CHALLENGED BY THE CHALLENGE
I was excited to work on the challenge for week 6 because I thought it would help me catch up on organizing from previous weeks. Miscellaneous food storage, for this challenge, for me, was to focus on the freezer and pet food storage. The challenge for week 6 is to clean out and organize your miscellaneous food storage.
I already use binder clips to close freezer bags but my freezer is not tall enough to hang bags of frozen food. Scratch that idea for me.
We do have the plastic half-gallon milk jugs in this house each week but we don’t buy frozen vegetables in bulk nor do we grow vegetables so there was no need to transfer vegetables from bags to empty milk jugs.
I did sort and group food items and put them in white plastic baskets purchased at the dollar store. The baskets wouldn’t fit in the pull-out wire freezer drawer. I removed the wire drawer and tried the baskets on the bottom of the freezer. Could not fit three baskets side by side and they were just a little too long. I could hear the food in the baskets get pushed each time I tested the freezer door to see if it would close properly. I tried a few configurations of the new white baskets in the freezer, but nothing seemed to work.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
One good thing that came out of cleaning the freezer this time around is that I took all the ice packs and put them in one of the baskets. I was going to put that basket on the top shelf of the freezer but you know what? It took up valuable space that could be used for freezing food instead of 20 ice packs. Some of those ice packs have been around for 20 years. We will weed them out tomorrow.
There were only a few food items that were tossed. A Box of White Castle cheeseburgers that no one likes. A bag of blueberries that I don’t even remember when it was bought. A bag of Mexican burritos that had no date or cooking instructions with them.
Without all the ice packs in the freezer door shelves, I was able to use those shelves for smaller items and leftovers in individual containers.
So although my original ideas didn’t all work out, cleaning and organizing the freezer felt good! OCD. Thanks for following the 52-week challenge.
One item I searched for in stores over the last couple shopping trips was a plastic desktop drawer that I wanted to use in the freezer for my ice cubes. Couldn’t find one in the stores, but I just found this on Amazon and it looks to be the right size. I’ll let you know!
Next challenge: Week 7 = Cups / mugs / travel cups / water bottles ( although I know someone in this house can’t wait to organize the stemware / glasses!).
