How I Finally Organized My Messy Freezer Drawer
Inside: Bottom drawer freezers can easily get unorganized and messy. Here are some systems and products to help you organize a bottom freezer.
When we remodeled our kitchen and bought a brand new, gleaming French-door refrigerator with a bottom drawer freezer, I figured I’d love it.
Then the drawer devolved into one deep, cold, random pile that I dug through every day to locate what I needed.
After too many years of digging, I finally came up with a system that works well for us. Maybe it will work for you too!
How to Organize a Bottom Freezer
1. Clean, sort & purge
Take everything out of your freezer (stash things in coolers to keep them chilled), wipe it down to remove spills and messes, and get rid of anything with freezer burn or that you no longer want.
2. Create zones
Using the plastic divider that our drawer freezer came with, I created one big section for dinner items: frozen leftovers, ingredients like chicken broth frozen into cubes, jars of homemade pesto, chicken breasts, bags of frozen pasta.
The other smaller section is for lunch items: the insulated lunch bags my husband and younger son use, cold packs for my older son’s lunch, and other lunchbox-friendly foods (like their favorite veggie patties). You could create zones based around meals or around like items, such as meats or freezer meals.
3. Corral items into bins
Putting two bins in the top, slide-out drawer of the freezer has been a game-changer.
You can use bins for like items or items you frequently use together. I designated one bin for frozen vegetables. The other is for all the ingredients I use for smoothies and oatmeal, two things I make almost daily. Now I don’t need to root through the pile every morning for frozen fruit or chopped nuts, which makes the morning a little bit easier.
I also I roll each package down and wrap it tightly with a rubber band. This simple step instantly save space and makes everything feel neater and more manageable.
4. Use what you have
It goes without saying but actually using what you have in your freezer is critical to staying organized. If your freezer looks like you’re prepping for a zombie apocalypse, take stock of what you have and make a plan for using it.
- Grab my free Freezer Inventory Printable to figure out what you’ve got already.
- Use my free Meal Planning Worksheet to map out your week using those foods.
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