The Garage Freezer

In my last post, I shared information about stocking my kitchen pantry, an area that I take pleasure in keeping organized. 

Today, I would like to talk about the garage freezer.  I feel very blessed to have one.  When we moved from Florida to a rural area in Georgia, I soon discovered that owning an extra freezer was a necessity, especially when one has to travel a bit to a grocery store.

Thankfully, we now live in a different area of Georgia, where grocery stores are a-plenty.  The garage freezer is still in full use, since this frugal gal stocks up whenever there is a sale!

I admit that over the past several years, I have not taken the time to keep the extra freezer as organized as I do the kitchen pantry.

One night last week, after being inspired by my own blog post, I was struck with the thought that the interior of the garage freezer needed a serious makeover.  I decided to create zones: top shelf for frozen fruit, popsicles, and frozen yogurt,  2nd shelf for meat and fish, 3rd shelf for whole grains (including flours and coconut), and bottom shelf for leftovers.

The top shelf began to come together nicely.  I like my idea of corralling the 1/2 cup pumpkin purees and 1/2 cups of orange juice into plastic shoe boxes, instead of trying to stack them individually. 

My organization bliss was short-lived.  I had difficulty bringing my plan into fruition for two reasons:  1) The garage was hot, and despite employing the use of coolers and trying to work as quickly as possible, the freezer was quickly warming and defrosting the food.  2) I have waaaaaaay too many boxes of popsicles!

I moved the bags of coconut (see top shelf) to the side door, closed the freezer, and called it a night.  Agonizing over perfected tidiness was NOT worth losing all the food to defrosting!

It is now a week later.  The freezer is humming along, keeping its well-stocked insides preserved.  I have added blueberries and peach puree (upcoming blog posts) to the top shelf, used some of the foods, and shifted a few items here and there.  My desired zones are now more visible!

The Publix vanilla frozen yogurt was on sale this week, which explains why they are on the meat and fish shelf...there just wasn't room to put them anywhere else.  We still have too many popsicles, so they are on the grains shelf.  Sometimes, despite our organization desires, we just have to put things away where they fit, and simply be grateful to have them!

At least the door looks good, for now anyway....I hear there is a sale on frozen vegetables....