Organizing your freezer

If finding food in your freezer is constantly a rummaging game and frustrating, we can help with that!  Eliminate your stress by following our tips and tricks on how to organize your freezer into sections so that you can easily find what you're looking for when you need it as well as use it up before it is outdated.

Freezers can end up being a frustrating heap of food, making it difficult to find what you want. Here are some tips to help organize your freezer.  

• Purchase storage bins that stack in the chest freezer or fit in the upright freezer shelves. Check the hardware stores and discount stores for the correct sizes.  
  
• Use sturdy clean reusable shopping bags to group different foods; they are easy to just lift out all together. Buy an extra wire freezer basket for storage of frequently used items.   
  
• Group like items together and label the bins and bags clearly. Also label each individual food with name and date of preparation. 
  
• Wooden dividers can be made to partition the chest freezer into sections. Then bins or reusable grocery bags can be put over the food in the bottom half of large freezers, making it easy to lift and move them to see the bottom layer. This layering effect makes for easier access to all the freezer contents. 
  
• Keep meat in the bottom of freezer and not in the door of an upright freezer.  
  
• Use older frozen food items before newer purchased ones. See our Food Storage Guide for guideline times to use items by.
• Keep a clip board or white board on the outside of the freezer to keep an inventory of what you have or need. Devise a system that works for you.  
  
• When you come home from a grocery trip, break down portions into useable amounts and package in freezer bags to decrease chance of freezer burn. Freezer burn is a dried discoloured patch due to air contacting the food and from the freeze-and-thaw cycle that occurs in self-defrosting freezers.  
  
• When freezing fresh food, consider making flat packages in freezer bags. They will freeze more quickly and are easier to stack.   
  
• Once or twice a year go through the contents of your freezer - every January, for example.