift out of the freezer for those with bad backs, easy to just grab and go/clean out, and no more cold hands!
We keep a running contents loose leaf tab notebook nearby for easy reference. Hubby was fascinated by the freezer dividers at a store once, and whipped up some out of sealed pegboard for airflow. Fantastic! So much easier to find things now. Plus they stay where you put them. Ahhh.
I have a large chest freezer. I have lots of frozen vegetables in quart plastic freezer containers. These tumble over frequently and get all mixed up. I have some baskets that slide on the uppermost part of the chest. The quart containers sit on the floor and stack up to the baskets. I need something that divides the rows. Any advice?
By judygu from Warrior, AL
By 2ndhandroz
By louel53
You can fit 4 of the crates in my freezer. I just lift out the one I need. (08/30/2009)
By lilee2k
Since my parents buy a lot of their meats and veggies in bulk to save money, my mom invested in a vacuum food sealer. She labels the packages before adding the food and sealing them. Then she places the packages in those crates and stacks them in the bottom. She keeps each type of food in its own crate (pork in one, chicken in another, veggies in another, etc.), but there may be two or three crates of each type of food.
She got tired of searching for exactly what she wanted so, she cut some index cards in half to make tags and wrote down the foods from each crate on them (like pork chops, pork fingers, pork roast, pork ribs, etc.). Then she covered them with clear packing tape, trimming off the excess, punched a hole in the corner of the tags, and tied them to the crate handles with twine. Now when she wants something, all she has to do is read the tags and she can go right to the food she wants in seconds. She uses the baskets that came with the freezer to store loaves of bread, packages of pecans (she has three huge pecan trees and spends her winters shelling them for pies and candy), and pie shells. (04/14/2010)
By cajow
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Do you have a tip, recipe or craft to share?
Organizing the Chest Freezer