Chest Freezer Organization With IKEA Bins
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Chest freezers are notorious for swallowing food (pardon the pun), never to be seen again…Or until they are way past their expiry dates and transformed into an unrecognizable crystalline substance. How can you organize it so you can easily get what you want and save money by not wasting food? See how I organized mine with IKEA bins.
Why would you want containers in your chest freezer?
The obvious answer is to keep things from becoming a jumbled mess. Other benefits are:
- Ease of finding and retrieving the food you want. (Especially if the bottom containers have handles so you don’t have to lean over too far.)
- Helps keep food from getting spoiled or freezer burnt.
- Helps your freezer work better and save energy.
Chest freezer organization tip #1...Measure your freezer...
Measure the inside dimensions of the freezer – height, depth and width and the protruding “shelf” before shopping for containers.
Gather Containers...
Square or rectangular containers with handles are great for storing items at the bottom. I found the IKEA Hallbar waste and recycling bins with lids for my freezer, which also stack. They don’t fit perfectly – I had to remove the wire bin rack that came with the freezer. A small open area was left that is great for extra or odd shaped items that won’t fit in the bins.
Organize in categories...Like with like...
Sort your food items into categories that make sense to you and what you eat. I don’t buy many baked goods or prepared foods, preferring to keep things simple. I also use my chest freezer for “deep”, long-term storage, so foods that spoil faster are kept in my other freezers. (You can read about my frozen food storage system here.) My categories are:
- Vegetables
- Fruit
- Bread & baked goods
- Chicken
- Small meat (pork chops, ground meat, etc.)
- Large meat (racks of ribs, roasts, etc.)
Your categories might by broken down to more specific ones and include.
- Pizzas
- Fish
- Specific types of meat (chicken, pork, beef, etc,)
- Specific types of vegetables (root vegetables, green vegetables, etc.)
- Grab ‘n’ go meals
- Beverages (juice, etc,)
- Dairy (cheese, milk, ice cream, etc.)
- Desserts
You get the idea.
#4 Label and/or colour code...
Colour coding isn’t really necessary, but the large IKEA bins come with coloured circle stickers so I decided to use them. I have a Dymo Letratag labeler, but you could just use masking tape and a marker to label your bins.
#5 Keep an inventory with dates...
It is important to remember what you have so keep an inventory. Even though freezing foods can make them last a long time, they won’t last forever. At least, not in a condition that you would still want to eat them. My freezer inventory sheet is two-sided and laminated. You can get your free printable below, to laminate, if you want. A dry-erase marker makes it easy to update the inventory as I use items or add new.
Maintaining your chest freezer ...
Unfortunately, you will still have to periodically clean the freezer out and defrost it when there gets to be about a 1/2″ of frost build up. To defrost less, keep the freezer closed as much as possible. Get in, get what you need and get out quickly to minimize frost build up.
You can watch the video below ...
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