I'm sure you will receive plenty of suggestions for freezable pantry items so let me strongly encourage you to organize and inventory from the get go. Is it a chest or upright?

Have bins for each species i.e. beef, pork, chicken, fish. Label!! I say I will remember but I don't consequently I have a lot of mystery food. When I bring home stuff from the grocery store-e.g. frozen chicken nuggets, etc., I repackage because the packaging takes up too much space. I cut out the label and instructions to slip into the FoodSaver bag.

More latter--if you are interested. Gotta' go to a wedding now.

Most pantry items last longer in the freezer. Among them are flours, nuts, dried fruits, spices and dry herbs.
But I don't like to waste freezer space on things That I don't need to "stock up: on....so I only store whole grains and nuts.
I like my freezer best for frozen sauces and soups....breads and cakes.
I also like to have a bag going of "stock stuff" like chicken backs and celery leaves, parsley stems etc.
Happy food storage!!
Linda c

Mustangs, the new freezer is an upright - thank goodness! I tried to be organized, but my little chest freezer turned into a mess every time someone went looking for something.

I would definitely appreciate more tips. Have fun at the wedding!

I have an upright ( a manual defrost) too, sarahlee123 and love it. I do have labeled bins: Chicken, Beef, Seafood, Vegetables, Homemade items, Bread, Frozen Dinners, Nuts/Chicken Broth.

The bins help a lot with organization as long as I stay on top of things. (I have a tendency to open the door and shove stuff in...) I keep all my whole grain flours and such in half gallon jars on the door.

I reuse all sizes of glass jars and use those for homemade chicken broth. Things like stews, chili, thick soups, etc. go in single serving (maybe 2 servings) in freezer quart ziploc bags. These are frozen flat then stacked upright in one of the bins.
I do not have a food saver nor plan on getting one as I don't keep food for years. I do diligently label things and use the oldest stuff first.

If you have a auto defrost freezer, then I would consider getting a food saver.
Enjoy your new freezer! You'll love it!

Bumblebeez, thanks for the tips! yes, it is an auto defrost. Would you believe that the manual style cost MORE??? I don't have a food saver, but now that you mention it.... Any recommendations? Are they very expensive?

Tho I really don't NEED one... if $$ fell out of the sky, I'd buy a second fridge/freezer. Periodically, do a reorganization of what's in freezer to try to keep "like" things at least CLOSE to each other.

WOuld be nice to have extra space to chill things... like sodas/beer & bigger "summer" items like watermelon.

Found my foodsaver at a yard sale and love it. It works well for me since I'm cooking for 1. Typical package of boneless/skinless chicken breasts (3-4 pieces) is 2-3 meals. By vac sealing, I can defrost ONE piece in about 20-30 minutes in room temp water... and no freezer burn.

One I have is an "older" model... not vertical or hands-free, but works great. I have found LOTS of the cannisters to vac seal stuff in... rices, small pasta, bread crumbs, crackers/cookies... stuff that doesn't go "bad" but can get stale tasting.

Found an attachement that lets you vac seal things in wide-mouth Mason jars... NOT canning. Also something called a "universal" lid that vac seals odd-sized glass jars.

sarah, I know what you mean about filling the little freezer up. I went from an apartment to a house and bought a small chest freezer. Though I love it and it keeps food really fresh and barely runs...BUUUUT it's just too little! I would love an upright! I suppose I really don't need it though but I hate the clutter of a chest freezer.

LUCKY YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Arkansas girl, chest freezers are incredibly efficient, and work great - but what a pain to find anything! No matter how I organize mine, it just takes one 'quest for ice cream' to mess it up.

You might want to keep an eye on the classified ads in your local area paper ( i mean the free paper you get weekly). People are always selling freezers, often for a pretty reasonable price. You might just luck out and get a really good deal.

Congratulations on your new freezer! We bought a used side by side about 5 years ago for $150 (someone was moving) and it's still going strong. It's great to have the extra food storage space. I waiting a long time to buy a food saver and finally did it about a year ago. I was finding myself pulling freezer burned meat out of the freezer. I'm not sure if I've saved enough yet to pay for it, but I'm definitely not throwing away food anymore.

Well, after hearing all the positive information about food savers I ordered one, don't remember what I paid for it. It's still sitting in the box, daughter tried to show me how to use it but I never have. I wish someone had it that would use it.

Just wanted to recommend using squarish plastic milk jugs to fill up the empty space whenever not being used by edibles. It will dramatically increase the efficiency and if you happen to need ice for a cooler, a frozen half gallon will last at least 2 days and a frozen gallon for at least 3 (from experience camping in 95 degree heat.) You can also use plastic shopping bags to store cubed ice and always have plenty if you have a party. We also fill plastic water bottles back up and freeze them (half first, then the other half.) Throw a few of these in the cooler and they keep the other drinks cold as they melt without making everything wet.

I like to make large batches of dinner, dessert, bread items that freeze well and are labor-intensive and/or cook for a long time. Then freeze the half, or portions of, what we don't eat. This decreases overall electricity usage and overall time spent cooking yummy, homemade foods, and saves money because I buy big bulk packs of stuff.

I also make large batches of various food items so that I can take them to my stepmother or have them later or share with my girls.

I have a large chest type freezer because I raise beef and have a big garden. The only produce I freeze is berries/ cherries and asparagus, occasionally some corn. My freezer is nearly always full by the time we add venison, freshly caught fish and home baked bread. Items do migrate to the bottom of the freezer but it's more efficient and is a manual defrost so my long term beef storage doesn't go through the freeze/thaw temperature fluctuations that auto defrost models have. I do have various baskets in the freezer, but can't convince Elery not to toss things out of the baskets when he's looking for something, or to put new items into them. So, it's a great idea, if it works for you and you can get the rest of your family to invest themselves in the concept, LOL.

Jude, I have a foodsaver too, Elery bought me one. It's not one of the hands free countertop models, it's a smaller one that you have to push both sides to seal. So, you put the end of a bag in there and then have to push down on both sides of the darned thing and hope to heck the bag doesn't pop out. It takes two people to run the blasted thing and then about half the time or more, the bags come unsealed anyway. It won't take the 11 inch bags either, only the 8 1/2 inch ones, so when I bought a combo pack I ended up sending the larger bags to Peppi. Ugh, I hate that thing. Peppi is a FoodSaver guru and she and I emailed back and forth, she finally told me I had a lemon model and should just buy a different one, LOL.

So, if you have a similar model, don't bother even learning to use it, every time I take it out of the box I end up wanting to toss it into the back yard.

If you have a better one, however, then you might love it, a lot of other people do. But, since Elery paid $100 or so for this one, I hate to just ditch it and spend more money on another one that I may or may not like. We'll see if I ever get around to "upgrading". (grin) I really bought it for freezing berries, then found that I had to freeze the berries on sheets first, then put them into other plastic bags, then put them into foodsaver bags, then seal them and sometimes they are still too juicy and the bags won't seal. I never had room in my freezer for big sheet pans either, and the whole process is time consuming and costly for food that I'm going to consume within 6 months or a year.

Now, however, I'm raising some chickens for the freezer, so maybe I'll give it another try. Then again, if the slaughter/cleaning/plucking of all those chickens is too bad, I might never raise chickens for meat again!

Annie

On the topic of FoodSavers: My most used (daily) is the handheld unit that has been discontinued. I use it for jars, canisters, and bags. I use 1/2 gallon Ball jars for chopped lettuce, carrots, celery and the like. I store the jars horizontally in the vegetable bin in the refrigerator. I also use the all sizes of Ball/Mason jars and FS canisters for dry goods like chips, crackers, flour, etc. I'm not as educated or prolific at this type of storage as Grainlady, but I get along. I don't use the counter unit nearly as much.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Most Used FoodSaver Accessory...

The freezer arrived! Took the advice I've gotten here, and am using bins, although I haven't gotten around to labeling. To take up some extra space, I took rarely-used plastic containers and filled them with the off-taste ice I was going to throw out.

I don't yet have a food sealer,so I used a ziplock manual pump sealer and the special bags to freeze some cookies. I'm sure the cookies will be defrosted and eaten before the seal fails.

Thanks so much for all the great advice! It's sooo nice to have a decent sized freezer.

What size freezer/model freezer did you get?

Arkansas girl, it's a Frigidaire 17 cubic foot self defrosting upright. It seems absolutely HUGE after that itty chest freezer! It is rather noisy, but that doesn't matter, since it's in the basement.

Just a curiosity question because I'm in the same boat, bought a small 5 cb ft freeze but want to buy a big one. I keep trying to figure out if I do that, what can I do with my small one when I get the new one. Did you sell yours or did you just keep it for more storage space? Mine is very new and works great so I do not want to just give it away! 17 cb ft sounds dreamy! :)

Arkansas girl, I couldn't figure that one out either, so I just had Junior moved to another area of the basement. I gave it a good wipe-down and left the lid open so it wouldn't get any kind of musty odor. I suppose I'll eventually sell or trade something for it. Just can't make up my mind - I keep thinking I might possibly need it for extra space some day.

I love my freezer for storing cooked beans. I used to buy the canned ones, but now I buy the dried ones, make big batches in my crockpot, and freeze them in pint jars. Takes only a few min. in the microwave to thaw them out. Saves me a lot of money, and the quality is better--less sodium, and I can make them as flavorful as I want, or not. And I often make bean soup with some of them and then freeze that too.

I stock up on rolls when they are on sale, and other breads. I freeze whole grain flours I don't use often, like rye. I freeze nuts.

A good thing tip: The best thing I did for my freezer was to place a large dry erase board on the door. I list what I put in with the dates and what I take out....well 90% of the time. :)sometimes I forget to note what I remove.
You will be surprised how things get lost in a freezer and turn up months later when you are looking for something else.
So if possible, try to keep a running inventory on paper at least. So much easier than doing a complete inventory when it is full of unidentified stuff. Speaking of which....
above all....label everything you put in there.
Congratulations on the new addition.

I'm also curious, doesn't glass break when you freeze something in it? I keep seeing people using glass to freeze in?

I use glass jars which are fairly thick. I give liquids an inch or two of expanding room at the top and defrost on 30% power in the microwave until the glass is not frozen cold.

The only ones I've broken are the ones I dropped :-(

I too have shied away from freezing anything in glass jars.
I'm terrified of having them fall over and bang into one another and break.

Not only that, it's darned hard to find glass jars! I check the neighbourhood blue boxes on garbage day, but with little success. We have some dill pickle jars, but the lid smells like dill. :-(

I do have a friend who is saving me her Classico pasta jars.

I freeze in canning jars all the time, the box specifically says "canning and freezing". Just be sure to leave enough headspace for the contents to expand.

I've never frozen in regular glass jars, just the canning jars, adn I find the widemouthed ones work best. I freeze apple cider in quart wide mouthed jars and I can stack them neatly, one on top of the other. The regular mouthed mars don't stack as well.

I press my own cider and if you can it, it just "cooks" and tastes like apple juice. Godo apple juice, but apple juice nonetheless. It keeps nicely through freezing.

Annie

I have an upright freezer with shelves. I freeze beans in the pint glass jars and store them on the door rack, they don't get banged around. If I had a chest freezer I would probably freeze my beans in those rectangular plastic freezer containers. That's one of the reasons I love my upright freezer. It works for me since it is small and I am single and I don't freeze gads of cuts of meat.

I do save all glass jars and like the smaller jars as they are nice for 1 cup of broth, for example.

Murphy zone7, you just shamed me into taking an inventory of my freezer. It's amazing how quickly I can forget all about what's in there. But now I have no excuse, although I'm sure I'll try and find one.

BTW, can you tell me about your eraser board? How large is it? Is it magnetic? That's such a great idea!

Sarahlee, my board is about 17x23....not really big enough for writing on a vertical surface (think school chalkboards) and I am thinking about replacing it with either a bigger one or a couple of smaller ones. It came with some sticky pads on the back and I just stuck it up. It also came with a dry erase marker that latches to the top.
Look at the big box stores and office supply stores. Dry erase seems to be everywhere these days. I have even seen some at the drug stores. AND be sure to find the smallest/finest point markers you can...
Now that I think about it, a couple of smaller ones would be good..one for meats, one for veggies, baked goods, etc.
hmmmm another project for my to do list.

Sarahlee, Target has a selection of magnetic dry erase boards and, yes, find the finest point markers you can.

I save my glass Voss water bottles for storage in the refrigerator and freezer. The are long (12") and narrow so they can be stored horizontally and stacked to take up the hard to get at space in the back. I label the lids with my p-touch label maker.

jasdip, have you tried asking for canning jars on Freecycle? I wonder if you'd boil the pickle lids if that would get rid of the smell and sterilize at the same time?

I am impressed by Murphy zone7's ability to keep track of her freezer inventory even 90% of the time. :) I had seen an idea like hers a few months ago and was pumped to do the inventory and make a list for each fridge/freezer. I was really good at marking off what I used, but not so good at remembering to put added items to the lists. I should have known my limits.

Evenshade, I suspect that a lot of people have the same problem - we go shopping, and want to get all the freeze-ables in the freezer ASAP before they melt. No time to add to the inventory, especially with needing to get the rest of the groceries away, and putting lunch/dinner on the table before crankiness sets in. Of course, I *could* get back to the inventory when things settle down, but.....

Years ago (12ish) I was grocery shopping in Italy. They had a bar code reader that you picked up where the carts were, put it in the BCR holder on your cart then scanned your items as you put them in the cart. When you checked out, the clerk downloaded your purchases and, I think, you could access your purchases online. When I got back home, I went to our IT department and invited a techie to lunch were I posed the idea of a hand held BCR reader for home use with software that allowed you to inventory your items as you put them in the pantry and refrigerator and again as you took an item out. He said it was doable but wouldn't work in the US as the demand to be organized wasn't strong enough to support such a product. I think now is the time--there must be "an app for that".

mustangs....what a fantastic idea! An app to keep a running inventory of the pantry/fridge/freezer!!! I would get a "smart phone" just to have such an ap.
In fact I am going to do a search because there may already be "an ap for that"...I know there is one with Weightwatchers that lets you scan the UPC code and it will tell you the points value of the food. Why not one that lets you scan as you purchase or as you put away and keeps a running list?
Man...I am excited about this idea!
We need to find another techie!
BTW as recently as last year we had a grocery store, Blooms, which used the scan it yourself method of shopping. I loved it but they closed down, not sure why.