One of the hardest things to manage when you use chest freezers for storing sale meats is how to handle the deepest areas. It’s easy to lose track of inventory in there! Fortunately, we’ve discovered a few tricks over the years that apply to anyone with a chest freezer.
My secret is this: wine boxes!
These boxes are sturdy and deep, but not too heavy when filled with frozen meat. How many you’ll need depends on the size of your freezer, but we’ve found that most chest freezers can fit two layers of 3-6 per layer.
To organize your freezer, start by collecting several nice, clean wine boxes. Take out the bottle separator and push the flaps down on the inside. This’ll be important later.
Take everything out of your freezer and place the contents in coolers. Defrost the freezer if necessary. It’s a lot easier to start with a freezer with no ice buildup.
Place your first layer of empty wine boxes in the freezer. If you’ve ever played Tetris, you know what to do! If your freezer is like mine, you won’t be able to eliminate every gap, but try to eliminate as many as possible.
Take stock of what you usually keep in your freezer and what you want to add.
For my freezers of for-sale meats, I generally keep a selection of sheep cuts. In my home freezer, I keep mutton, lamb, chicken, beef, venison, pork, prepared foods, vegetables, fruits, ice cream, cookies, breads, stock or broth, and sausages. My prepared foods can be microwave-ready pizzas, smoked meats ready for tacos or curry, ground meat and onion ready for sauces and chili, stews or soups, prepared curry sauce, spaghetti sauce, and more. I also intentionally freeze leftovers that I make. I will cook a large batch of something and freeze the extra for later. This is especially important during lambing, when we need hot, high-protein meals that can be ready in 15 minutes or less.
Now comes the fun part: loading your freezer for quick access to everything.
Pick one of the boxes or sections at the bottom and place one type of item in the box. For example, I have one box that holds nothing but beef cuts. Another box holds exclusively chicken. I may have a box for just pork when we’ve bought half a pig, and I always have one set aside for sheep cuts. I keep one for frozen bagels and other breads. Once you’ve placed all the common items in their spaces, start your next layer. Items in this layer should be the ones you use most often.
I keep one box for cookies, ice cream, and fruits. One box has packs of frozen vegetables. One box holds prepared meals that heat up quickly. Lastly, save one box for items that need to be used up soon – the “Eat Now” box.
Keep an eye out for items that’ll fit your unused spaces between boxes as you organize. Or, separate by meat and cut, and place similar boxes on top of each other. When we raise a beef, we usually keep half for ourselves. I end up with one box of hamburger and several boxes of other cuts. I separate out the roasts from the steaks, and it’s easy to find what I want. A whole lamb will fit into a wine box if you debone some of the items. I also save one box for various sausages because of how we plan our meals.
For my sale freezers, I separate meat by cut, so I have boxes for racks, leg roasts, shoulder roasts, chops, stew meat, ground, and so on.
Some people prioritize keeping a detailed inventory of how much and what they have, but I’ve always found it to be too much hassle. For me, just keeping the items by species or type allows me to prepare various meals each week. I do try to keep vague track of what’s where, but that’s all I do.
Once get everything set up, you’ll find the advantage of putting the flaps on the inside. When you need to get to the bottom layer, you can slide your hands down the inside of a box and pull it up by the flaps. It keeps the items contained, and the “handles” make it easy to get to everything, no matter where it is.
I hope these tips help! Have fun with your newly-organized freezer as you prepare delicious, healthy meals from your frozen food.