It may not look like much of a difference to you when you see my pictures, but trust me on this one. My freezers were completely disorganized and full of frost. I didn’t know what I had in there, much less where anything was.
Before I show you my before and after pictures, let’s establish this right away: No one ever accused me of not having enough food on hand. No one ever said, “Laura I think you should really consider buying more than one pound of meat at a time.” No one ever said, “Have you ever considered buying in bulk?”
“I sure hope the Coppingers can find something to eat today,” said no one ever. I’m thankful for the abundance, and you’ll read more about how we afford full freezers below.
Instead, this is what people say:
“If ever there is a food crisis, we will go to Laura’s house.” and “What are you guys, carnivores?!” and also “I would never have time to do all that freezer cooking.”
That final statement always makes me bang my head on my freezer since time is something I often feel that I am severely lacking and freezer cooking is what saves my meals (and ironically, my time).
So how do we afford to buy so much at once? True statement: We can’t afford not to.
Buying meat, cheese, nuts, grains, and butter in bulk and when we find good deals is the only way to feed a family full of teenage boys (and guests) without breaking our bank. If it’s a good price, I buy a cartful – which is a lot of cost upfront but saves $1,000’s in the long run.
How do I find time to do freezer cooking? I make time, spending an additional two hours or so here and there to save a dozen or more hours of cooking later. Or my favorite tip of all, when I’m making one casserole to eat at dinner, I typically make an additional one or two while I’m at it. Same effort, same amount of dishes, twice or three times the eats. It only makes sense.
So let’s take a look now at my freezers, and then let’s encourage Laura not to buy any more meat for a while. Seriously.
First I will show you (because I love splashing my disorganizational skills all over the internet) my two frost-filled, haphazard freezers in which one can only hope to reach in to grab a chicken and actually come away with a chicken.
Freezer #1
Freezer #2
Operation defrost and reorganize the freezers began Saturday afternoon.
Half the fun of this project was actually discovering that I had over 12 prepared freezer meals scattered all over the place. Thinking a better idea would be to put them all one one shelf so I’d know just where to look, I…you know, put them all on one shelf so I’d know just where to look. Brilliance. I’ll be saving these meals for the first few weeks of school/soccer season. This is what sanity is made of.
I put all the chicken on the top shelf, all the beef on the second shelf, all the butter in the door, and all the frozen fruits and veggies on aisle 4.
Freezer #2 then only contained only our lamb meat, nuts, and a couple packs of cheese. But wait. There’s more.
On Tuesday, Matt picked up the grass-fed beef we had ordered from local farmer friends. Did we need to order beef right now? No, we still had some. But our friend’s cows were ready right now…and later would be too late. Saying no now would have made us run out of beef before next spring/summer, so we ordered before we needed it. I think we’re set on beef for a while. Although we will go through this faster than many would think. You’ve seen teenagers eat, right?
In other freezer cooking news, I made a batch of Whole Wheat Pizza Crusts for an easy lunch once school starts. I also cooked 3 pounds of hamburger meat (seeing as I had some to cook). We’ll use it on the pizzas and for other easy meals.
I have more to share about how I used my Eat Right Away Beef and Chicken Slow Cooker Editions (my fav so far!) to make many meals in a tiny amount of time – but that’s another post for another day.
I also planned to make a bunch of muffin batter for the freezer, but I am completely out of eggs (and beef is a poor substitute). We will be getting several dozen eggs today from our friend with chickens, then the muffin-batter-for-the-freezer plans will commence.
So now you tell me about your freezer(s). And about your beef. And about your eggs. And about your experiences in watching teenagers eat.
{raises hand and asks silly question of the day} What did you do with all the food while you defrosted the freezer? My freezer is a hot mess and a half and needs a good defrosting but I’ve been putting it off until the freezer is empty. Which doesn’t work when I keep adding to the freezer. :|
Great question! I did one freezer at a time, stuffing additional food from the first freezer into my two refrigerator freezers and praying they would stay closed. Plus we have a third freezer (I have issues) that we use in a pinch. This was considered a pinch. :)
How well I can relate to putting off the defrosting and continuing to add to the freezer while waiting for it to somehow magically empty itself. It’s just soooo hard to pass up buying good deals for the freezer!
When we lived in Italy all refrigerators came with freezers that had to be defrosted. We had no extra freezers, no coolers to help out. I waited until I just had to defrost then got out a couple of heavy blankets and wrapped everything frozen in one huge bundle. It kept frozen till the freezer was defrosted. I am so thankful for my American freezer now and do not miss the defrosting.
I usually defrost my in the middle of winter and I put it coolers and laundry basket in the back yard.( I make a hole in the snow)
We butchered 85 chickens on Saturday, so our freezer is full of chicken. I also picked up 50# of blueberries yesterday, to add to our 50# from two weeks ago.
To Erin: when we defrost freezers, we also use coolers to store the frozen food.
Our freezers are unorganized and need defrosting also. My husband puts lots of food in coolers when he defrost them.
I put all of my food in coolers when I defrost. Even packing it in boxes and then covering with a thick blanket works if you move quickly, since it’s all packed in close together. Choose the most hard frozen things for this, not your ice cream!
My question is….what is your method for defrosting? When I defrost, I end up with water on the floor no matter how quickly I work to keep up. Since the freezer in an unfinished basement, it’s not a big deal. But we are just about to start building a new house, and the freezer will be on the main floor, where I won’t want all the mess!
I put big aluminum pans onto the shelves to catch the water, which we try to empty every hour or so. It doesn’t catch all of it, so we put big towels on the bottom shelf and on the floor beside the freezer to catch the run off. It’s not a perfect method, but it’s better than a few gallons of water all over the floor!
When I seen your photos I had to laugh. That is what my freezer looks like. My freezer is a very old 1960’s model. I swear it could hold 4 dead bodies it is that large. However when we clean it it takes all 6 of us to do it. The teens put all in a coolers and what does not fit goes on the kitchen table with a thick blanket on it. The only thing we do not have is racks for it so I have to use bins I bought a Menards this seems to take up more space than anything. You are correct stocking up does save 1000’s of dollars.
My freezer looks just like that; tons of ice, completely disorganized. I keep waiting for the “right time” for the chore but with 7 children who actually require 3 meals a day & schooling through the blistering Louisiana summer I haven’t found it yet. Maybe this weekend… If anyone has any tips on how to actually defrost the freezer, I’d love to hear. My momma heats pots of water and sets on the shelves inside the freezer and uses towels to mop up the water. Has been a huge mess when I’ve tried. I’d share my eggs with you, Laura. I accidentally put 15 dozen eggs in to my Azure Standard order 2 times last month and didn’t realize. I got 30 dozen eggs!!! Of course, we eat a dozen eggs at breakfast most days so they’ll be gone in a month!
The room where our freezers live is basically a garage, so it is very warm in the summer which means we haven’t had a need to put hot water inside – we simply empty the freezers then unplug. I put big aluminum pans onto the shelves to catch the water, which we try to empty every hour or so. It doesn’t catch all of it, so we put big towels on the bottom shelf and on the floor beside the freezer to catch the run off. It’s not a perfect method, but it’s better than a few gallons of water all over the floor!
That is a LOT of eggs! Good thing they keep for a while. :)
I do what your mom does. boil water in pans put them in he freezer and shut the door and change pans ever 10 to 15 minutes for 45 to hour.Then I wipe down the inside of freezr and remove any remaining ice. Good for a year.
I just recently emptied and defrosted my chest freezer. I found what worked really well was just waiting a little bit and then using a drywall tool- I think it’s called a plaster spreader- to get behind the built up ice and push down and it came off it big chunks and landed in the bottom of my freezer. It was actually pretty fun & quick. You just have to be careful not to dig the sharp edge of it into your freezer. Letting the ice begin to melt just a little bit helped prevent this. In no time at all I was loading the freezer again with the goodies I had stashed in coolers! Hope this helps!
I used a wide spatula to the same effect. I also recognize the “repurpose another tool to defrost the freezer” trick. In my case, my husband’s heat gun was right there on top of his tool bag. :) His shop drop light was also pressed into service. I can tell you, a heat gun makes quick work of frost. Oh, and those microfiber shop towels are really good about soaking up the water.
Our chest freezer is in the basement, near the laundry, so all the wet towels just got tossed into the machine.
Oh, how I can relate to the I-have-a-full-freezer-that-needs-organizing-but-MEAT-IS-ON-SAAAAAAALLLLLLLLE syndrome. I so need to organize, but it’s about a hundred and seventy two degrees out there and I don’t dare attempt it until it’s a bit cooler. But your freezers give me hope that soon I’ll be able to open my freezer without jumping backward to avoid the hunk of frozen whatever-it-is that leaps out to smash my toes.
In my defense, I actually do know what’s in my unorganized freezer, because I keep a check-box inventory on the door. So there’s that. ;)
I don’t have a freezer except the one in my refrigerator, which is not adequate space wise. Maybe someday I will be able to get one. Anyway I live in Florida & I’ve had some summers when extended power outages have forced me to have to throw away a lot of food. Those times I’m glad I don’t have a freezer. Do you ladies with freezers ever have to discard lots of food you’ve spent time preparing for the freezer?
We have a generator for those power outages; the longest one was nearly two weeks.
I do inventory while I’m at it, writing everything that’s in there on a scrap piece of paper then sticking it to the front of the door, in front of each shelf. Then I cross stuff off as I take it out. People have a bit of a laugh at me being such a nerd, but it’s really useful!
I defrost when the freezer is at least a bit empty, and plonk everything into our two iceboxes while I attack it.
I also have a freezer just for stock and stock bones. Luxury!
I totally understand taking the meat when it’s ready. We have to do that too! But it’s sheep, not beef, at our house (we live in Australia).
I don’t think your freezers look to bad. We have a chest freezer that is big enough for my family of 4 to get in and have a picnic. Defrosting it is awful. We tried the upright freezer but had 2 times where we lost food because the door came open. when we had an upright we also put tubs on the shelves and towels on the floor and when it was a little soft we would take a pampered chef scraper, you know the brown ones that come with the stone ware, and scrape it out to make it go a little faster.
My hubby and I just recently picked up a secondhand chest freezer for $100AUD, which was a huge bargain! I talked him into it so I could go out and by a quarter of a cow, he wasn’t too sure but now steak is on the menu for the first time in two years I think he’s been converted! Funny freezer de-frost story – in April this year we had a category 2 cyclone hit the hunter region in nsw Australia (that’s a big deal for us!). We were without power for 5 days, so my freezer defrosted itself, and the bag of ice I bought from the supermarket to keep things cold also filled the bottom of my freezer with water. Unfortunately, the power came back on when I was out for the day…and my freezer was full of water… So the following morning we had to unplug it and defrost all the ice out of it! The irony of it was highly amusing afterwards but at the time I just wanted to bang my head against the freezer door!
We bought a frost-free upright, and honestly, I think it would have been better to get a regular one. I feel like the frost-free-ness of it gives my food freezer burn more. Does anyone else have that issue?
YES! One day a couple weeks ago, I was telling my husband that I thought the frost-free freezer wasn’t as good at keeping items long-term. I told him I was considering selling ours and replacing it with a standard frosty chest freezer.
Then a storm hit. The power went out, and came back on 4 hours later… The frost-free freezer never came back on. I think its “brains” got fried by a lightning strike or power surge or something.
So, standard frosty chest freezer, here I come.
Hi,
How awesome to have all that food tucked away! And MORE awesome now that it’s organized, lol. One thing though, my understanding is that all meats lose their nutritive value after a certain amount of time in a freezer. For instance, I’ve heard beef only retains it’s nutrients for 3 months. Just fyi. You might want to check it out and have a rotating system because it would be a shame if all that good meat became essentially worthless in terms of it’s nutrients. Great post!
I think it’s about time for you to get butter, you’re down to only 8 lbs! Lol
I have had such a hard week and while my 4 zucchini breads are cooling, I thought I’d read this post and the replies — I have been giggling for 10 minutes! Thank you all so much! :)
I, too, have food storage issues…. feels good when I’m using up food and making good meals and baggies/containers are leaving my freezers; but then it gets down to a point and I immediately switch to panic mode — they are getting too empty! I scour the coupons and sale flyers of the many grocery stores here and fill them up. Then I panic because they are too full and, gosh the next week there are just too many other good buys on sale – what am I gonna do with that stuff that I cannot pass up!? It is a serious problem I have, but have only admitted to my mother before now lol. Chest freezer story: Shortly after moving from the midwest to NJ in 2011, I decided a chest freezer was in order — so I could really plan ahead with meals, shop sales, etc. Hubby agreed. I LOADED up and repackaged 20 lbs of chicken in various forms, another 10 lbs of beef – steaks, plus I had made and froze about 2 doz. burger patties, etc., lots of waffles on sale, 8 lbs. of butter, etc. etc. The freezer was full to the brim. I was so proud of my organization and savings. Immediately thereafter: enter Hurricane Irene. (we had never experienced a hurricane before — we live inland, who needs to be worried??!). Out of power for 7 days. No generator (huh?) We tried grilling and eating and re-heating large quantities of meat during every meal (steak and eggs, steak sandwiches, steaks and burgers for dinner….ugh!), and each day I would go out and try to find ice to keep the coolers cold. I ended up losing so much food and I was so discouraged. The next year when I heard and saw footage that Hurricane Sandy was on the way, I set my coffee cup down and raced 11 min. to the big box store and stood guard over the last large generator on the shelf until a store employee walked by and I asked him to go get a cart to help me load, pay and go! Despite this, somehow the regular old freezer/fridge door gets left open now and again and we still lose food, but not near as bad as 2011. I think it’s still worth planning, and stocking up when meats and butter are on sale.