How to Organize Your Refrigerator and Freezer

Having a well-stocked freezer is only helpful if you know what you’ve got and use it before it goes bad. With a few simple freezer organizing tips, you can keep track of what you have and make the most of it for meal planning.

In my kitchen, I have a fairly small refrigerator with a top freezer. I also have a deep freezer in the garage. This means I can stock up on chicken when it’s on sale and I can also make double batches of our favorite meals to keep on hand for busy nights. And it all fits just right in the freezers.

Freezer organizing

My garage deep freezer holds meat, so everything else goes in the small kitchen freezer. I divided it into three zones.

The bottom shelf has one bin for vegetables and one bin for fruit. I can easily slide them out and grab whatever package I need quickly.

The top shelf is ready meals that include frozen pizza, snacks, and homemade things like casseroles and soup. When I’m freezing meals, I try to make the packages as flat as possible so that they stack neatly.

Note: These are the bins I use. They come in tons of different sizes.

Out in the garage, the deep freezer is similarly divided into zones for beef, pork, and chicken. It changes a bit, depending on what has been on sale recently.

Refrigerator organizing

I something similar in my refrigerator, but since it is bigger than the freezer I have a little more flexibility.

From bottom to top:

One drawer for vegetables and one for fruit, although the veggies often spill over into the fruit drawer because I buy more of them.

A bin to put meat in for thawing so it doesn’t drip. {I had just stocked up on chicken before taking the photo, so most of that will be trimmed and frozen.} Leftovers go on the bottom shelf next to the meat.

The fixed drawer is lunch meat, cheese, and other deli foods.

On the next shelf up, I have one bin for bread items like tortillas, flatbread, etc. and one for eggs and dairy.

The top shelf is mostly drinks and other too-tall containers.

Note: These are the bins I use.

Kitchen inventory printables

Once you’ve got everything nice and organized, you need to keep track of what you have. It’s easier to dig through the freeze when all I have to do is pull out a bin, but I dislike having to go out to the garage to see how much chicken there is in the deep freezer.

I’ve started keeping a written inventory that I can update and check off as I use things. I don’t keep track of 100 percent of everything because it can get tedious, but I write down the big items and things that are harder to get to.

You can download my free printable freezer inventory printable. I also have a matching pantry inventory printable and refrigerator inventory printable.

What’s next? Try these other fun and creative ideas on One Mama’s Daily Drama:

• 12 Summer Freezer Meals to Make Ahead for Lunch Time
• Bright and Colorful Printable Kitchen Labels
• Printable Weekly Cleaning Routine Checklist