Those Pinterest-perfect and Instagram-worthy pictures of beautifully organized freezers filled with acrylic bins all perfectly labeled are great for inspiration to get you organized. But, did you know those are not the best bins for proper freezing? Let’s organize your freezer the right way to ensure your food freezes properly and evenly for optimum food safety and preservation. And, did you know, you can also organize your spaces according to your organizing style? You can find out what your organizing style is here.
Before organizing your freezer, you must purge the expired foods and the ones you do not like and know you won’t consume. Be ruthless and purge the excess so you can more easily store what you do consume.
In my freebie library here, I include guides which help walk you through the organizing process and help you decide what to purge and keep. I also include my declutter and organizing challenge calendars and guides to help direct you through each area of your home. These guides ensure you get through every nook and cranny and finally get to the other side of clutter … an organized and functional space!
In this post, we focus on how to properly organize your freezer. Below, I share ideas on how to organize your freezer with different types of organizing solutions that will work for your organizing styles and spaces.
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How to Properly Organize Any Freezer
Prior to organizing the freezer itself, you want to ensure your food is properly contained and labeled. Here are three things to keep in mind when containing and storing your food in the freezer:
- The containers you use must be mostly full to help avoid freezer burn. So, you will want to use a container close in size to the amount of food you need to store.
- When storing liquids in containers, you want to leave about an inch of space at the top as liquid expands when frozen.
- When using bags to store food, they must be made for the freezer as freezer bags are made of a thicker material.
- Freeze bags flat until fully frozen before setting into an organizer.
- Always store food in the freezer in portions that you will cook. You do not want to thaw and refreeze food, especially meat and seafood.
- Label. Label. Label. Some foods are unidentifiable after being frozen. So, it is important to label it’s contents and the date that it was frozen. Using label tape made for the freezer along with the correct pen or marker ensures the label won’t fade. Also, it will stick properly to your bags and containers while being easy to remove from your containers without leaving a sticky residue (found here):
The most ideal containers to organize any freezer are metal wire baskets or any containers with adequate ventilation. The space between the wires allows the cold freezer air to properly circulate around your packaged foods so that they freeze evenly. In other bins, your food won’t have immediate access to the cold air when placed in the refrigerator. This can cause the outer layers of your food to defrost and refreeze and lead to a change in texture and consistency and freezer burn.
Kitchen Freezer
Depending on the configuration of your kitchen freezer, you can utilize different sizes of smaller containers to contain different types of packaged foods. Like I shared in my declutter challenge, we sorted our frozen food by package type like bags and boxes. Now, we are containing these and/or their contents. For wider freezers, you can utilize a basket like this to contain packages of meat and seafood, whether they are in containers or bags, or fruit and veggies and stand them upright to make them easy to file through (found here):
For smaller packages of frozen fruit and vegetables, for example, you can use a narrower bin like this to stand the packages upright again for easily filing (found here):
For even smaller packages of individually packaged snacks or mini ice cream cones, for example, you can utilize stackable baskets like this to maxmize vertical space (found here):
Another organizing solution to help maximize vertical space while also making your most commonly reached for freezer foods super easily accessible, utilizing something like this is super helpful (found here):
Deep Freezer
Deep freezers are excellent for storing bulk foods but can be so difficult to organize. I mean, they are pretty much a pit void of organizing solutions. Some deep freezers come with a basket or two which have handles that rest on the top edge of the inside of your freezer allowing them to float over the contents stored at the bottom. But they almost never come with enough baskets to practically store different categories and types of foods. The good thing is that you can order freezer baskets which are already designed for your deep freezer. You will simply find your freezer model number on the inside or outside of your appliance and search for freezer baskets online.
Sometimes, however, there aren’t freezer baskets readily available for your deep freezer. Also, you will likely want to customize your organized system based on the specific needs of your family. Once you determine the typical categories of foods you need to store, you can decide on the sizes and types of organizing solutions you will need. Larger open baskets like these are great to store at the bottom of your deep freezer (you will want to measure the dimensions of your specific freezer) underneath the baskets floating over top (found here):
If you can’t find the correct size of baskets to float over the top edge of the inside of your deep freezer, you use baskets that stack on top of each other like these to take advantage of vertical space (found here):
Again, you will measure the dimensions of your deep freezer to find the correct size baskets for your specific freezer and the items you need to store.
Standing Deep Freezer
For standing deep freezers that open like a standard kitchen refrigerator/freezer, you can utilize all of the same organizing solutions above. The large bins can be used like drawers on your shelves. If your standing freezer has limited shelving, there are two things you can do. Just like you can order baskets for your deep freezer, you might be able to order additional shelves for your standing freezer. Again, you will find the model number on the inside or outside of your freezer and take a search online for shelves for your specific freezer.
If you cannot find shelving for your standing freezer or if you simply want to better utilize vertical space, utilizing baskets like these are super helpful for categorizing your food and making them easy to quickly grab from the open side of the basket (found here):
For additional tips on where to store specific types of food in your freezer and how to properly clean your refrigerator and freezer, click here. I also share how to organize a narrow freezer here.
I hope you found some ideas for how to properly organize your freezer for your organizing style and/or the space that you have! In my next post, I share my best tips for how to organize toys. Don’t forget to grab my free resources from my freebie library here. Let’s get to the other side of clutter … an organized and functional space!
Happy Organizing!
Author of “How to Organize Any Space in 7 Simplified Steps“