Freezer Storage

[paulraphael]

I've got a fairly small freezer (standard fridge with freezer on top) and an always-growing pile of stocks and glaces and carcasses in ziploc bags. These bags compete for space with things that ordinary people consider food, and I'm feeling some heat around here to fix the situation.

 

The freezer's basically a single box, with a small shelf for ice trays. I'm thinking an additional freestanding shelf might be a good solution, or maybe something with vertical dividers (like what you'd get at Staples to manage papers on a desk).

 

Any other thoughts on solutions, and good places to look for them?

[boilsover]

Freezer avalanching drives me batshit crazy.  That and not bein able to find anything.  For your application, I have junked the OEM partial shelf and put two large rectangular, lidded  Cambros one on top of the other, and they fit/stack pretty well.  There's still some room on top for some short stuff, and enough space for air circulation.  EN-631-N  or (-1) is the model number, but it's not divided.

 

What I use in my ancient upright that already has shelves are the cheap gray bus tubs.

 

Both are good suggestions when a freezer fails or there's a long power outage.

[MelissaH]

Assuming you can't add a freestanding freezer, is there any way you could store some of your stocks by canning them rather than freezing them?

[Martin Fisher]

2 hours ago, paulraphael said:

....or maybe something with vertical dividers (like what you'd get at Staples to manage papers on a desk).

 

Yeah, stackable bins work well in that type of freezer.

 

FWIW — bonus simple freezer inventory tracker spreadsheet here — see post #26 for the updated version.

[dscheidt]

4 hours ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

 

Yeah, stackable bins work well in that type of freezer.

 

FWIW — bonus simple freezer inventory tracker spreadsheet here — see post #26 for the updated version.

It appears you need to be a member of that forum to download the spread sheet.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I had the same problem with an old fridge freezer years ago. It only had a little rack hanging from the roof of the freezer for a couple of ice trays. I got a steel wire shelf where the legs will fold flat, but swing out and lock into place. It's coated with heavy white plastic and is sturdy enough to hold a lot more weight than could be placed on it in my application. I still have it, and its rusty now, and not pretty, but still useful in the pantry/laundry room. It held up to ten years in that old freezer. With it in place, I could stack half my stuff on the floor of the freezer and half on the shelf. I could find stuff easier and had a lot fewer avalanches. I found that not only was stuff better organized, but I could get more in there. It worked well for me, but all it did was convert my Lucy and Ricky model into what all the fridges have now: a built in shelf in the freezer compartment. 

 

I found mine at Lowe's or Home Depot. It was inexpensive and sure made my life easier. You will probably want to measure your freezer compartment, and take the dimensions and a tape measure with you if you go looking for a shelf to fit. 

 

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[Martin Fisher]

11 hours ago, dscheidt said:

It appears you need to be a member of that forum to download the spread sheet.

 

Here's the file.... 

 

Freezer Inventory Tracker for Excel 2003 ver2.xls

[lindag]

remember that anything you add to the freezer is going to take up at least some of that valuable freezer space. 

[paulraphael]

17 hours ago, MelissaH said:

Assuming you can't add a freestanding freezer, is there any way you could store some of your stocks by canning them rather than freezing them?

 

That's something i hadn't thought of. Interesting idea. I'd still like to tame the freezer with a shelf or two, even if canning becomes an option.

[lindag]

Before we moved I had my freezers organized with Cambro boxes.

All the meats and goods were divided up into separate containers.  This worked well in theory; however in practice it was not that good; some containers were over-filled and the extra had to go into the next container.  You can see what happens over time.

After the moved I abandoned that and went back to haphazard organization.

That's not so good either.  I just have too much stuff and am now trying to cook from the freezers rather than going shopping for more, which is what I'm always tempted to do.

keeping the freezers in order and frost free is a big chore.

I hate the 'avalanching' that was referenced above.

 

[Okanagancook]

I have three freezer spaces each with compartments/shelves.  My inventory tells me on which shelf in which freezer said item lives.  Makes it much easier to find stuff in a six shelf upright freezer.

One must be religious about keeping the inventory uptodate.  Always a struggle.

[dscheidt]

1 hour ago, Okanagancook said:

I have three freezer spaces each with compartments/shelves.  My inventory tells me on which shelf in which freezer said item lives.  Makes it much easier to find stuff in a six shelf upright freezer.

One must be religious about keeping the inventory uptodate.  Always a struggle.

My problem has always been other people not keeping things up to date, and for inventories that give a location, moving stuff around.

[Toliver]

Ice trays take up room. Can you do without ice? Or can you afford a small counter-top ice machine? Once ice making and ice cube storing is removed form your small freezer, it opens up that much room inside for storing other goodies.

[Arey]

11 minutes ago, Toliver said:

Ice trays take up room. Can you do without ice? Or can you afford a small counter-top ice machine? Once ice making and ice cube storing is removed form your small freezer, it opens up that much room inside for storing other goodies.

That's a very good point. All I have is the freezer above the fridge so I took out my ice trays a couple of years ago in order to get more space.  Since I freeze loaves of bread I still have a too full freezer, and avalanches are frequent.  I try to put things in specific spaces, but they still migrate and sometimes I have to nearly empty the freezer shelf  to find what I want.

[chromedome]

2 hours ago, lindag said:

Before we moved I had my freezers organized with Cambro boxes.

All the meats and goods were divided up into separate containers.  This worked well in theory; however in practice it was not that good; some containers were over-filled and the extra had to go into the next container.  You can see what happens over time.

After the moved I abandoned that and went back to haphazard organization.

That's not so good either.  I just have too much stuff and am now trying to cook from the freezers rather than going shopping for more, which is what I'm always tempted to do.

keeping the freezers in order and frost free is a big chore.

I hate the 'avalanching' that was referenced above.

 

That's more or less where I am, though I use cheapie containers from the dollar store rather than Cambros. My freezer is a big Frigidaire upright with wire shelves, which are great for airflow but bad for standing additional wire racks on. 

[Toliver]

10 minutes ago, Arey said:

That's a very good point. All I have is the freezer above the fridge so I took out my ice trays a couple of years ago in order to get more space.  Since I freeze loaves of bread I still have a too full freezer, and avalanches are frequent.  I try to put things in specific spaces, but they still migrate and sometimes I have to nearly empty the freezer shelf  to find what I want.

No. No to freezing loaves of bread in your small freezer. Bread stays outside the refrigerator on a kitchen counter or in a bread box. It should go inside of your refrigerator if your local temperatures make that undo-able (like during the summers here where I live). If you can't eat bread quickly enough before it all goes stale/molds, then eat what you can then make croutons, bread pudding, bread salad (Panzanella) or bread crumbs from the rest.

Your freezer real estate is small and doesn't need bread bricks taking up room in it.

[Martin Fisher]

6 minutes ago, Toliver said:

It should go inside of your refrigerator if your local temperatures make that undo-able (like during the summers here where I live).

 

Unfortunately, it goes stale quickly when refrigerated. 

 

"The reason a refrigerator is bad for bread: When bread is stored in a cold (but above freezing) environment, this recrystallization, and therefore staling, happens much faster than at warmer temperatures. Freezing, however, dramatically slows the process down."

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, Toliver said:

No. No to freezing loaves of bread in your small freezer. Bread stays outside the refrigerator on a kitchen counter or in a bread box. It should go inside of your refrigerator if your local temperatures make that undo-able (like during the summers here where I live). If you can't eat bread quickly enough before it all goes stale/molds, then eat what you can then make croutons, bread pudding, bread salad (Panzanella) or bread crumbs from the rest.

Your freezer real estate is small and doesn't need bread bricks taking up room in it.

 I do not freeze loaves of bread but if I didn't freeze a few slices I would be in trouble quite frequently for want of a slice of bread.  I try to keep at least six slices in my freezer at all times. 

[quiet1]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

 I do not freeze loaves of bread but if I didn't freeze a few slices I would be in trouble quite frequently for want of a slice of bread.  I try to keep at least six slices in my freezer at all times. 

 

Same when I lived in England and we didn't get through a whole loaf very fast - I took to freezing loaves in thirds (so a third out, and two thirds in two bags in the freezer) as that typically ended up being a good amount of bread to have on hand without it going stale or, more often, moldy. Use up the stuff that was out, just grab a bag of another third from the freezer to defrost.

 

For ice when I have wanted to have ice but not give up space for ice trays, sometimes I buy a bag of ice cheap and then re-portion it (carefully, because you don't want to get bacteria all over the ice from handling it) into smaller bags that can be tucked into existing gaps and spaces or otherwise stacked up. This often works better than trying to fit ice trays into a crowded freezer.

[kayb]

I have a side-by-side fridge/freezer, as well as a second refrigerator in the storage room with an upper freezer, and a 7-cubic-foot chest freezer. The storage room fridge-freezer holds lots of square plastic tubs of stock (chicken and beef), as well as corn and peas frozen from last summer. The chest freezer holds my quarter-steer, along with some odds and ends of pork and a few whole chickens. The inside freezer held, until shortly before Christmas, lots of stuff that was old enough to draw Social Security, until I cleaned it out. It was glorious for about a week and half, and I've crammed it back full in all its little cracks and crevices now.

 

I want a big honkin' upright freezer. I find it's easy to organize in those plastic tubs from WalMart that have all the holes in all sides, and the solid bottom. I do like what someone mentioned above, the magazine storage rack for storing zip-locs of stock or other liquids. Got to try that.

 

Must have that freezer by next summer. Planning a larger garden.

[Toliver]

On 1/6/2017 at 10:58 AM, DiggingDogFarm said:

 

Unfortunately, it goes stale quickly when refrigerated. 

 

"The reason a refrigerator is bad for bread: When bread is stored in a cold (but above freezing) environment, this recrystallization, and therefore staling, happens much faster than at warmer temperatures. Freezing, however, dramatically slows the process down."

Yes, I am aware that refrigeration makes the bread stale faster. But during the summer when it's 110F° outside your home and 88F° inside, leaving bread on the counter leads to moldy bread all too quickly. By keeping the bread in the refrigerator, it does prolong the life of the bread even though it does go stale. But if I make toast out of that bread, staleness becomes a moot point. Your mileage may vary...

[ChocoMom]

I went through the same thing. Prior to our house burning down, I had multiple freezers and got a little spoiled with all that space. Even so, I still filleted the meat from the turkeys and chickens that I had butchered, because those carcasses take up way too much valuable space. 

  Post burning, I have the tiniest freezer (for which I am immensely thankful- though it is tiny!).  So, I learned to pressure can broths, soups, meats, etc.  I have to say, the incredible convenience in locating, and using the canned items has led me to not buy another large freezer for the rebuilt house. There is no thawing, no digging around, and a lot more space in the freezer.  I would encourage anyone to try out the pressure canning- as it is not nearly as intimidating as I had first thought.  My family has gotten spoiled royally by the ease of finding and fixing meals this way.  I have too!  

All that being said, the shelving and organizational options here are fantastic, and I'd employ those too. But the canning option is my new go-to process for dealing with all of those other items that take up space.  Best wishes on your quest! 

[chromedome]

My father arrived at the same conclusion this year, and I picked up a lightly-used pressure canner for him from a local buy-sell site. It was a bit late in the year, so he probably won't give it much exercise until next summer.