re: Organizing a Chest Freezer

quote:

---

buying an upright

---

Good luck. Mine crapped out in August and there haven’t been any anywhere in South Louisiana that I’ve seen since. Stantons said they hadn’t had any large freezers to sell since February. I just bought a used 22 cu ft this week of FB because I have 3 deer being processed and none of the big box stores will even let you place an order for one.

If any of you guys find a way to keep all the shite the wife will need from settling to the very bottom of the freezer, the day after grocery shopping, please let the rest of us know!

Empty the things out to get what she wants from the very bottom, stack everything back in like freaking lego's, and there isn't enough room to get it back in.....

quote:

---

Left side of the freezer is salmon, whitefish, seal, walrus, etc.

Middle of the freezer is moose.

Right side of the freezer is berries

---

You and I have much different freezer contents.

Aldi delivers their groceries in heavy bags with handles. I repurpose those bags. One bag deer breakfast sausage, one for deer cube steak, one bag deer burger, one bag deer steaks, one bag deer roasts. I got two layers deep right now.
Separate freezer for vegetables from garden and use the same system. We put up cut corn, ears, summer squash, tomatoes, okra, pole beans.
Both freezers are full and do not have issues finding things.

I have my grandfather's old chest freezer. Pretty good size, no telling how old the thing is. On the left side, there is a divider, where he kept stuff from his garden mainly. Quart or gallon bags of peas/okra/etc. It is maybe 10-12 inches wide in there. And there are two floating baskets that sit on the rim of it, and can be slid side to side. Below that is just empty space.

I have it somewhat organized. Frozen veggies I leave on the side with the divider. Kids snacks I leave in the baskets. I have old cardboard boxes making up the floor of it, and have them filled by different types of meat. We do keep some popsicles and other stuff in there, but it is all on top so the kids can reach it without digging. I also keep about a half dozen old milk jugs filled with water in there. Helps during any power outages not to let stuff thaw out so fast. Just lay one across the top of each box.

Milk crates

Wire shelving
I took wire shelving as close to the width of my freezer I could find and bent it into Ls. The short leg of the L is placed on bottom of the freezer and covered with fish, deer or waffle to keep it upright. The long leg forms a divider cut too the height of my freezer.

In my offgrid cabin I had two chest freezers. One was used as a refrigerator (had an outlet wired with a thermostat). I used milk crates to help keep everything organized. Worked just fine for me.

Walrus? How’s that taste?

quote:

---

I have decided frick trying to organize my chest freezer and ill be buying an upright this spring. Its just not possible to organize the damn thing.

---

Open top on a chest freezer the cold stays put where it is.... open the door on an upright and all the cold comes tumbling out and down to the floor... simple unavoidable physics.