Are you ready to see this?
LOOK.
My freezer is actually empty! Clean! Defrosted!
And I'm just about ready to plug it back in.
After working through nearly everything from my last freezer post, I put the few remaining items in my kitchen freezer.
Then I unplugged the chest freezer and let it sit for a day or two so that all the ice could melt.
This "unplug, then walk away" thing is definitely simpler than the usual defrosting methods.
(Except for the part where you painstakingly use up your freezer contents for six months beforehand. Ha.)
I sort of can't believe I made it through all of that food while managing to only throw a small portion of it away. Phew!
Last post, I had all this stuff to use up:
And I'm pleased to say that I got through almost all of it. Only the tilapia remains!
And there's definitely plenty of room for a little tilapia in this freezer.
I would love to tell you that I will never let my freezer get this messy again. I am full of organized hopefulness at the moment!
But I know myself, and I accept that there's a possibility that I'll be in this same spot again in a few years.
I mean, look how many times I've cleaned up my laundry room, and then it gets bad again.
I will try really, really hard to avoid this sort of freezer situation again, though.
Hopefully, some of the habits I've gained over this loooooong freezer challenge will help me do a better job of maintaining my freezer.
THANK YOU so much for following along on my freezer saga. I would definitely not have been as motivated to get this done if I wasn't sharing my progress with all of you.
I appreciate you cheering me on and being my online accountability partners. 😉 Here's to clean freezers in the future!
I should probably pull out my pompoms and think of a suitable cheer for the occasion, but it's 4:45 in the morning, so a simple ,"YAY FOR YOU!" will have to do.
Kristin, you inspired me (and it's now 8:30...ha!) but I'll leave the pompoms to you. 😉
Great job, yay, yay, yay,
Fill it up another day!
Gooooo Kristen!
I'm curious. How much do you normally store in your freezer? What made this time so much messier than before? (I am always curious how much people keep in storage and how they make regular use of it.)
Well, it's not that this was necessarily so much messier than before. It's just that over the years, so many random things accumulated that it was just a jumble of miscellaneous stuff, rather than fairly fresh food that I was regularly cycling through.
The big reason I have my chest freezer is so that I can do things like buying local sides of beef, freezing local peaches, and buying items in bulk.
But when the freezer becomes a holder for every miscellaneous thing under the sun, something needs to be done. 😉
Well done. You have done an amazing job.
Kudos!
I am still working through frozen fruit, adding some to my oatmeal mixtures every morning. You have been a huge inspiration.
Exciting!
Inspirational! I like those dividers. Did they come with the freezer or did you get them somewhere else?
I think Kristen and I have the same freezer, and they came with it.
Yep! You can buy them online but you'd have to be sure they'd fit your freezer's dimensions.
I am ALMOST at the point to defrost mine! I have emptied up my refrigerator freezer pretty well, so I can transfer some food to that, and it's cooled off again so that I don't worry so much about putting other things in our big cooler to hold until the defrost is done. Keeping my fingers crossed for this weekend for my big defrost!
I love that nice, clean, ice-free freezer of yours. It makes me want to make mine look just the same.
Great job!! Yahoooooo!!!
Wow excellent! Our freezer is not too bad. It's just a lot of frozen breast milk which I'm trying to donate.
Way to start the new year!
Yay!!!! This is so inspiring, given the current state of my chest freezer :-/
YOU are a serious inspiration!!! I'm kind of doing something similar, trying to clear things out so I can refill with new, and I think of you often when I make trips out to my garage freezer. GREAT JOB!!!!!!
You are finished a great overwhelming job. I have also started this and plan to finish it off. We will be eating from the freezer until it is empty. Thanks for the incentive.
We've had our chest freezer for probably five years? and never defrosted it. I need to work on that! Good job!
YAY YOU!!! Now, tell me about those dividers...I neeeed these so very much.
So, these ones just came with my freezer! It's a Kenmore freezer, but if you search for Frigidaire freezer dividers, you can find ones like what I have. They might fit into other freezers too.
Good job!! You get a smiley face!
Yay!! Now I can live the rest of my life in peace. Life goals achieved. 😉
What? Wait! You can freeze heavy cream? Really? Mind blown! What about half and half?
Yep, you definitely can. I'm not positive how well it whips after being frozen, but it's fine for pouring into coffee and such.
Well you've been an inspiration to me!! I've been working hard at cleaning out our freezer and eating down what we've had. I can almost see the bottom now and I'm so excited!!
Wow!! Way to go!!
I was thinking about trying to completely empty mine before summer, but then my dad got us a deer. 🙂 So we might just defrost it while it's frigid outside and use our wonderfully low temperatures to keep our food safe.
I had the opportunity to buy a side of beef in the midst of this project but I decided to hold off. A deer is a different story though...you gotta take it when it's available!
Same here...my husband has gotten 3 deer this winter so no defrost in sight for awhile. Meanwhile there are about 2 inches of ice/frost in the freezer! Yikes!! I need to put this on the calendar for next fall BEFORE he starts hunting again! It's not just meat....the freezer is packed with frozen fruits, veggies, homemade broth, frozen pureed pumpkin, etc. We are completely FULL right now. lol
Great job!! You're inspiring. I have an old upright (not frost-free) in the basement that is absolutely a TOTAL MESS. I'll let you know if I get brave enough to tackle it!
Haha, mine was pretty darn bad too. You can do this! Just take it small bits at a time.
I don't know that I'll ever get to a point where my house is clean and organized but it's little (well big) victories like these that make it worthwhile.
My current projects are my pantry, the kitchen and my workshop / office.
I hear you! My freezer was clean, but the rest of my laundry room? Not so much.
It's always a state of ebb and flow with the cleanliness thing, I think.
Officially impressed!! This is coming from a food hoarder who can't get the chest and fridge freezers to go down.... like, at all! Yes, I have a problem! This is great!
Congratulations! I defrosted my freezer last weekend so I know how pleased you are. As a reward (or so I think of it), two Happy Meat discount offers have come my way this week.
I have that same freezer, also with ice in the lid. So I'm very gradually using up the contents so I can do the same thing.
Great job!
I have to say thank you....you inspired me to start working through my freezer so I can defrost too. 🙂 It is hard but really it is so good to be using up that food before it goes bad! I have to keep up my own motivation now that you're done posting though!
I just took inventory of my freezers yesterday so I can clear out my deep freezer and defrost it!! You've definitely been an inspiration. And now I'm going to have to look for those dividers!
Thank you for the freezer clean up posts! It's been something I've had to do too so it motivates me. I've been working on it and it's definitely an improvement from what it was. Plus it saved me $ from not having to shop as much! Congratulations on accomplishing your goal!
Woohoo!
Something I have seen professional organizers on Instagram using in pantries and fridges is a "use first" basket. I think it would really well for a freezer! Then you could look in that basket/container for things that need to be used up on a regular basis, and the little odds and ends would be separate from the things you're stocking up on.
Oh that is a good idea - I'm going to do that in my fridge
Wow Kristen! Good for you! You have encouraged & inspired me to tackle my out of control clutter again with renewed hope enthusiasm & gusto - I have a partially walled entry area outside my back door that was thickly festooned with spider webs & I think the glass windows had not been cleaned for many, many years; I sprayed one day to deal with the livestock, next day brushed & scraped the webs away, then used a mop sideways to take off thick layers of grime before cleaning with my enjo window mitt then finished with a damp miracle cloth - it's the only pristine area of my house but I stop & admire it every time I come in & out of the house - makes me feel better about the chaos within... - great challenge - thank you! I shall think of your freezer & carry on!