Are you a FLOP? Who has the most organised freezer?

zippychick

Scotrae I've merged your threads to save having two similar threads up the board at the same time

Let us know what works for you
Zip

cooking-mama

I have a chest freezer that is only a bit wider than a normal larder type..but it always ends up soooo messy,apart from the big open space inside it only has 1 basket...i use this for raw meat,but its not big enough for it all...I hate having to go elbow deep searching for chicken portions/oven chips/frozen peas etc etc...im fed up finding stray fish fingers etc that have fallen out the boxes as everything gets rumbled around looking for something else...cant afford to buy one with shelves/drawers,so how can i best organise this one?..does anyone know of any baskets or similar i could buy so that stuff is easier to store and lift out..wondering if poundland would have anything suitable?

valk_scot

Good sturdy carrier bags of the type that they sell at supermarket checkouts work for me. Not the Bag For Life type though...you want the sturdier kind with a square bottom. Tesco ones are blue with ladybirds on them and come in two sizes for around 39p or 5p, I think. They will stack and have strong handles for easy lifting. Have one for veg, one for potato products etc etc.

cooking-mama

Thanks valk-scot i never thought of bags...I have 2 tesco ones with ladybirds on,they are the cool type for buying fridge n freezer food...wonder if they would work??

valk_scot

cooking-mama wrote: »

Thanks valk-scot i never thought of bags...I have 2 tesco ones with ladybirds on,they are the cool type for buying fridge n freezer food...wonder if they would work??

No I wouldn't use these personally. You want a nice even spread of cold in a freezer, not insullated bits. Anyway these insullated bags just don't sit nice and square and sturdy at the sides and the handles are,'t quite strong enough to survive being pulled in and out the freezer repeatedly. Have a look at the bags when you're next in your supermarket...all the big chains do something similar. Morrisons ones have pictures of apples, bread, fish etc...if you were really clever you could match them up to the different types of food, no?

Pink.

Hi cooking_mama,

As well as the baskets that came with the freezer, I use plastic crates which used to be the children's toy boxes in the bottom of my chest freezer. I have one for hm ready meals, one for meat, one for veg, one for baking and another for odds and sods and leftover. They stack easily and aren't too difficult to lift out when I need to get to a lower box.

There are more tips and advice on this thread that may help:

Are you a FLOP? Who has the most organised freezer?

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

adelight

I actually gave the freezer a quick sort today! I share it with my flatmates but generally veg is in the bottom draw, meat's in the top and eveyrhting else in the middle. The veg draw has ended up mostly mine as I keep my frozen leftover meals in there, checked them all out today, and bagged up all my odd bits of meat in one bag and made a quick inventory- chicken breast, chicken leg, 2 turkey steaks, 3 portions beef mince, 6 lean beef steaks, bacon bits, 3 pollock fillets and a fish cake!

Shortie

How do you organise yours?

I'm fortunate enough to have a pretty large chest freezer in my shed but being one large open space (bar a tiny basket to the left and a slim divided space on the right) I lose things in it

I know it's about keeping lists etc which I sometimes do (and then lose) but even with lists I find it a pain in the rear to find the stuff that is supposed to be in there.

I was thinking cardboard boxes inside, one for meat, one for bread, one for veg, one for desserts, etc...) but I was curious what everyone else does?

krlyr

Shove it in and have to dig through it all every time I want to find something! I really need to sort mine out too actually. One thing I do at the moment is keep the bread, crumpets etc. in the top basket so it doesn't get squashed (and is easy to access as we use stuff like that almost daily)
I've seen people use plastic baskets to arrange it, though cardboard boxes are cheaper.

russetred

I use bags for life. Each one is supposed to contain either veg, meat, fish etc.In reality however it just takes Mr Russetred two minutes to disassemble the whole system as he searches for the bag with the ice cubes in it! I do keep an inventory on the fridge door which really helps with meal planning. You just have to get into the habit of marking anything in or out the freezer.