How to Organize a Chest Freezer
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If you own a chest freezer, I’m betting the inside of yours looks something like this.
Yep, mine did too, until yesterday.
I’m telling you, chest freezers may hold a lot of food, but they are beyond difficult to organize. Freezer baskets help some, but they don’t do anything to organize the tall stacks of food that lurk beneath them. And going in for something at the bottom of the freezer? Well, that’s just an avalanche waiting to happen.
Determined to finally find a solution to the problem, my husband and I spent some time brainstorming different solutions, and I’m happy to report that we found one that works. Take a look:
Big improvement, right? Those red crates that you see in my freezer are Sterilite Locker Crates, and we found them on clearance at Walmart for $3 each. As the name suggests, they’re designed to fit inside of a locker, but they happen to fit the dimensions of a chest freezer perfectly, too.
We were able to fit five crates in our freezer – that gave us one for meat, one for fruit, one for veggies, one for nuts and one for jars, with a bit of space left over for stacking flour and additional jars of homemade goodness.
I love that everything is grouped by what it is, and that getting to something at the bottom of the freezer is now as simple as lifting out a few crates.
Want to see if your Walmart carries these? Just go here, and click on “find in store.” Both Walmart locations in my town had them available in a variety of colors. I’d recommend checking the clearance aisle because that’s where we found ours.
Won’t the plastic become brittle with time? I keep hoping to find some metal baskets to use…was afraid plastic would be a waste. But your freezer looks great!
Plastic Tupperware and ice cube trays do okay in the freezer, so I think these crates will be fine, too. Time will tell, I suppose 🙂 I used metal baskets for years, but always found them frustrating. I’d buy some at yard sales, only to find they didn’t fit my freezer, and when I did find some that fit, they still didn’t stack well. One thing I like about these crates, is that they’re designed to stack.
This is such a great idea. I do have a lot of food in my freezer but it is pain when looking for something because it falls all over the baskets will help going out and buying them today, Thanks for such a great idea.
Could you please tell me the dimensions of these locker crates? I’d like to see if they would also help me organize the bottom, pull out freezer that is part of my kitchen refrigerator.
I’m really looking forward to using your crate idea. In fact, I’m very crateful:)
Hi Alice,
The locker crates measure 14-1/4 x 9-1/2 x 10-5/8. Hope they’ll work for you.
Great idea, just got my chest freezer and this looks like it will work great. Debbie
Where else can you find them walmart don’t have them. Really would like to get some
Hi Lorrie, unfortunately I think those bins were discontinued a while back. I plan to update this post with new chest freezer organization ideas, so stay tuned.