Tackling that freezer

On Wednesday, we tackled our refrigerators. How is yours looking? It's a bit of a struggle to maintain it, but they say anything done for two weeks can become a habit. I'm hoping for that!

Today it is the freezer's turn to get a makeover. We're going to follow the same steps as we did with the refrigerator. If you have a chest freezer, being organized is even more important so food doesn't get left at the bottom forever, as it would if we had a chest freezer.

Step 1: How many shelves do you have to work with? Because we have a side by side unit, we have three main shelves and two drawers/baskets. In the door, we have three small shelves. The freezer can be a bit more of a challenge than the refrigerator because depending on your type of freezer, you may have a lot less shelf space.

Step 2: Who uses your freezer? We have four people who go into our freezer throughout the day - two adults and two children ages 5 and 3. This means I'll have to leave space down low for my kids to be able to reach the items they need, just as I did with our refrigerator.

Step 3: What are the categories of items you keep in your freezer? For us, I'll use meat, veggies, ice cream/desserts/popsicles, and frozen meals.

Step 4: Pull everything out of the freezer. If you feel moved to wipe down the freezer shelves while you're at it, go for it. Just move quickly!

Step 5: Group the items into their categories and decide which shelf/shelves make(s) the most sense for each group.

Step 6: Finally, re-pack that freezer. You may need to get creative if you have a freezer with one shelf, like we used to. You can group like items by placing them in open bins/plastic storage containers in the freezer. Small containers will often stack well, even without lids, and can be easily marked!

Task for this week: challenge your family to see how long you can maintain the organization in your freezer