A Revamped Freezer

A while back I shared my newly organized fridge with all of you, and I am happy to report that it is just as clean and organized as that day!  And yes, it still makes me happy to open the refrigerator door :)  However, opening the freezer door was a much different story.  Only dread awaited me when I needed to get to the freezer.  Why?  Because it looked liked this:

Shield your eyes, hide your kids, this freezer is going to burst at any moment!!  Getting food out of this freezer was similar to playing a game of Jenga.  Though in this version, one wrong move sent frozen food scattering along the floor, not wooden blocks...  What a nightmare.  So it was definitely time for a change!  Off to....you guess it!  The Dollar Tree!

My roommate and I bought:

- 2 plastic wire racks ... $2

- Rubber mat ............... $1

- 2 stackable cubbies ... $2

TOTAL ...................... $5

And that's all!!  We already had the contact paper on hand (left over from our fridge organizing project) so with just $5 worth of items we were ready to go!

The wire racks were not deep enough to just buy one, so I bought two to treat as one shelf.

First I cut a piece of the rubber mat (unfortunately we did not have leftovers of this from the fridge) to fit the size of the two wire racks.

Then I cut a piece of contact paper to fit on top of that.  Just peel off the back, stick it the rubber mat, and you're ready to go!

I cleared out the entire freezer (including wiping it down to get it nice and clean).  It gave me a chance to group everything in to categories and throw anything out that had expired.  Then I stuck the covered shelf in and put the cubbies on top.  I forgot to take a picture of this step but I think you get the idea.

Originally we had all of our frozen fruits in the bags but I decided to revamp that idea.  We use the frozen fruits for smoothies or for a frozen snack.  So I separated them into three different sized tupperware containers.  The largest for a smoothie servings, medium for combining different fruits for smoothies, and the small for snack size.  Now we can just grab exactly what we want.  And, though it took a little bit of time to separate them, will make it easier in the long run.

And here's the final product!  Beneath the shelving unit we have our frozen vegetables, the bottom stackable container holds our meats, the top stackable container holds our frozen fruits, the side of the shelving unit holds any large boxes (right now that means Bagel Bites).  There are a few other things in there as well that were placed next to the stackable containers on the shelf.

And now the door holds much less so things aren't toppling over on us.

The freezer doesn't make me as excited as the fridge does but it is worlds better than it was before.  It may not be the prettiest, but it is functional and organized.  And that's what we set out to do!

What about your freezer?  Share share share!  The good, the bad, and the ugly!