How To Repair A Chest Freezer

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How to organize a chest freezer

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Streamline your food stores with our advice on how to organize a breast freezer to perfection, including tips on how to create extra space and prevent flood. Whether your chest freezer is your principal storage source, or an extra store stashed in your garage, keeping everything organized is the all-time way to truly take control of your freezing habits and might even relieve you a few dollars in the process.

Of form, keeping your chest freezer organized will also make your cooking process much easier. With one of the all-time freezers (opens in new tab) in your home, you can accept ingredients, leftovers, and treats within like shooting fish in a barrel accomplish, and save yourself from wasting good nutrient. An organized freezer also means y'all'll have more space bachelor, meaning you tin stock upward more of the foods you like and take a good clear out of any things that are out of date.

How to organize a chest freezer: Super-quick guide

1.  Empty your freezer
2.  Create an inventory
3.  Give information technology a quick clean
4.  Begin with the bottom layer
5. Shop meat/poultry in airtight containers
6.  Use a stacking organization dictated by how ofttimes yous use each food
7.  Upgrade your freezer with sliding baskets on your upper level

How to organize a chest freezer

The start affair you need to do when information technology comes to organizing your chest freezer is to become to grips with exactly what you've already got in there. If y'all're budgeted your freezer in a perfect make new country, then you can but dive right in, but if not, take your time to brand an inventory of everything that'south already taking up space.

The best way to practise this is to empty out your freezer and create a blank canvas for yourself. If you have another freezer nearby, perhaps within 1 of the all-time side-by-side refrigerators (opens in new tab), then use this to stash your foods to preclude thawing, or use a coolbox or colder area of your home for temporary storage while you lot quickly empty information technology out. It's definitely best to complete this process before y'all take a trip to the grocery store, rather than after, to avoid having loads of backlog nutrient that might thaw.

Make an inventory of your freezer-stuff every bit yous empty information technology, either on newspaper or on your phone. This can but exist a crude list for now, simply be certain to note things downwards before yous shop them away. While you're at that place, you might also desire to have a quick clean of your chest freezer and blackball any rogue frozen peas or built-up water ice from getting in your manner, using a mild detergent equally you become.

Once your freezer is looking in tip-top status, yous can movement onto the most of import step of this process: getting your breast freezer congenital into organized layers.  Undertaking this strategy is the most constructive way to shop your nutrient and foreclose yous from blindly rustling effectually with your hands plunged into the common cold depths of your freezer.

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Though it may seem obvious, the bottom layer of your freezer is where y'all want to store the foods you reach for least. This is most likely large cuts of meat or less used vegetables, though it will entirely depend on eating preferences in your household. This step is also where your inventory will starting time to come in handy, as information technology will allow you to map out exactly where your preferences lie. Even drawing a quick sketch of what is going to go where will go a long mode in this organizing process.

If you are storing whatever type of meat, make sure to contain it within closed containers of a similar size in this very bottom layer, such as these from Amazon (opens in new tab), (these are eco-friendly due to the bamboo lids and more durable with a glass exterior). For your freezer'south system to work, if you're going to stack these containers, they must exist the same size.

If you live in a meat-free household and prefer to keep your foods in their packaging for storage, and so these stackable containers (opens in new tab) with open tops allow for even easier access. Chiefly, before you buy any containers, be certain to check their measurements against your freezer size, then yous know exactly how many you can pack in and which are the about economical to opt for given the space you have.

Depending on how decorated your freezer is, you might now have a layer or multiple layers of frozen food neatly organized within the bottom of your space. For an extra level of convenience, why not label these containers with big lettering then that you tin can heart up exactly what you demand to grab at outset glance. And for ultimate freezer sorting skills, we also similar the idea of using a whiteboard (opens in new tab) above or attached on top of your freezer, like this 1, that allows you lot to brand a quick annotation of what yous've got inside, equally well equally what needs to be used up shortly, or what you need to catch on your next grocery trip.

The real key to consolidating your freezer equally an excellent organizational store is not just within storage containers; the next step involves an extra layer being integrated for maximum coordination. Freezer baskets, such as these extra broad and deep ones (opens in new tab) from Amazon, are the platonic solution to preclude your space from condign a hot mess after one rummage. They can be placed on the very tiptop of your chest freezer (with those particular baskets uniform with GE, Hotpoint, Kenmore, and Haier models) and act as a sliding layer for your most essential foods.

Rather than getting bogged down in the residuum of your freezer, these baskets are the perfect place for the kind of food you reach for all the time. Whether that's frozen fruit for your smoothies, vegetables, fries, or ice, it's probable you'll be refilling them nigh oftentimes. Crucially, if you lot can get baskets that slide across the top of your freezer, so you'll exist able to movement them across more hands to go to the layers underneath likewise.

(Image credit: Getty)

How to organize your breast freezer: What to do with oversize items

Undertaking this stacking organisation combined with the addition of sliding baskets should give you the best hazard at expertly organizing your chest freezer. But what about all those foodstuffs that don't fit perfectly into containers, or risk ruining your layering system?

Well, one solution would exist to engineer one of your sliding baskets and so that it'due south a suitable size for whatsoever overlarge items in advance, and take it as a 'miscellaneous section'. This kind of handbasket, such equally this i from Amazon (opens in new tab), might need to exist a little larger or wider.

Alternatively, you could section off a part of your freezer with dividers (opens in new tab) and prepare up a zone for bad-mannered objects that are entirely separate to the rest of your layering system. Even though this will take up space, it'll mean that you can notwithstanding proceed the main space meticulously organized, and not have to debate with lifting heavy large objects off of your containers on your trips to the freezer.

If in that location are more niche items y'all're struggling to know what to do with, so it's worth remembering that at that place is probably a storage container out there built for just information technology. Fifty-fifty if you take loose foods that come without containers, so there are plenty of first-class solutions like these pots (opens in new tab) for keeping them neat. Plus, at that place are even means to store your bootleg creations in your freezer, like these stackable ice-cream containers (opens in new tab).

All in all, the key to keeping your freezer in height condition is keeping a close heart on what you've got within, as well as prioritizing piece of cake-take hold of space for your favorite food items. For more tips on all things frozen, check out our feature on what temperature your freezer should be (opens in new tab) or our tips on how long to freeze food (opens in new tab).

Molly is the Staff Author for the Home Section at Top X Reviews, joining the squad later on finishing college. When she's not writing she enjoys blistering and embroidery, as well every bit getting stuck into a good volume. She now enjoys writing well-nigh kitchen appliances, gardening tools, and will fifty-fifty dip her toe into writing about fridges and ovens.

Source: https://www.toptenreviews.com/how-to-organize-a-chest-freezer

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