[Past_VNE]

My chest freezer is a mess. I'm thinking about getting milk crates to organize things into categories like veggies, fruit, meat, seafood, etc. But, I think the crates will leave a gaping space in the front or back that will then be nearly useless.

I'd love to hear what successful things you've done with your chest freezer.

:

 

[Starr]

We tend to group things like all of our hamburger is way on the right on the bottom. Netx to that moving left is chicken, steaks, misc meat, and the roasts. I put the heavy items on the bottom. We do have 3 trays on top. 1 is for juices, 1 for veggies, and 1 for misc. Also maybe keep a dry erase board on the top with counts of how much of what is in there so you know by a quick glance. Just change the numbers as you take out or add in.

 

[Past_VNE]

But how do you stack it neatly? No matter what I try, everything but frozen waffles and stuff like that (that we only eat when we're in a hurry) gets into a jumbled mess because chicken breasts, for example, just don't stack well.

 

[sweetpeas]

Our freezer has 2 layers of sliding baskets, a total of 5 baskets I think. So things that are odd shapes/smaller like frozen vegetables & shredded cheese (I buy the big bag of shredded cheese at Sam's then portion it out into smaller ziplocks & freeze all but one that I keep in the fridge to use out of) we group together in the baskets. BUT the bulk of what's in our freezer is frozen vegetarian meat substitutes because we buy it a year at a time when it's on sale each summer & that's mostly in small individual boxes inside bigger case boxes, so we either leave it in the case boxes, which stack nicely, or pull them out & stack the small boxes all up one side so we can see the ends to see what's what. DH has been known to put random stuff into one of the bigger veggie food boxes, but then I never realize it's there & get annoyed, so hopefully he's stopped doing that LOL.

If you don't have baskets, then I'd think that something like milk crates might work well to keep things in depending on how well they fit in your freezer (ie. how much wasted space). Maybe get some smaller ones (that are designed to store cd's or something?) to keep little stuff in & set alongside the bigger ones if there's wasted space? You'd just have to measure everything to figure it out.

 

[DaisyQDuck]

I have some of these: http://www.rubbermaid.com/rubbermaid...d=HPProd100494

there is probably something better out there as far as stackability or wasted space but I like the flexibility & handles.

 

[Snowdrift]

Mason jars of broth, soups, stew on the bottom. Frozen dinners on top of those.

Meats on that little shelf made by the motor. There's a little grate that holds them in place.

Frozen breastmilk in the basket. Only one basket and it's dedicated to EBM.

When there's baked good in there (rare--we eat them too fast and i bake too slow), they're on top.

Mine's a smallish one though

 

[ComeOnLetsGo]

Organize the chest freezer? Never occured to me!

 

[Yooper]

I put all of my bulk grains in the freezer and they take up a lot of room. I put them in a line on one side under one of the baskets. That way I can just remove the basket then scoop into the bags which is almost daily. In one basket I keep all of our cooler packs (which are mostly frozen, water filled, 2-liter bottles). We get produce and dairy delivery several times a week so I need to have freezer packs on hand for the coolers on the porch. We also use our coolers for outings several times a week so I usually need to keep about 6 plus a few smaller ones for lunch bags and for icing down hurt legs and such. The other basket holds our most used items. These are things I grab for daily. Frozen berries, homemade veggie burgers, frozen bread/pizza dough, butter, frozen goat milk, etc...... I throw everything else in willy-nilly. I do keep one milk carton in the main section where I will keep 2-3 of each multiple item so I do not have to dig everytime I am looking for something. Like I have many many mason jars of tomato sauce and soups, bags of pesto, bags of homemade burger buns, sprouted week tortillas bought in bulk, etc.... I will keep 2-3 of each in the carton which sits on top of the jumbled mess below. I cannot stand the mess, but nothing stacks well and it all gets messed up when I am digging so this is how I handle it.