My Freezer Was a Disaster—Here’s How I Organized It

Unlike my fridge—with its many drawers, shelves, and condiment racks for storage—my bottom-drawer freezer functions like a toy chest. It’s easy to toss something in, and even easier to lose it in a jumble of bagged vegetables and fruits, impulse buys from Trader Joe’s, and various mystery containers.

I know I’m not the only one who treats their freezer like the land that time forgot. Recently, when a community member asked our Food52 Collective for tips on how to get her freezer in shape, it triggered a chorus of sympathetic complaints, and motivated me to bring order to my own frozen abyss.

I compiled some of the best tricks, tips, and steps I took to make my freezer functional again, gleaned from our previous kitchen storage reporting and our in-house experts, the Food52 community. Here are the six cardinal rules I’ve learned to keep your freezer from becoming a black hole.

1. Determine what’s worth saving

Set a realistic deadline to remove the food that doesn’t deserve to take up any more freezer space. Then be ruthless in your jettisoning.

Given the sad, sorry state of my freezer (hello stray ravioli and open bag of peas!), I gave myself a week to eat what could be consumed. Then, I composted any freezer-burned food and all items of questionable origin. (I live near a site that takes all food waste, which comes in handy during cleaning sprees.)

2. Contain Your Mess

Sometimes, you need an easy win to motivate you to keep tackling a big project—and organizational bins will make you feel like a champion.

Yes, the same tool that organizing pro Rachel Rosenthal uses to restore order to a fridge works just as well in your freezer. These bins are perfect for containing the loose items that often go missing within a freezer’s depths, like squares of frozen, crushed ginger, popsicles, and ice cream sandwiches (we have a serious Chipwich habit, and to save space, I always remove individually wrapped items from their boxes).

Clear, plastic storage containers work best for upright freezers where you’re eye level with your food, but since I only need an aerial view for my bottom freezer, I purchased a few giant, aluminum loaf pans.

After a total investment of roughly $4 and a few minutes of organizing, my desserts and frozen herb cubes are now safe and sound in these pans atop my freezer’s sliding shelf. The bottom drawer below, free and clear of freezer-burned foods, is now ready for the next step: cataloging its contents.

3. Label Everything

I barely know one phone number by heart—so why have I been fooling myself into thinking that I will recall the random Sunday afternoon when I had the time to simmer stock for my future self?

To note the date when I add something homemade (or repackaged) to the freezer, I bought myself freezer tape and a Sharpie, which I now keep in the kitchen junk drawer (which I promise to also organize soon). I also purchased zip-top bags—more on those below—which you can write on directly.

For those who own upright freezers (either at the top of their fridge, side-by-side, or standalone), you can also label your shelves or sections by type of food. Food52er Paula Marchese has an upright freezer with shelves, which “makes it so much easier to organize—baked goods go on one shelf, leftovers go on one shelf, animal proteins go on another. And I have room to keep my ice cream freezer bowl in the freezer all year round!”

4. Make a Date With Your Frozen Stash

Frozen food stays safe almost indefinitely at 0 degrees Fahrenheit; it’s the texture and taste that degrades over time—starting around two months for soups and one year for an uncooked, whole chicken. To keep tabs on the lifespan of your foods, set a reminder on your phone, or pair your freezer check-ins with another chore on the calendar, like changing out the water filter on your fridge (every six months).

Linsey Sowa, Food52 Cookbook Club moderator and one half of the private chef company, Southernish, is much more in tune with her freezer’s contents. She and her fiancé “keep a running list of the contents taped to the front door. This way nothing gets forgotten about, and it inspires us to use more of what's in there for meals!”

(Scroll to the end to learn exactly how long your food will keep in the freezer, and what freezes well.)

5. Freeze Food In Small Portions

Freezing individually sized portions of meals is another smart technique that I have begun to embrace.

For one, it’s convenient. I now divvy up that extra turkey chili or meat sauce that will be perfect for one person’s lunch or dinner into small zip-top bags (squeezing out the air before sealing to prevent freezer burn).

But individual portions also encourage you to pull food out of your freezer more often. If you freeze a giant tub of broth but have no plans to cook enough soup to warrant defrosting it, it may never budge.

Everyone has their own trick for freezing small portions for future meals—including a few I unearthed from this gem of a comment thread.

One community member, mela, likes to freeze cup-size portions of stock, then empties the “pucks” into a gallon zip-top bag that she later washes and reuses. (Souper Cubes are another great way to freeze small amounts of stock, pesto, and sauce.)

Yet another Food52er, tammany, cooks her mirepoix of carrots, celery, and onions in oil, cools it, then places it in this plastic container—topped with more oil—before freezing. To use, she gently nukes it, scoops out the portion she needs, then refreezes.

And when community member arcane54 freezes tiny meatballs, chorizo, or other meat, she makes an indentation in the plastic freezer bag with a spoon, so that “the frozen block will break cleanly along the indents. That way I don’t have to thaw more than I need.”

6. Freeze Flat

In “How to Make Your Freezer Work For You”—a goldmine of ideas on how to freeze food to maximize your cooking—writer Valerio Farris relays a key principle of freezer organizing:

“Freeze flat. It’s a great way to save space and decrease thaw time. Pour your liquid into an upright freezer bag, seal it nearly all the way, then carefully tip the bag onto its side, press the air out of the opening, and freeze. Stack your frozen bags like folded sweaters, or turn them on their sides, like a record collection.”

This brilliant organizing trick runs counter, in my case, to an ancient piece of advice: “Know Thyself.” While I have begun to freeze some individual portions of foods flat in freezer bags, I still prefer plastic takeout containers because they’re more readily reusable.

Also, the freeze flat method is better suited toward upright freezers, where some people actually use magazine files to store their flat-frozen zip-top bags—a level of organization for only the most ambitious freezer keeper.

• This chart helps you gauge how long you can safely keep different types of foods in the freezer, as does this USDA list.
• We have a guide to foods that freeze well.
• Keep your frozen food wrapped as tightly as possible—either with cling wrap or a vacuum sealer—to prevent freezer burn.
• Wondering how long your Thanksgiving stuffing and cranberry sauce will last (or how far ahead you can make and freeze Thanksgiving dishes in advance)? The timing in this guide to how Thanksgiving leftovers are good for can answer both questions.

More from Home52

• How to Organize Your Linen Closet
• The 30-Second Trick to Upgrade Any Place Setting
• Our Top Tips for Styling Your Bed Like the Pros
• No-Reno Refresh: 3 Easy Ways to Spruce up a Small Bathroom

---

How do you keep your freezer organized? Spill your secrets below!