Last night I was thinking about what foods I want to stock up on, because winter is coming, I don't want to run to the store much in the snow and ice, and covid, and there are shortages. I was reaching into the freezer of my fridge, plunking ice into my glass of water, and thought "I'd love more freezer space", when it hit me.............why do I have an ice bin and two ice trays, when I don't use much ice at all? I used to drink tons of iced tea, but don't anymore.
They take up 20% of my freezer space! The bin is on the lower shelf, the two trays on the shelf above. All I really need is one tray of ice.
TA-DA! I'm so excited! LOL The one tray of ice can sit on top of whatever boxes are in there.
I need to poke around some little-used cabinets and shelves, see what's there, make more room for stocking up.
Do you need more freezer or food storage space? Is more space staring you right in the face?
Make room!
Re: Make room!
Not really, if I keep things organized and rotated I do just fine with what storage space I have for frozen and pantry foods.
Jackie
http://inthelandofthelivingskiesii.blogspot.ca/
http://inthelandofthelivingskiesii.blogspot.ca/
- MackerelCat
- Posts: 7257
- Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 9:44 pm
Re: Make room!
We have had a little Sears chest freezer, the smallest model they made in the mid-1990s, since I read about it in The Tightwad Gazette. Frozen food storage for a family of three has not been a problem. I keep frozen things we're going to eat this week in the freezer over the fridge: my prepped work lunches, ice cream, and stuff for breakfast, along with the ice bin.
This is the first house we've ever had that had a dedicated pantry and I am loving it! About half of the pantry space is given over to storing mixing bowls, Rubbermaid, and small kitchen appliances because the kitchen itself has upper cabinets that are largely useless. It's still plenty of space because the shelves are built up to the ceiling.
This is the first house we've ever had that had a dedicated pantry and I am loving it! About half of the pantry space is given over to storing mixing bowls, Rubbermaid, and small kitchen appliances because the kitchen itself has upper cabinets that are largely useless. It's still plenty of space because the shelves are built up to the ceiling.
Mackie
Re: Make room!
For a bunch of vegetarians, we sure use up a bunch of freezer space.
Mostly it's frozen alternative flours, GF oats, nuts, vegetables (some we grew, some bought), legumes, rices, a few meat substitutes and frozen tofu (changes it's texture) tubs, along with individual serving sized pyrex bowls of various soups and chilis for DD and DH's lunches (DS isn't much of a frozen soup kid, but he's always home for lunch so he has the luxury of making whatever he's in the mood for).
With a counter-depth side by side fridge/freezer in the kitchen and a full-sized standing freezer in the garage, I could, frankly, use more freezer space .
What I think I truly 'need' is a better way to organize the freezer that's in the side by size. Some tubs or something to keep stuff unitized - all the open, partially-used packages of veg, primarily.
The pantry in the kitchen is about 42" wide and 54" deep, shelved (DH just added 2 more) with... the builder had a sense of humor, there's a 12-ft ceiling in there and the tallest of us is still shy of 6' 1" - so there's space to go "up" with a step stool, if we felt we needed to add even more shelves. There's an auxillary pantry (read that as "cabinet") in the garage for canned goods.
If I had more freezer space, I'd buy some more pyrex soup bowls, LOL.
Mostly it's frozen alternative flours, GF oats, nuts, vegetables (some we grew, some bought), legumes, rices, a few meat substitutes and frozen tofu (changes it's texture) tubs, along with individual serving sized pyrex bowls of various soups and chilis for DD and DH's lunches (DS isn't much of a frozen soup kid, but he's always home for lunch so he has the luxury of making whatever he's in the mood for).
With a counter-depth side by side fridge/freezer in the kitchen and a full-sized standing freezer in the garage, I could, frankly, use more freezer space .
What I think I truly 'need' is a better way to organize the freezer that's in the side by size. Some tubs or something to keep stuff unitized - all the open, partially-used packages of veg, primarily.
The pantry in the kitchen is about 42" wide and 54" deep, shelved (DH just added 2 more) with... the builder had a sense of humor, there's a 12-ft ceiling in there and the tallest of us is still shy of 6' 1" - so there's space to go "up" with a step stool, if we felt we needed to add even more shelves. There's an auxillary pantry (read that as "cabinet") in the garage for canned goods.
If I had more freezer space, I'd buy some more pyrex soup bowls, LOL.
Re: Make room!
We have just the side by side fridge and freezer and, although there's a lot more freezer space than our old fridge/freezer combination, I still wish we had more. I have a perfect spot in the laundry room to put a small upright freezer, but the last time I checked the availability was pretty nil. That being said, my DH is an organization genius and he can fit things into spaces like nobody's business. So we're able to stock up somewhat.
Patty
- MackerelCat
- Posts: 7257
- Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 9:44 pm
Re: Make room!
Sandi, I use those clear plastic Sterilite shoeboxes in our over the fridge freezer to corral the partially used bags of frozen breakfast meat, shredded cheese, pepperoni, nuts, etc. that wind up in there.
Mackie