Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I have three freezers and I'm determined to get a better handle on what's in them. (It's one of my off-season projects.) Does anybody have a good way of managing their inventory?

I don't suppose there's an app for that.

Amy

Good topic. I have two lower drawer freezers, no chest or non-defrosting larger ones, and I am always looking for better ways to do this.

Here's what I do:

The lower pull out section of one has a divider in the center. I put chicken products on one side, beef and pork on the other. I usually break down large packages of meat and wrap in portions in clear plastic wrap. Then these portioned out sizes go into a larger ziplock that always always gets labeled with sharpie marker. I can then go pull singles out and reseal the big zip.

Upper pullout has no divider, it keeps bread, frozen fruit like blueberries and cranberries, butter, and stocks. I freeze the berries on sheet pans, then they go into plastic tubs. I like to use straight sided glass jars for stock. I usually put plastic wrap on the top of the liquid as this seems to keep out air better.

My in kitchen freezer drawer has a pullout on the bottom that is divided into two. One side has purchased ice and ice cream. Other side has icepacks (shoulder shaped), and leftover chili, spagetti sauce, rice, plus frozen fresh tomato and chilies. There is a basket on the drawer front, small. It holds herbs and lemon juice and other bits of this and that.

Upper drawer in kitchen freezer has pizzas, lard, piemaking cloths, and the ice maker ice.

I am anxious to see what kinds of tricks I can pick up in this thread. Now I must go and neaten up my freezer!! Maybe I'll snap a few photos with the new cam.

I use excel, print the list and keep it in the pantry and cross off as we use stuff. I only put the inventory from the big freezer. It would work a lot better if my husband would cross stuff off.

3 freezers: 1 large chest freezer, 1 bottom of my kitchen fridge and 1 top of the fridge in the basement.
Kitchen fridge is only breadcrumbs, icecream, frozen waffles/pancakes,any open packages of shredded cheeses or meatballs. Not much else, other than icecubes.

Chest freezer in garage - 3 sections : far left - anything I've made and put into tupperware (soups, taco meat, pasta sauce, etc.), middle section (biggest) - frozen meats, veggies,and my baguettes from Costco, far right - frozen fruits, grated and bagged cheeses, pie crusts, loaves of toast bread.

One thing I did recently was to put all the 1 cup sized plastic containers into bags so that they don't float down to the bottom of the freezer. I freeze taco meat and pasta sauce as well as mashed pots in that size container for quick lunches for the kids.

I have tried both a computer inventory and a dry erase board but couldn't seem to keep up with either. I have milk crates in my chest freezer and try to keep like items in the same crate. One has meat (mostly pork), another has nuts, fruits & veggies, another has breads and convenience foods, and finally one for butter and lard. I don't know exactly what I have on hand but have a general idea. This is not the best but the best I can do for now.

I would like to have a bar code scanner that I could just pass the stuff over and which would link to my computer. However, that seems like a large investment to see how many packages of frozen raspberries I have.

Good news! there is an app for that, but bad news - it's Android. I use My Pantry 2. Excellent. I can say which freezer (or pantry) what is going into and sort it, either alphabetically or by food group. I make my shooping list on it, and when I cross off the item in my cart, it's "put away" in the pantry. It has a barcode scanner, so you can make your list from what you already have, or scan as you shop.

The app maker, Zion, is very responsive. I can ask if he has one for for Iphone....

I have a tiny freezer and my technique is to put things in where they fit, immediately forget them and then rip the whole thing apart looking for something I was sure I had but then only finding it at a later date when looking for something else. May not be everyone's cup of tea, but it works for me.

Mary

Sounds like my current system. I could use an upgrade.

Amy

I started out wanting to be very organized but realized that the freezer is so small stuff just has to go where it fits.

Mary

I'm with you Mary....I just throw it in where it fits and hope for the best. Every few months I get in there and move stuff around so I have older stuff closer to the front.
ilene