Organizing the Black Hole of Doom

This post titled 'organizing the black hole of doom' (AKA the deep chest freezer in the basement) should probably be embarrassing and if I cared that you're going to judge me when you see this first picture then I wouldn't be showing it to you LOL.  

Confession: I don't think I've ever defrosted the deep freezer. And the closest I got to organizing it was throwing meat to the left side and other stuff to the right - and then we have to dig thru the contents to find what we are hoping to find! It's shameful. I know.

So the other day it was like 1,000' outside and super humid and I thought what better time to tackle the freezer. The packed freezer that needs to be unloaded into other coolers to keep cold while I defrosted and came up with an organizing system before it could all be put back in 🤦‍♀️ For the record, next time I will do this when it's cold outside and then I won't have to be in nearly the rush I was! 

I, because I've never done it, googled 'how to defrost a chest freezer' and lo and behold there are quite a few ways and suggestions - once I realized the bottom line is to basically empty the freezer and unplug it I stopped reading how other people do it and just unplugged it already (side note: I've noticed that when I'm starting a project I'll read everything I can about it before starting and then I've wasted so much time instead of just doing it!). There's lots of advice about blowing the ice build up with a hair dryer, or putting a bowl of hot water inside - but 'thanks' to how hot and humid it is outside, this puppy defrosted in no time at all. I did use a flat edge wooden spoon to scrape the hunks off but it was melting so fast I barely had to exert much pressure. 

In case I'm not the only defrosting virgin out there - here's what I did so you don't have to google it:

1. gather coolers and some ice, then take everything out of the freezer and put in said coolers. Tip - feel free to throw things out along the way! I came across some questionable items that may or may not have had dates from 2008...

2. Once empty, unplug. My freezer has a drain plug in the bottom and an opening at the bottom front for the water to drain out - I pulled both plugs and put down a baking sheet and towel under the front opening to catch any melted ice. 

3. Using a flat-edged wooden spoon (do not use any sharp metal objects to scrape, you don't want to damage the inside of the freezer - yeah, guess what we've been using to chip away the build up around the top edge that makes it so you can't close the door tight? A screwdriver. Oops.) scrape away the built up hunks of ice. I put down a plastic bin and scraped the big pieces into it and then took outside to dump on the ground. Once the big pieces were gone from the sides I scooped up what had fallen to the bottom and took that outside too. Then dry the whole thing with towels. True story -  I am short, and the freezer is pretty deep, so when I was drying it the bottom my head and torso were inside the chest and I was balancing on the edge with the top of my hips and my feet were dangling off the ground - I'm so glad no one was around to see that visual! HAH! 

4. The fun part was figuring out how to give the freezer a little structure - it's literally a big deep hole with a step/shelf about halfway up on one side. I should mention that before starting this project I drove around town trying to find some kind of bins or something to put different categories in so I could keep like things with like - for instance, bags of chicken with like bags, all the beef in one container, all the sweets in one, etc. But nothing was right and I was tired of looking so I went home defeated. But then had a idea - I'll just build a little divider for the bottom. I'm not one to make slapped together jerry-rigged cardboard and duct taped projects very often, but in this case no one is going to see this divider other than me and Dave (and you) and it totally doesn't matter what it looks like. So I measured the space, cut one long piece and 2 shorter cross pieces making a 4 square divider and duct taped it together, then put in the freezer. 

5. Before plugging the freezer back in you need to make sure how things are going to fit - in addition to the bottom divider I found some clear plastic containers around the house and figured where they could sit on top of the bottom layer. Don't go to all the work of defrosting and plug it in too early, it'll just frost back up again when you keep opening the door arranging the plastic containers. Go on, ask me how I know?

6. Ok, now you're ready - plug the freezer in and let it cool back down for 20-30 minutes before reloading all the food from the coolers. I put meat in the 4 divided bottom sections (chicken, beef, pork, fish and seafood). One bin sits in the middle on top of the divider and holds side dishes like my fave veggie tots, pierogi, dumplings, etc; other bins hold breakfast sandwiches, mini pizzas (both from Costco so there are a LOT of them hahaha); and baking and candy - they stack on the side shelf. The ice cream and popsicles go in a sliding basket that came with the freezer and sits on the top edge. So now when we open the freezer lid, we just have to lift out the center container and there is access to all of the meat below. 

Is it wrong how happy the organized black hole of doom has made me? I don't dread having to get something out now - and the ice build up is gone so I don't have to chisel it with the screwdriver anymore, YES! Now that I know how easy it is to defrost I will never let it get that bad again :)