How do you organize your chest freezer?

[kristenk]

DH and I are looking to get a chest freezer for the garage. We don't have a lot of space, so we're looking at 5 cu ft or 7 cu ft freezers. The 5 cu ft chest freezer would fit perfectly in the space we have, but I wonder if the lack of width (the only difference in dimensions b/w the 5 and 7 is the 7 is about 8-9 inches wider) would make it easy to lose stuff at the bottom.

Anyway, what do you use to organize your chest freezer? I though if I got some organizing ideas it might make it easier for me to decide b/w the 5 and 7 cu ft models. Thanks!

[sntm]

Mine is horribly organized, except I use sterilite containers to hold frozen bags of breastmilk. I once used a dry erase board to keep track of what was in there.

[cmo]

We had a small chest freezer for several years, and it had a regular, lift-up lid on top plus a drawer on the bottom. Though the drawer did not keep certain things cold enough, I figured out its quirks and liked it a lot. Then, one day it died. It was a full freezer, and I did not want to lose its contents, so I had to act fast! (Fortunately it was during a cold snap in January, so mother nature helped me out in keeping the food frozen in the interim.) I got another 5 cu ft chest, but with no drawer, so it was deeper. I *hated* it! Things got buried in the bottom, and with 3 little kids at the time, I did not do very well at organizing or keeping up with it. By the end of the year, I had switched to this:
http://www.sears.com/kenmore-5.1-cu-ft-upright-freezer/p-04629502000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1 It does need defrosting once or twice a year, but so did the chest freezers.
My only regret is that I did not get the 7 cu ft one! (Same footprint, one shelf higher.) Is sold the other to a neighbor and we are all happier as a result. :-)

If you do go with the chest, though, definitely get in the habit of the dry erase board!

[sunshine873]

Organized? What a novel idea! I have no idea what's in the bottom of that thing.

Off to look for a white board...

[MSWR0319]

We also ended up with an upright because we always wasted stuff in our chest freezer. It's much easier to organize and takes up less space.

[kristenk]

Ugh. These responses are so NOT what I wanted to hear! The dry erase board sounds good, though!

Here's the issue. We have a regular refrigerator (with freezer compartment on top) in our garage. It's okay, but we could use more space in the freezer. Also, since it's a regular refrigerator and not a fridge built for the garage, when it gets really cold in the garage, the stuff in the freezer will start to defrost. Evidently, the temperature sensor is in the refrigerator. If the refrigerator reads as cold enough, the fan/whatever won't kick on and cool the freezer enough. So, the fridge part is cold enough in the winter, but the freezer has issues.

We've also had problems with power outages due to limbs falling on power lines, etc. It doesn't happen often, but often enough that I think I need to do something else.

I was thinking that a dedicated chest freezer would help with both of those issues. I like the look of the uprights, but wouldn't the chest freezer stay cold longer than an upright? Or would that not matter too much if we just left the door closed? I hadn't thought of an upright freezer before. I wonder if it would work for us...

[hellokitty]

Our chest freezer came with 4 baskets. The first yr, I used it, other than the things in the basket, it became an abyss. However, I started using some cardboard boxes at the bottom to sort things out. For example, we order 1/4 of a cow each yr. I put all of the ground beef and burger patties in a box on the left side. Steaks go in the middle box, stew meat and roasts go in the box on the right. Then there is a middle area for things that we use quickly, like bread, frozen pizza, etc. that kind of floats around, but isn't a big deal, since we go through it quickly.

[specialp]

I keep mine organized, but I do keep a list of what is in there. Nothing fancy, just a notepad & pencil on top of the freezer (I do note the date & how many I have). I mainly use it for meat, cheese, & nuts that I buy in bulk so I do keep the dates together and note the date on the notepad so that I'm always pulling out the oldest. I stock up on chicken and use it the most and and keep it in the very bottom left/deep side, leaving a little empty space so that I can rotate in the new as I use the old. I have baskets that I just pop in & stack for the rest of the meat. Nuts, fruit and cheese are in big bags and sit on the right side (which is shorter/not as deep.) I use chicken the most so it seems odd to keep it in the bottom and I do have to lift out the 2 baskets to get to it, but it forces me to know what is in there and I only go and pull out a month's worth of stuff at a time so I'm not in and out of it a lot.

[ciw]

Our system is similar to HelloKitty's. There are three bins on the bottom of the chest and three freezer baskets on top. I keep the stuff used regularly on the top (cheese, butter, bread -- we buy organic in bulk). One of the bottom bins is devoted to seafood, one to poultry and one to frozen fruits and veggies. It's not a perfect system but it's the best we've come up with so far and we don't waste too much time aimlessly routing through the freezer.

[elephantmeg]

I have costco diaper boxes (they fit perfectly in mine) in the bottom of mine plus the one tray thing it came with. One box holds freezer meals. One holds meats and one fruits/veggies/rolls etc. Frozen dinners go on the tray thing. Between the meat box and the side is a little space where I throw rolls/freezer jam/small bags of cheese

[pastrygirl]

I have an upright freezer and like it a lot. I grew up with a chest freezer, and the upright is so much easier to deal with!

[wellyes]

We just keep things in the bags; organize by store. There is a baggie of Costco meats and frozen fruit, a bag of Trader Joe's frozen dinners, a bag of Whole Foods frozen Applegate Farms stuff.

An upright is much preferable but also much more expensive. We paid maybe $150.