Clutter is the enemy of productivity. From my home, to my schedule, I try to keep things organized so that I can effectively manage the daily operations and feel like I accomplished my tasks at the end of the day.
Not only are our schedules and chores organized, I have been amazed at how organized my home is getting with such a small investment in some Dollar Tree containers.
I have been pleasantly surprised with some of my previous Dollar Tree purchases, but wasn’t sure how these containers would hold up. I am surprised to see all of the following projects still holding up.
Previous Organized Homemaking Projects
1. Kitchen Cabinets — Using containers to keep my kitchen cabinet organized was an ingenious idea. It took some tweaking since I had to raise and lower the cabinet shelves to fit the number of containers I wanted to use, but the end result was so worth it. Now my kids and husband can clearly see where each item goes. It also makes grabbing what we need a cinch.
2. Medicine Cabinet — I love the way this project came together. With a few containers I was able to not only organize my medicine cabinet, but I also cam up with a neat way to be prepared when any of the children get sick. No more searching around for medicine cups, medicine or thermometers. It’s like I have my very own sick child kit ready to go whenever I need it.
3. Bathroom Storage — While I have not settled on a workable way to store my bathroom toiletries, I have been using containers thus far. I’ve tried two different styles but neither of them give me any functionality. The containers simply hold all of the items in one place but it doesn’t provide me with a user friendly way to group like items. For now the containers work until I find just the right solution.
Well here’s my latest project and I am so glad that i took a chance on these budget friendly organizing solutions.
Everything was removed from the deep freezer and sorted into $1 plastic bins. This can be used as a prime time to clean the deep freezer especially if you have extra space in your main refrigerator freezer.
The way I decided to sort my freezer content was by colored bins. The red bins are used for cooked or raw meat while the white are for juice, butter, frozen vegetables, bread and anything else that wasn’t a meat product.
Here’s a closer look at my sorting methods. All of the like items were stored together and raw and cooked meats while in red bins are stores separately. The color coding is going to be really helpful when it comes to grabbing things from your freezer.
If you wanted to take it a step further, you could choose to use an additional colored bin to identify the raw from the cooked meats.
Now to see if I can get everything to fit back into the freezer.
Okay….so everything didn’t fit as planned om the first try, but after rearranging things I was able to get everything positioned in a way that would allows every bin to fit perfectly.
In the end I brought in a smaller container $1 Tree container for the juice. Now it’s so much easier to remove and replace items from my deep freezer thus making it smore useful tool for me.
20 thoughts on “Organized Homemaking: Deep Freezer Re-do with Dollar Store Containers”
The stackable totes with side openings will work great with my veggies from my garden in my upright freezer. A different veggie in each tote. Thanks for the great idea.
I used “milk crates” on a large shelf in my upright freezer and smaller boxes on the other shelves. It make it easier to take stuff out to defrost.
And here is a defrosting tip – when upright freezer is empty of food, place a large fan on a sturdy chair in front of the open freezer door, and sheet cake pans on the lowest shelf, a big towel on the very bottom. It takes about a half hour to clean the freezer of frost. Of course, turn freezer off when doing this and remember to turn back on. The circulation of the ambient air defrosts a lot quicker than using pans of hot water or a hair dryer.
I don’t have a deep freezer, but I have two refrigerators with top freezers and I am constantly pulling everything out to find what I need. My life would be easier if I just got a few bins to hold the smaller things, like bags of frozen veggies and fruits! Thank you for another great idea!
@You, Me and B,
I JUST bought a few Dollar Tree baskets and put them in my freezer. Meat in one, frozen fruits and veggies in the other.
It has really improved my freezer.
I also have the deep freezer. I used larger size shoe box containers from Wal-Mart. I labeled them and stood them upright. It made a huge difference. Now if I want pork, I pull the pork box, chicken, etc.
We have a large chest freezer & I was forever losing things in the bottom of it only to find them ‘years’ later all freezer burned & yucky. About a year ago I was able to find bins that worked perfectly (they were actually school locker bins – like milk crates only narrower). That has helped us know at a glance what we need & what we have to plan for meals.
The stackable totes with side openings will work great with my veggies from my garden in my upright freezer. A different veggie in each tote. Thanks for the great idea.
[Reply]
Great idea. My freezer is in a hopeless condition. I will try using boxes. This will be my first new year project
[Reply]
I used “milk crates” on a large shelf in my upright freezer and smaller boxes on the other shelves. It make it easier to take stuff out to defrost.
And here is a defrosting tip – when upright freezer is empty of food, place a large fan on a sturdy chair in front of the open freezer door, and sheet cake pans on the lowest shelf, a big towel on the very bottom. It takes about a half hour to clean the freezer of frost. Of course, turn freezer off when doing this and remember to turn back on. The circulation of the ambient air defrosts a lot quicker than using pans of hot water or a hair dryer.
[Reply]
I don’t have a deep freezer, but I have two refrigerators with top freezers and I am constantly pulling everything out to find what I need. My life would be easier if I just got a few bins to hold the smaller things, like bags of frozen veggies and fruits! Thank you for another great idea!
[Reply]
Julie V. Reply:
June 25th, 2014 at
@You, Me and B,
I JUST bought a few Dollar Tree baskets and put them in my freezer. Meat in one, frozen fruits and veggies in the other.
It has really improved my freezer.
[Reply]
I also have the deep freezer. I used larger size shoe box containers from Wal-Mart. I labeled them and stood them upright. It made a huge difference. Now if I want pork, I pull the pork box, chicken, etc.
[Reply]
The Proverbs Wife Reply:
January 27th, 2013 at
@Donna, Super!! There are so many ways to get a freezer organized and once you do it just seems so much more useful.
[Reply]
Jo Reply:
March 10th, 2013 at
I also use shoe boxes & small totes to hole each kind of meat, makes it so easy to find what you want
[Reply]
The Proverbs Wife Reply:
March 11th, 2013 at
I’m making another post on how to organize the deep freezer using boxes.
[Reply]
Jo Reply:
March 10th, 2013 at
I put a foldable wire shelf rake into my freezer to give me another shelf, because it was just 1 big hole. Works great
[Reply]
The Proverbs Wife Reply:
March 11th, 2013 at
That’s a great idea. I’ll have to try that since one side if my freezer is pretty deep.
[Reply]
We have a large chest freezer & I was forever losing things in the bottom of it only to find them ‘years’ later all freezer burned & yucky. About a year ago I was able to find bins that worked perfectly (they were actually school locker bins – like milk crates only narrower). That has helped us know at a glance what we need & what we have to plan for meals.
Glad that great minds think alike!
[Reply]
The Proverbs Wife Reply:
January 22nd, 2012 at
@Livin In Duckville, 🙂
[Reply]
Found it! I use those types of containers in my classrooms.
[Reply]
yay i found it lol
[Reply]
Found the flash contest entry!
[Reply]