Your freezer didn't look bad at all. It would be nice if the freezer manufacturer could put more shelves , drawers, etc, like refrigerators, to help in organization.
Our regular freezer did come with an adjustable shelf, but everyone's freezer needs are so different, I don't think they could do too much more. You can buy extra (deep freezer) freezer baskets and make your own system though.
@@kr15242we recently got one like that. I’m not sure I like the drawer system, but at least it discourages wobbly stacks of items that may fall out when you open the door!
lol! You made me laugh when you said you didn't think other people didn't have freezers as messy as yours! LOL again. The first thing that I thought was, "Look at all of that room!" The second thing that I thought was, "I'll bet they don't have to worry about anything falling out and landing on their toes!" Great video! I'm feeling inspired!
Great job Jim & Pam! Don’t ever apologize or be embarrassed- we’ve all been there. You’re possibly saving us from having to throw out freezer burnt food.
Your freezer looks waaaay better than mine! I am in the process of reducing the contents of my freezer (and spice cabinet, thanks to you 🤣). Thank you for more great ideas!
During the pandemic, I spent a lot of time on RU-vid. I ran across several organizational videos and refrigerator/freezer organizing was very popular. Have been repackaging and placing things in plastic bins ever since. It has removed not only stress but has lowered our waste by quite a bit. I also write the date I packaged them on the bag so I can use the oldest first.
Hi Pam and Jim, we re organised our freezer 2 yrs ago bc the old one failed..my husband was home recouping from surgery, so he did almost the same idea you demonstrated. It was life changing! Yeah! meal planning for the upcoming week is now a breeze..I cook for 2, but I make several meals for the week..I discovered that it takes the same amount of time to prepare 1 dinner as it does for 3 dinners. I know alot of folks don't care for left overs, well when you come from a large family, on a budget, you learn to change your basic meal into something diffrent or special by adding herbs, spices, or exchanging out your veggie or starch selection. I remember the frozen peas were plain, but once in awhile Mother would put real butter over them. It made such a difference in flavor, yes I'm showing my age..frozen Green Giant Peas were new idea then..now I prefere my own homegrown to freeze. Blessings.
I cook for two also. Large meals to be frozen. Well things like Sunday sauce, chili, different soups all make the first meal and usually the next day for lunch or supper but I have found, for us anyhow, those leftovers are so much better the next day when all the flavors have melded. The second or sometimes the third day is when I freeze the rest into meals for us. The squarish lunch meat containers repurposed are great for this. I just put a piece of clear tape on top, write what is inside and the date and freeze. Long live left overs🎉🙏🌷
@@sharonjones7674... I love leftovers! You are right! They DO taste better a day or two after. I usually just eat the food every day till it's gone, or freeze it in small portions. I like to make soup or chili, etc. and freeze in one meal size baggies. SO easy on busy nights. I really enjoy cooking and baking.
Hi Pam, Enjoyed your video. Thought I would share with you our freezer system. I cook for the 2 of us and we are older than you. I don't want to stand for long hours to prepare meals then cleaning up all the mess at the end. So I make a stock pot full of our favorite soups, stews, chili or Mex meat and freeze the finished food in single serving containers - bags or 2 cup plastic containers. Here is an example below. I make 16 servings of Tortellini soup at one time and freeze 14 of them in single serving containers. After they are frozen I put then into large plastic bags and label the bag. So when I hunt for what to have for dinner I only have to hunt thorough a stack of similar size bags. We can eat home cooked food every day for as long as we like because there is always a variety. I use the same type of system for stuffing, yams, turkey gravy and the like. It is fun to enjoy a Thanksgiving rerun a month after the big day.
Single eater here and I have only a top mount no frost freezer compartment. Yet it is also a cave of wonder where things disappear . Clearing out, cleaning, and reorganizing won't take long but I already feel better.
This is brilliant. I portioned out all of my meat like this but I never even considered doing the same for my vegetables. I'll definitely be doing similarly for my chest freezer going forward.
My favorite find for freezer storage is reusable FoodSaver zip top bags. They have a valve for vacuum sealing with a hand held device. Two servings fit perfectly into a quart size. I use the gallon size to hold "pucks" of broth or other foods frozen into serving sizes using a silicon muffin pan. Get the ones with the black seal, they are the sturdiest.
😂 oh Pam, your freezer looks great compared with mine! What a great idea, putting veggies in individual servings. I've been waiting for cold weather to clean and organize my very stuffed chest freezer. Keep the ideas coming!
Oh my gosh, what a mess that freezer contains. I'm just kidding...If you thought your freezer was a mess, I shudder to think what you would say of mine. I have a wire drawer in one of my freezers, so your idea of loading in portions in bins is ideal. Gosh, how we do neglect our freezers, don't we? The good news is you came up with a wonderful remedy! Thank you 💜💜💜💜
I would LOVE to have an upright freezer because you can see what is there! I have a small chest freezer. Now, you can buy "systems" with sliding drawers that can be stacked; but they are a few hundred dollars. I tired literally everything, but finally found that using colored grocery bags, purchased in a set at Amazon, work the very best. I organize by pork, lamb, chicken, etc. You can do it however makes sense to you. Then you just stack them across the bottom and up in the freezer. Yes, you do have to pull a few out to get what you want, but the bags are colorful and easy to see--I made a small color chart that hangs above the freezer. The bags also accommodate gaps inbetween very well. Cheap, some labor involved, the bags last forever.
I'm a professional organizer by trade but even my own freezers are a mess!!! And I already used bins for sorting and storing. My big aha watching you? Put lids on those containers and stack them!!! Two worlds colliding here right now. Thank you for the great tips.
I LOVE YOUR VIDEO, and NO need to be embarrassed because id bet my last dollar that the majority of people watching this have freezers that look very much like yours!! lol, mine does thats for sure, I love the veggie organization, cant wait to get started on mine also!! im excited to see what your gonna show us next!
I do the exact same thing for my upright freezer but I vacuum seal most things so they last longer as I buy in bulk. I have the clear plastic bins as well…..works like a charm! For my chest freezer I use small boxes to separate everything or the hard sided grocery box bags. Makes for great organization.
I organise my freezer every month otherwise I forget what I have in there. I also organise my canning cupboard and dry goods so that I know what I can make for meals. We could live for six months at least without doing a shop. We bought very little over the pandemic. I am 69 and my mother taught me cooking and meal planning from her war shortage era.
Oh Pam, my upright is worse ! A few weeks ago I was looking for something and a zip lock bag of salsa fell out onto my foot breaking a toe !! We organized our chest freezer, and the upright is next
I love the idea of breaking the larger bags into smaller portions! Once I open and use part of a bag, the remainder often gets lost in the uncharted regions of my freezer. This will, hopefully, reduce the waste that occurs when I defrost and discover the lost and now tasteless items in the back. Thank you.
Yes this will be very helpful! I only cook for me.I have chest freezer and if you think yours is disorganized…you should see mine….talk about things being buried! 😳 Portioning veggies is a great idea
Its so easy when you work and have only 1 day week to do all of your cleaning shopping and storing. Be kind to yourself❤❤❤ i just love you both so much!
We have 3 small chest freezers so I can completely empathize with losing stuff. The previous house had a small stairwell and only the small chest freezer could fit. Then we needed more room… we have one that is primarily for meat since we buy a quarter beef each year and then add other meat for variety. The second freezer is mainly veggies from the garden that are vacuum sealed in meal sized portions for the year. These easily can last 2 years without tasting the least bit off to us. This also includes the pesto we make and freeze in meal size amounts for recipes. The third freezer is for extra veggies and leftovers that we freeze back for single serving meals. Since there is only 2 of us, when we make up a crockpot of chili, beef stew or other meals there are many servings left over. We freeze them in 1 cup servings in a silicon mold that holds 4 - 1 cup servings. Like an ice cube tray. Once frozen, we vacuum seal and the place all 8 servings in a bag in the freezer. Similar to your bin idea. We do the same with the pesto in 1/2 cup servings all summer as the basil is ready to harvest. It is great when we are too tired to make anything complex but it is real food as you said a person asked about getting away from processed meals. I often grab them to take to work for lunch as well. I admit we still lose stuff regularly and have to dig. The bags are really helping but are fragile, maybe something like onion bags would be better….thanks for the great video, btw I didn’t think your freezer was that bad compared to many in my family over the years.🤣
@@bumblebee7922 We have 1/2 cup size for freezing pesto, 1 cup for most soups and stews and a 2 cup size since I wasn’t sure which was best. We only seldom use the 2 cup size. Love the other 2. Hope you try a set.
We don’t have a big freezer as you, but we have our Refrigerator/ freezer in kitchen and a small refrigerator/ freezer in our downstairs basement. I really need to organize my freezers better! Love the idea of freezer bags with just the right amount of frozen food in them that the two of us also eat! So much more room and organization to find the items better! ❤️ thank Pam for this great idea!
The bins work great in the refrigerator/freezers, too! I organized the one in my kitchen with bins and now nothing gets shoved into the back of the fridge and forgotten until it turns into a science experiment gone awry lol. I can also find things in the freezer without causing an avalanche. The last straw was when a block of frozen cheese fell out and landed on my pinky toe. In a twist of bitter irony, I had to ice it down for half an hour before it stopped throbbing! Just be sure to measure carefully before buying any bins, including the height between shelves, and allow space for the ice cube trays and bucket if you don't have an ice maker. 😉
My mom got me into watching you & Jim's videos, and now I can't stop! I love the ones with Cindy & John as well--when are y'all going to Costco again?!! -Sincerely, Sam (& Gwen his mom) in Texas
What timing! We just had to replace an ancient small chest freezer with an upright which has twice the capacity. I'm a little intimidated by organizing it. Your boxes look like shoe boxes. Time for me to shop the dollar stores, eh. Thank you!
I love your honesty! We lovingly refer to it as freezer diving 😂😂😂. Ours has always been utter chaos at best. But we learned a forced lesson last year. At the time we had 3 freezers full. One failed, and our spare refrigerator failed as well. We were blessed because my husband had put thermostats in them, that notified him that the temperature was above the temperature he set. He had set it for 10 degrees. Then he reset it for 15 degrees to be sure it was a problem. It was! So we started canning, dehydrating and cooking the contents of that freezer. And in between that we emptied and reorganized our other 2 freezers. We then reset our sights on emptying our largest chest freezer next. We had just bought our freeze dryer 2 months before, so we started to freeze dry the contents of the freezer and now we have a small solar powered chest freezer, that we do better at keeping it rotated through, regularly.
I second the request for chest freezer ideas. I have a small one in the house to augment the refrigerator-freezer. It came with one basket (it can be moved from one side to the other) and a cavernous space that tends to be somewhat of a black hole. I’d love suggestions on organizing it as well as the freezer in the refrigerator. Great ideas so far.
I too have a small chest freezer. I am currently using reusable shopping bags with flat bottoms to organize by food types. I used a permanent marker to write on the handle what is in each bag: non-starchy veggies, whole grains, flours, seeds & nuts, beef, chicken etc. Sometimes within each "main bag" I will have a labeled 2 gallon zip top bag containing smaller portions of one type food like 1 cup portions of chopped peppers or onions. The bags stack okay, not super good, but okay, and it is pretty easy to grab the one I want to look through by reading the label on the handle. I keep the ones I use most often on the top but still have to remove them to get to the lower bags that contain products I use less frequently. It is, obviously not a perfect system, but it works better for me than using the types of containers that Pam used in her upright freezer. I tried that but found it a little too hard to get things out of the bottom. Anyone else have any suggestions for chest freezers?
On RU-vid - I saw a woman use milk crates or large heavy duty plastic bins in her chest freezer. Each bin held specific meats. The bins stacked 2 high, I think - and she put the newer meat in the bottom bin. She had smaller flatter bins on the top that she could move around easily. She said those were "use it first" bins. It looked very efficient.
@@brendamarques1555 using the tote bags is a good idea and seems to be the most practical way in order to retrieve what we need without a lot of shifting of boxes and bins. At nearly 73 I’m all about easy.
We've got a side of beef that's going to be ready to pick up in a few weeks, after watching a few different freezer organization videos for ideas I ordered some large sturdy sided tote bags on amazon. Each cut of meat will go in a different bag (ground beef, roasts, steaks, etc) so that I can store them in the chest freezer, see what I have, not worry about the meat just falling all over the place, and easily move them around when I need to. This method would also work great for having a bag for chicken, a bag for beef, a bag for veggies, a bag for fruit, etc.
Genius! Made me have a 'Duh, I coulda had a V-8' moment. I do this with meats, but never thought of veg. It would be great for fruit, also, especially for berries.
Our chest freezer is organized with "bins" that are plastic milk crates we found at Walmart. We buy a half beef and all the burger and stew meat gets stacked in milk crates, two crates fit side by side down in the freezer and then another two crates fit, side by side, on top of the first two. We can also tuck 10# bags of flour behind the stacked bins. Tetris😊! When one bin gets empty we put it aside which signals when we need to think about getting another half beef. The wire bins that came with the freezer are organized as one for chicken priducts and one for pork products. Our standing freezer is organized with plastic bins much like what you have done. Makes things SO much easier. As always. Thank you you two for a great video🥰
Great idea. My freezer looks just like yours & of course, you know how much you help others by showing real life situations. Thanks again for all you do.
I only cook for myself but I use the sandwich folding bags and fit two to three in a freezer bag. If I do onions and peppers I can get four to a bag. It’s worth buying the cheap sandwich bags and saving the expensive freezer bags. Then I reuse the freezer bags as you suggested. 🙂
No, not a mess. We purchased a new 22 cubic foot freezer last September. I measured each shelf so I could purchase plastic bins. On the first shelf two bins fit into shelf front to back. Labeled bins beef and chicken. The next shelf did the same thing, labeled those bins pork and fish. The next two shelves have bump in back of freezer, I guess for wires. Those bin were placed horizontally. Labeled those bins misc. Each shelf also has plenty of room for easy freezer meals, also will hold small turkey, pork butt, whole chickens etc. The door has six shelves for juice, veggies, bread, butter. I hope someone finds it helpful. All meat have dates, oldest out first.
Loved this. I use the clear shoe boxes for the upright and chest freezer! Divide the different sausage, vegies, etc. Also store ice in them in chest freezer.
I have been busy over the last few weeks. Actually doing all of this organizing. I bought these wonderful freezer safe storage bins and actually took out one of my shelves and those bottom drawers that always stayed full and never looked in! This way, I was able to stack 9 bins. Blue painters tape is a MUST! It stays on in the freezer, and often hangs on in the dishwasher. I have tape on the front of my bins with a note of what is in them. Organizing has also helped me STOP buying things I already have and missing the things I don't. Thanks Ms. Pam!
Oh hell, Pam! That freezer is perfectly normal for me. But yes, you are right, having a system of organization is a good idea. I have a chest freezer and use a clear over the door shoe rack that I cut down so I can hang the shoe racks and fill the pouches with stuff. My freezer looks like a closet!!
Your freezer isn't bad!! I only have the one on top of the refrigerator and it's full and messy! I have 3 plastic baskets to put small items in cause they were always slipping out when I opened the door, right on my foot! OUCH! Baskets work great. What a GREAT idea to put your veggies in serving size baggies! I also wash and reuse my Ziplock bags, several times! What a wonderful reminder to organize our freezers. I just love all your videos! Love to you and Jim.
I can’t wait for this series !! It’s just two of us and we have bags open with some missing out of each ! What a mess ! I wish my freezer looked like yours now!! Its way worse !!! Looks like Hope is just around the corner ! Thank you !
I'd kill for an upright freezer. I have a box freezer. The only way I know what I have is to use coloured bags. I keep pre cooked in one. Uncooked meat in another and so on and so on. I am so jealous 😂😂 I use containers for all sorts of storage. Containers make everything neat. Lots of❤❤❤❤ to you both
I had thought of the bins, but I had not thought about portioning out for meals. That is a great idea. My husband and I froze a lot of berries over the summer. I did put those bags in bins in the freezer to make it more stable. The ones I used did not have lids and were actually designed for refrigerators. But I saw them and thought they were the perfect size to stand up those bags of berries. I think I'll be looking in the freezer section a bit more now since I saw that we can do it this way. There's only the two of us now to plan for and we forget the leftovers. This makes so much more sense. From your idea, I had another for making it easier to find different types of meat...bins! This will also make it easier to rotate the meat...put the newer packages in the back as you use the meats in the front. Thank you, Pam and Jim! Your content is so very helpful.
I thought your freeze would look a lot worse than it did:) I also have larger containers divided by beef, fish and chicken. I freeze my grated cheese from Costco in small bags as well. I had not thought about putting the veggies in small bags though. Great job!
Don't feel embarrassed, Pam! Not only is my upright worse than yours because we recently went to Costco and I did the usual stuffing things in telling myself that I will sort it better later but my chest freezer is far worse than either of our uprights! I think there's a turkey from last year's sale that has been buried in there with who knows what else! Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if there were 2 turkeys and one is 2 years old because I can't remember cooking it!
I’m the opposite; I have 6 freezers and know what’s in each one and exactly where it’s at. I may or may not have an organizational glitch, so I have to have a place for everything and everything in its place.
I put sterlite crates zip tied together on my freezer shelves. I can pull them out on each shelf at the top. First shelf has vegetables, the next shelf has fruits, third shelf has a mixture of ready made foods. The bottom half has shelves those are closer together for small items like cream cheese, butter, etc. my basket holds bigger bags of food. Just something I like to keep everything divided and placed individually.
Thank you much for giving us these ideas when you are so busy! I have been watching you since covid and look forward to every video! You inspired me to can and dehydrate foods! I respect your ideas so much!
Oh Pam, you are such a delight. And there’s no judgement - our freezer is so much worse. It’s filled to the gills, but I can’t find anything! Two weeks ago I pulled out three gallon bags of frozen berries and dehydrated them to make room, but I can’t even tell🤦🏻♀️ We are getting close to freezing, so I will wait a bit longer to tackle it. Then I can take out a bunch and keep it frozen in coolers outside while I clean and organize. Thanks for the reminder
Believe me will all have crazy freezers. Ours was so small we decided to get a larger one. We also buy in large quantities for just the two of us to save money. We have gone thru many vacuum sealers. We recently got the Weston one you have. Love it. Today is organizing day for us.
Oh dear Pam and Jim. 😂 I wish mine was that disorganized. Mine is oh so much worse. Ugh. Ok today's the day. Mine will be cleaned. Today. Thank you both for the impetus and encouragement to dive into to that dark hole I call a freezer🙏🌷
I recently ordered wire baskets on Amazon and was able to use them in my freezer to organize my meats. It's great, if I want chicken I just grab the chicken basket. It is so much easier to find what I need now.
Oh gracious Pam, that freezer isn't that bad. At least you have some space still there. I hit my freezer every couple of yrs and when I do, you couldn't squeeze in anything else. But some areas do require re-organizing every now and then.....freezer, fridge, pantry.
I ordered an extra shelf for my freezer. Then I sort into freezer bins. All beef in one. Chicken in one pork etc. One shelf for thinks that just have to be heated to eat. One shelf for veggies. And a magnetic whiteboard on the door with a guide to where things are.
I like the organisation of the frozen veges. I have the same problem but on a bigger scale, I have a upright, three chest freezers and a drawer freezer. What I found is when you put the frozen veges in a plastic bag you get a build up of ice in the bag. Maybe moving some of the extra air out with a straw would be helpful? Not sure but I am not purchasing another freezer and want my existing freezers to be more functionable.
Oh my goodness Pam! Your freezer is not so bad at all! You have space in there - you can actually see the back wall of the freezer! And room between shelves! If you find your freezer embarrassing - then I should (and actually am) Horrified and humiliated by mine. And to complicate things I have 3 of them crammed to the hilt! I am excited to see what you come up with.
I found some bins that wouldn’t shatter in the freezer then organized all our proteins by type in their own bin. Vegetables in the drawer at the bottom. Beautiful! 4 months later, chaos 😅😅😅 I’m chalking it up to my squirrel nature-everytime I find a sale……….
This is a very good idea and we had already done this for our freezers. We had to purchase a new one this summer because we just weren't sure how much longer our old one would last so this gave us a great opportunity to organize more. We did it mostly with our meat and we purchase in large quantities and the vacuum seal just enough for the 2 of us and label the small bins like you showed. It has worked out just great. We do have an inventory sheet so we can keep track that way so that we don't have to open the freezer and count how many of a certain item we have left. I did vacuum seal the steam veggies and you are right it is too much for the both of us so I will take your advice on that and just measure our what we would eat. I do freeze the leftovers from the original bag and use them in soups so that they don't go to waste. I'm anxious to set your end result. Good job
For those with a chest freezer I purchased stacking recycle bins with handles from Amazon. They fit the freezer perfectly and I can stack them 2 high. This allows me to get food from the bottom of the freezer easily by lifting out the top bin to get to the bottom one. I also sort food into meats, veggies, breads, French fries. Anything else fits on the side that has a ledge where the motor is. Happy organizing!
We got a rude awakening this summer when we had a bad storm and lost power for 3 days. Some people were out longer. Sadly. We haven't been able to afford a generator yet, but this event totally changed how I store food in our freezers. We lost some food. But, not to a devastating point. We were able to ice things, and cook and save things on ice for those days. But,after this event, I learned how long my freezers could go with no power. My newest one that is part of my refrigerator was the first to go. It was is on the main level of our home. We only opened it on day 1 to remove meat and ice it down. The second one, part of a refrigerator in our basement also was a total loss. The third a deep freezer, never thawed in those 3 days. It is also in the basement and was never opened. That was a miracle. However, this event totally changed my life. I immediately ordered a carry canner, because I lost so much meat and broth that had been frozen. I ordered a vacuum sealer as well. Now, I only keep ice cream, and convenience food in the upstairs freezer. The downstairs freezer has things I plan to preserve, like tomatoes, and fruit. And also my butter stash. Everything else goes in the deep freeze. I seperate my meats in portions, vacuum seal if I think they need it and freeze flat on a tray so I can stack them. I keep a hand written inventory on the wall next to the freezer. Everything is labeled. I pressure can all leftovers, broth, vegetables etc. So they are shelf stable. I was always afraid to pressure can. But, I saw someone else on another video, using the carry pressure canner, so I went on a hunt for more videos about the canner and found yours, right at the exact time I needed it. When you did the video on the comparison with the little doo dad you put in the jars. That's how I found your channel and I've been hooked ever since. I also subscribe to your trial blazer acct.too. your both so amazing. Sorry this is so long. I love your content. And watched your first class on biscuits. Loved it.
In the past 15 months we moved to a new home, the day we arrived I was hospitalized and I’ll for most of the last year, then finally feeling up to go visit family we got covid. So my freezer has been neglected and this video comes at a perfect time for me. Like you I have to shuffle thru everything to find a package of hamburger. Thanks Jim and Pam for sharing.
We also have a medium size upright freezer for the two of us. I attempt to group categories together in the freezer. I have a shelf for vegetables that needs this type of organization. Thank you.😅. It's so easy to get out of order while putting away a grocery haul. I found a three year old roast. Hidden in the meats. Freezers never seem to have enough shelves so I added a hanging shelf rack. Another problem is having meats slide out and crash to the floor (or on my toe!) A freezer basket would be nice...
Great reminder! I think most of us have freezer blinders on, we open it quickly, grab what we want and slam the door shut quickly so nothing falls out. I have started working on the inside freezer first since that’s the one I use every day. I have started using @soupercubes to freeze portions of soups, chili, sauces, broths, etc. they are so much more space efficient than the plastic containers that really didn’t work well. I bought bins to store things in and it’s working out great! But I never thought about the freezer bags of veggies, I’ll be doing that next! Thanks Pam and Jim for your videos.
We have plastic containers more plastic containers coming and we will have to watch for the ones that fail versus succeed. Thanks for your comments. Jim
Pam: I frequently make meals and divide them into individual servings, bag and freeze. Then on the nights that I don't feel like cooking my hubs and grandson just microwave or pop these instant meals into a pot of boiling water to re-heat.
I have a 6' chest freezer... it's much worse! That's one reason I'm working to pressure can & dry food to improve working preservation. Thank you for sharing your education and insights!!
Hey Red, mine is the same. Without having finished watching the video just yet, let me say that I bought deep plastic bins to fit the shelves of my upright and fill each accordingly. For my chest freezer I bought commercial grade bins to fit the width and fill each one with gr. meat, chicken, roast, steaks etc. and 2 or 3 extra to place on top of the lower ones, but leave room that I can slide them over to access the bottom ones. This has worked out really well for me. Thank you and love your videos.
