How to Organize a Freezer (In the Garage) - Creatingmaryshome.com (2023)

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My husband's old bachelor pad is the reason I became a "freezer man." When I married Matt, he was single with an entire bachelor pad. And since he never cooked, I mean, he just reheated things in the microwave…he didn't think it made sense to buy a full-size refrigerator for his house. He had a mini fridge in the bedroom and a freezer. The mini fridge was for drinks and condiments, the freezer for all your frozen meals. After we got married, we bought a full-size refrigerator, and the freezer was moved to the garage. I really appreciated the chest freezer and when the cheap single looked sad I finally replaced it with a different chest freezer last year.

Over the years, I've discovered a thing or two about the most practical way to organize a freezer.

First of all, stop storing things you don't really use.You feel like you "should" keep it, so you put it in the freezer, but in the freezer it gets weirder and grosser. If you've been "sort of" over something before, you'll never feel like defrosting it and eating it once it's frozen. Frozen food doesn't look appetizing anymore! This is an important rule to remember when organizing your freezer, as it applies to the freezer just like anywhere else in your home:You can't organize clutter!

Before you start shopping for trash cans and moving things, do aInventWhat's in your freezer? I have aFREE Printable Freezer Inventory to use HEREOr just use a sheet of paper, that works too!

Write down everything in your freezer and see if you start to notice lumps. Do you have a lot of marinated meat? Too many casseroles? Lots of vegetables or cheese?

What you need to do to figure out these groupings is to figure out how to divide your freezer into sections and baskets (if applicable). This is an important step, don't skip it!

To ensure you get containers that will fit your freezer, measure your space before purchasing the container of your choice. Take the tape measure to the store!

I like the same containers that I use in minepantrymilaundry. I had used them around the house enough to know that I liked them and I tried one in my freezer and I liked that I could get it in and out with the handle on the end.

To make sure everyone in your home can use the freezer as easily as possible, label the bins with the categories you created during the planning phase. In addition, it also helps you get your purchases to the right place! Gain!

Important note:If you are using cute chalk labels on your freezer, DO NOT use chalk markers on the labels, as after a while they will end up looking like the images below. (Oops!) Permanent markers are the way to go.

Make do with the frozen foods you've already made, but as you continue to make frozen foods, make them with your new baskets and space in mind.

I quickly freeze all the groceries in my freezer so I can retrieve them as files. I arrange them on baking sheets and place the baking sheets in the freezer until frozen and then I can rearrange them like this where my premade taco meat and creamy chicken taquitos are super easy to access:

I even freeze large batches of soup horizontally... double bagged!

I love quart size zip-top bags for healthy breakfast muffins. I take them out at night and they are perfectly defrosted in the morning for my kids to gobble up.

Salad dressing doesn't freeze well, so I freeze all the individual ingredients in our favorite dressing that freezes well. I take a bag and add the wet ingredients and mix. Simply! (This is a bag of partial ingredients for Cafe Rio Lime Ranch Dressing impersonators...heaven in a spoon!)

Now that you have your bins labeled, it's time to organize the freezer! It's time to put it all together!

Your freezer will look a little different than mine, but I'll show you how I put it all together.

My cart labels are:

• candies
• Nuts and granola ingredients
• Raw/marinated meat
• fish
• Rape
• Mexican Meat / Taco
• Grill
• prepared meat
• Carne

I keep the knick-knacks to the side and store the cheese, fruit, pizza toppings, and leftovers in the kitchen freezer.

I love this bread storage basket. With four children we spend our bread so quickly! I always put the bread on the right and shoot on the left.

This candy bin needs to be on top for a reason...kids shouldn't be around!

I chose a rack without baskets because some things just don't fit well in the baskets.

And yes, we used frozen pizza... You already knew we were regulars, right? I personally don't like frozen pizza (I know I'm so picky!) but my kids do, so feeding them when we're out at night and I don't feel like cooking is perfect.

The aluminum rounds have marinated chicken.I decided to give it a try to see if I liked putting it right in the oven. I have discovered that I prefer bags!

And yes, I buy a lot of pre-packaged meats for those busy nights when I'm tempted to stop by a drive-thru. Drive-thru's are expensive with 6 people, so I rationalize spending a little more on prepared meals knowing that I'll end up saving a lot of money if we eat at home.

For me, that's what the freezer is for, for convenience!

When I bought mine new last year, I went with the gray option. My reasoning was that my whites tended to always look dusty and dirty and I thought the gray might be hiding some of that. And he does! Gain!

That's it, now you know how to organize that freezer. Nothing stands in your way!

Be sure to check out all of our other garage organization posts too!

- An overview of the best strategies to approach the organization of your workshop, with useful tips to improve it.

- Ideas for organizing shelves and pegboards. Shelves are flexible for organizing a lot of things, and pegboards are especially good for organizing tools.

- Utilize the vertical space in your garage and get all that pesky gym equipment off the floor and wall!

How to organize a freezer– Many people have freezers in the garage. Let's get organized too!

REVEAL of my rearranged garage- I finally made the move to make my garage a happy place for me! See every nook and cranny!

How to keep your garage organized- You have worked hard to organize your garage! Now is the time to learn how to keep it that way!

- That's old but good! Find out the various reasons why people accumulate junk in their garage and diagnose YOUR REASON for a garage mess; then you will know how to clean up the mess.

From my house to yours
María

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