Cleaning: The Dreaded Defrosting of a Chest Freezer

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:

Choose a nice cool day  so that you can empty all of your frozen food and work without it defrosting too much.

Yes, here is the chest freezer with the ice-sheets-of-shame.

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.

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. 

 

Here's the anatomy of my scary, cleaning adventure: