F: Freezers

It's confession time! How many of you  have that dreaded bottom drawer or shelf on the freezer that - should you brave its frozen depths - might have anything from decade old frozen peas to near desiccated freezer pops?

*Raises hand*

Our freezer has been a bottomless pit that was starting to approach critical mass, but we DID start taking some steps toward making sense out of the chaos. Here are some of the tricks we've used:

From Food and Nutrition

• Ditch the bulk bags! If you buy a giant package of meat, vegetables, or ANYTHING, take advantage of a vacuum sealer and repackage it into serving sizes appropriate for your family before sticking it in the freezer. This way you're more likely to use it before it becomes a permanent resident of the ice fields, AND you're less likely to risk losing it to freezer burn.
• Label EVERYTHING. Forget the mysterious packages that you never bother with opening until the power goes out - from now on nothing goes in the freezer without a label AND a packaged on/eat-by date. Decide on the amount of time you're willing to store something and commit to throwing it out after that. Freezers can extend the life of your food, but it's not a magic time machine that will keep it delicious indefinitely. Eventually, that beef will make some seriously manky burgers.
• Lay bags flat to freeze. If you've ever tried to untangle a mound of frozen ziplocs or pry them out of the bars on the shelves, this one needs no explanation.
• Use organizer bins. Just like with your closet and bathroom drawers, sometimes breaking up a huge space into more manageable chunks is the best way to keep from losing your mind when you're digging for that one little bottle of vodka. I mean, frozen peas. Yeah, that's it...

This has actually even saved us money by helping ensure we waste less food in the house, and you know I'm all about pinching a penny. If only it would finally stop the freezer from ejecting that one single ice cube into the floor every time we opened it...

If you'd like some more ideas on freezer organization, check out this awesome slideshow from Good Housekeeping! How are your freezers shaping up these days?