Defrosting My Freezer in Hell

I live in Austin, TX, and it is just flippin' hot right now. No nice way to say it. My car's thermometer showed 112 (F) yesterday when I was out driving around. Austin, you know I adore you, but this June & July have been like Hades.

That said, it's a GREAT time to organize your freezer. Ahhhh! Our paid members were working on their freezers as one of our "Side Dish" projects on our weekly plan last week, and if you follow me on Twitter, you may know that I did some freezer tips on our daily #ClutterTweetTips recently too. (We just celebrated one full year of our daily Twitter tips on Wednesday! Yay!)

My kids tend to leave the door open on my "deep freeze" causing more ice to form, so I have to defrost it once a year or so. It is very satisfying to do that-- the shelves have so much more capacity when they are not supporting a glacier. I just did this big defrosting project, so I'd love to share with you my best freezer tips for getting the most out of this wonderful appliance.

• Get out the big heavy-duty garbage bags. You're going to need them. We advise using bags no less than 1.1 "mil" in thickness.
• If you need to defrost the freezer, take all of the food out and put it somewhere to stay cold, like another freezer or a cooler. Turn the freezer off and open the door. You can either let it naturally melt, or you can put pots of boiling water in there and shut the door to encourage the thawing. You'll want to put some big beach towels down to catch the water, and you can use drip trays and the drain if your freezer has them-- I put baking pans at the bottom to catch the ice and water and empty them into a bucket. Don't be tempted to take an ice pick to the shelves--you might stab some of the tubing (or yourself) and do some damage. Just be patient or use the boiling water. I am not a big defrosting expert so I am quite sure some of my readers will post great tips to help in the comments here.
• Let's get to the organizing part. You're taking out all of the food...while you're handling it, it's time to make some decisions. Here's what to think about:
  • How old is the food? Is it safe to eat?  Here's a food storage chart from the FDA that has guidelines--basically most things should not be kept more than a few months to a year at the most. Check for "use by" dates as many packages have them. When in doubt, throw it out. You don't want to make your family sick.  
  • Is there just a smidgen of food left, like the tiny handful of french fries that nobody ever would bother to cook, or the one lonely old popsicle? These are easy decisions. Toss. Next!
• Sort what you have left into categories that make sense. Here are some ideas: Veggies, Fruits, Meats, Frozen Meals, Breads/Breakfast Food, Pizza, Desserts/Ice Cream, Nuts, Ice Packs...
• Once the freezer is cleaned up and ready, put the food back in by category on the shelves. Sometimes it works to label the shelves with binder clips--see my previous post called "Ode to Binder Clips" to see how.
• Make a list of what you have and post it on the freezer door. You can use a write on/wipe off board or just a piece of paper. This gives you VISIBILITY to what you have, which as we always say, is one of the big goals of any organizing project.
• Think about using your freezer to make things more efficient moving forward. When you're cooking or baking, make double-batches of things like waffles or pancakes and freeze them, and freeze leftover portions of dinner for quick lunches later.
• Get into the habit of marking the date on everything that goes into your freezer-- use a permanent marker and keep it close to the freezer to conveniently mark things as you put them in. Next time you clean out the freezer, there won't be any guessing as to the age of the food!

Break the ice and get your freezer organized--it will pay off in cheaper food bills, more dinners at home, and lots of saved time and energy. Share your polar ponderings in the comments! 

See also my related post on "Eating Down the Fridge." (Flickr photo here from akadruid)

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Comments

[alice sheppard]

Using a floor fan or better still a hair dryer can hasten the thawing of a freezer.

[Lorie Marrero]

Thanks, Memaw, how nice of you to come through with a tip! Yes, I have tried a hair dryer myself, actually, but I got very bored standing there after about 2 minutes. :) I am so proud of you for commenting on blogs and stuff! Thank you for being an example for me of a Lifetime Learner.

- Lorie

[Nellie]

I agree with your Memaw. We always use a fan and the hair dryer. This year we cut off the freezer an hour later unloaded, defrosted, organized, and as we put back in the freezer, made a list. Total time of 3 hours and all was finished

[Genny Esterline]

Thank you, thank you for the list of foods and length to time to keep in freezer. That has always been my hangup. How long are the items good for? Never took the time to explore answers. Now will get a permanent marker near the freezer.
Genny
www.connectionsforwomen.com

[Mary T.]

My husband has been bugging me to defrost our regular size stand up freezer for some time. It's so bad that there are little "cut outs" where the rolls of ground turkey meat sit in the ice!! (ha, ha). Thank you for the chart on how long you should keep food items for. I will try to post some before and after pictures.

[Allison Bambrick]

I think you need to question whether you actually need that much freezing capacity. That's a lot of food clutter you're keeping there isn't it?

Sure, it's great to make double and be able to keep it but play that off with (a) how much of it you will eventually end up chucking and (b) the cost of running the freezer.

Aren't you better off with a standing freezer (such as a pigeon pair with fridge) - better visibility OR just using a fridge with a decent sized freezer (ie something that fits more than just an ice tray). The discipline of a smaller freezer will ensure you revisit those saved meals and other frozen goodies and use them up in time.

[Natalie]

Lorie and others, when your freezer is defrosted and clean, wipe it out with glycerin over all the surfaces before turning it back on. Your next defrosting will take about one third of the time. The ice will come off in big sheets and it really does make make light work of that mammoth task. It works, I promise!

[Linda M]

I've never done this but my SIL suggests putting the food from the freezer in your washing machine along with ice bags. Essentially using your washer as a big cooler. It's so easy to clean it out afterwards. ;>