There's a Better Way to Organize Your Freezer

Have you ever opened your freezer to grab one small item and caused something of a food avalanche? It doesn't have to be like this; there is a better way. You can organize your freezer easily and efficiently by walking away from it and into your workspace. There, you'll grab three office supplies: Binder clips, some vertical envelope organizers, and a Sharpie. Here's what you'll do with them.

Binder clips are for your wire shelving

If there's wire shelving inside your freezer, binder clips are your organizational North Star. Secure them around the wires from the top, so the clipping part hangs below the shelf and the squeezable part is above it. Now, you can hang bags of frozen food from the underside of the shelf, which is great in and of itself--but it is doubly helpful if those bags are open, as the clips serve store, organize, and seal your bags.

Paper organizers are for separating small items

The main problem with freezers is that everything gets stacked on everything else, making it difficult to see what's on that bottom row. What you need here are some vertical file holders, which go by all sorts of names online, includeing magazine rack, file holder, and desk organizer. To be clear, we are referring to those L-shaped storage containers that stand straight up on your desk. (Here is a two-pack from Amazon for $15.62. Here's a two-pack from Staples for $11.99.)

These should be set along the back wall of the freezer, ideally on the bottom. Use one for frozen fruits, one for frozen veggies, one for frozen meat--whatever organizational structure works for you. These work great because they don't take up much space, but they give each item something to lean on vertically, so it's not all piled up and you can see everything you have in there in one glance.

Use the Sharpie to mark everything clearly

Finally, labeling your frozen foods will help you tremendously when it comes to keeping everything organized. If you made a bunch of soup a while back and froze some for later use, you might have easily forgotten what the hell is inside that mysterious Tupperware. Writing the date of making and freezing the food, plus what the food is, saves you a lot of hassle.

Label your vertical file holders, too. Being able to clearly see at first glance what you do have will help you toss out what you don't need anymore, pick up what you do need at the store, and not double up on items you already have, keeping the too-much-stuff-in-the-freezer avalanche at bay.