Ron and I have had a small chest freezer for decades, and always put it to good use. We're on our second one. It has to live outside on the back deck with the recycling barrels. I asked Ron to put a cover on it to help protect it from the weather. It's a tarp and duct tape job. It does just fine out there, chugging away keeping things frozen.
The challenge with chest freezers is in organization. For most of those decades, my organization was strictly willy-nilly. I threw stuff in there, then dug around when I wanted something. What I wanted was, of course, always on the bottom. One of my early retirement projects was to get some control of this situation. I did my due diligence on the internet, and decided the best solution for me was to use cloth shopping bags. I could put like things in bags, and use different colored bags for different things. At the beginning, I had trouble remembering what was in each bag, so I came up with some mnemonics to help.
Pink is pork.
Bleu is cheese.
Light greens and orange for veggies.
Dark greens for beef. One is for hamburger, one for roasts and other cuts.
The system is still subject to the fundamental challenge of things being piled on top of each other.
I've been known to lack the patience necessary to take all the bags out to get to the one I want, still consistently on the bottom. Instead, I'll dig around until I spot the bag of choice, grab a handle and just haul it out. Yep, rough handling. You might notice in several of the pics above that handles seem to be dangling, or missing altogether? Guilty as charged!
The pandemic put the squash on my interest in some sewing projects I had in mind as too frivolous, and we don't use masks enough to need to replace the ones we have. However, the sewing machine needs its workout, so I decided a freezer storage bag mending project would be just the ticket. Since the bags are only in my freezer and appearance not of concern, I chose to load the machine with white thread and use it no matter the color of the bag.
Pink had been completely brutalized. Both handles completely torn off! So I made new ones.
Bleu just needed a handle stitched back on. See the white thread?
Orange had handles and side seams repaired. It's ugly in there, I tell you!
Same with Light Green.
The Light Green on the right was torn up in ways I won't explain and replaced with the repaired Light Green on the left. It keeps my blanched and frozen veggies.
Dark Green last.
Now that I've done the repair work, do I promise to be more patient and careful in my freezer work?? So far I have been, but it's only been a couple of weeks. Best to say: no promises!!
