For the past few months I've been organizing and reorganizing our freezers. Again and again. We have two freezers: one is the basic side-by-side fridge. The other one is this beat-up monster:
If you are wondering what happened to it, I do too. We got this chest freezer about 4 years ago for (drum rolls, please...) $10!!! It might just be the best find of my life! Seriously! Yes, it looks like someone was hitting it but inside it's not damaged at all. And it works great, duck tape and all ! I was skeptical at first but for 10 bucks it was worth a try...
As I said, I've been organizing it again and again but now that I'm trying to keep up with the September challenge, I really needed to know what I have! It was time to have a checklist. But after looking through what felt like a hundred of different ideas, I realized that I wanted something different.
So I asked my sweet and super-talented Hubby to make it for me:
It's really very simple. I write down everything we have in stock, and when we use something up, I just cross it off the list:
As you can see, our stock is pretty modest (if my SIL hadn't brought us about 4 lbs. of ground beef, I wouldn't have anything in the "beef" graph :).But I was happy to find a pack of pork chops and a pack of chicken breasts that I didn't know we had!!
My life is so much easier now that I know what I have on hand in our freezers. This inventory list has all the categories of our usual stock:
1. Beef
2. Pork
3. Poultry
4. Seafood
5. Fruit/Vegetables
6. Freezer meals
7. Miscellaneous
Now there is no more guessing. I know exactly what we have. I know this might not work for everyone, but if you are interested, you can print your own copy of the list here. Totally free! :) And if your stock is much bigger than mine, you can write a date instead.
Do you have a freezer organizing system?
Brilliant idea. will print it.
ReplyDeleteThank you
Carolx
Great to keep organized! I don't have a freezer (and no space for it). I have to "make do" with my fridge freezer.
ReplyDeletewhen we come back from vacation, cleaning out our freezers is on my to do list!!
ReplyDeleteGill
Great Idea! Our freezer is an upright which to me is so much easier to keep up with as far as what is on hand I think. But if we had a chest type freezer this list would be wonderful!!! Talk about The Price Is Right, you got a heck of a deal!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's all in your perspective, but I think it looks like you have a good inventory in you freezer--especially for the next month.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, we had a huge (restaurant size) freezer that was always full--mostly with food from our garden. Twice a year, we defrosted it and took inventory. We kept the inventory taped to the top of the freezer and marked things off as we used them--similar to what you are doing. It really helps with planning, rotating the old to the top, and not losing something.
Pretty cool. I've been thinking about doing something of the sort for my pantry, but it's been so bare and random these months, it doesn't seem to be worth the effort. I may do one for my parents', though... they have scary stuff in the back of the fridge that is probably older than my nephews!
ReplyDeleteThat was a great deal on the freezer, it works so it does not matter what it looks like!
ReplyDeleteThe list is a wonderful idea.
Rhonda