Since October is the month for all things scary, I decided to attack the chest freezer in our garage. Ideally I like to get it defrosted every year, but I'll admit it's been having a 2-year ice age in there. Not only is it an enlightening experience to see what exactly we've got in there, but it can also be a great way to work out some aggression as you chip away the ice. Here's the anatomy of my scary, cleaning adventure:
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| Choose a nice cool day so that you can empty all of your frozen food and work without it defrosting too much. |
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| Yes, here is the chest freezer with the ice-sheets-of-shame. |
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| I like using a plastic putty-knife to chip the ice off. You can use hot water to help remove all the ice, but I don't like that system. I'd rather chip it off and then only have to scoop up the ice-bits in the bottom of the freezer with a dust-pan instead of dealing with a soupy nasty mess that you have to completely dry out so it doesn't form a veritable ice-rink in the bottom of your freezer. This is where the aggression gets worked out as well as some upper body musculature as you lean over and scrape. |
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| When it is all clean and clear inside (and all inevitable popsicle stickiness is cleaned up), then comes the fun part. Organizing! I have some plastic bins in the bottom of the freezer that I use to organize food by groups as well as utilizing the baskets above. For example: |
- One basket is completely full of freezer jam.
- Another contains baking
items such as brown sugar, chocolate chips, yeast, butter, coconut, nuts
etc.
- Another basket holds frozen vegetables,
- The 4th basket holds frozen juice, fruits and cheese (yes I know that
doesn't go together, but it was the only basket with space leftover).
- I
always keep my meats in the very bottom of the freezer for food safety
reasons - I don't want any juices dripping on things before the meat
freezes completely.
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Here's the anatomy of my scary, cleaning adventure:
