We try to keep ours somewhat organized, meat in one basket, bread in the other. Seafood on the left side in a partitioned area. Rubbermaid containers of chili, ect are stacked on the bottom and racks of ribs or trays of chicken wings go in the bottom. Veggies on one side and boxed goods on the other under the baskets. Once we go digging through to get ribs or wings out, the whole thing is a hot mess. At least ours is a small chest. Will you please come defrost mine? :-)

I used to have a big chest freezer and kept it pretty organized with plastic milk crates. What you use might depend on the size of your freezer and what you can find that is a good fit

I have a large chest freezer and I do what you do, Jasdip, organize by area. They make super-large ziplock bags so I will organize smaller things by bagging them. The top trays contain frozen home made sauces and salsa, and are dated.

After some years of organizing the same way I remember where stuff is.

I suppose one could list on the inside top of the freezer what is in each area, but I don't do that.

We have a small chest freezer. Big items like tri tip roasts, briskets, chickens, etc., are on the bottom. Smaller meat items (mostly ground turkey and seafood) are kept in a built-in compartment on the right side of the freezer. The two baskets hold small things like butter, individual packages of steak or chops, breakfast meats and other misc. small things.

Every now and then I take everything our and re-organize it. It gets defrosted once or twice a year. I try to time it to when it's nearly empty and before a big stock up on things grocery run.

I write on things and put individually like things in clear garbage bags. It takes up less room and still keeps things contained.

I do like the Idea of an app but have trouble making myself input into apps and so taking it to the level of being useful.

I'm laughing at your mom's approach, CountryCottage! Hilarious. I just read a short news story of an 80-something year old lady who died and had a freezer full of bananas, that she was intending to make into banana bread.

BTW, what do you all use to label your meats. My problem is I wrap everything in plastic wrap, then in foil. And label it with masking tape and marker. Works fine, except when the bottom of the freezer is littered with masking tape that came off the item. What sticks to foil???

My initial reaction to your question is just to say "no" as my answer from my own personal experience :)

We use one of those seal-a-meal things and I label the packages with a Sharpie marker. The beauty of the food saver bags is that they are see through, so I can usually tell what is in them if they didn't get labeled for some reason. But, I try hard to always label the package because I date them at the same time and it's nice to know how old they are.

We bag meats in Ziploc bags and use a sharpie to write the contents and date. The plan is to keep nothing frozen for more than a few months but I found 11-month-old chili in the bottom that was still good.

Use a big sharpie marker they write on foil. Or put the foil package in a zip lock bag and write on it.

I have a pretty extensive set of Tupperware Freezer Mates in various sizes and colors. I pretty much know what I use each type of container for. So that helps. The uniform sizes stack well. Also my freezer isn't large. I think it's 7 cf. It holds plenty for the two of us. I don't generally freeze meat except for ground beef, fish and poultry.

I think keeping a master list of what is in the freezer might help. Maybe a dry erase board hung by the freezer. If you at least know what you have in there you might be able to find it easier.

My Mom kept small packets that were to be used in the next 2 months on top and the big stuff that was stored for a year of more went on the bottom.

I currently have an upright freezer, and will be getting a 6.9 cu ft chest freezer next week. Sometimes the upright has been a pain to organize, so I'm glad to hear about solutions for the chest one. I do use sharpies to label contents, month & year. I'm thinking plastic bins, I like the idea of different colors. I did buy small plastic bins for the upright, as items had a nasty habit of sliding out and onto the floor. The idea of the app seems at least worth the try, tho I doubt I'll last long with it. Most apps are free or real cheap...

(I will be raising meat chicken, and I already purchase half pigs, so space is essential. It is also great for freezing home made sauces that should not be water bath canned.)

So anyhow, thanks for the ideas!

Since masking tape is dirt cheap, just wrap the tape all the way around and stick it back on itself. That should keep it from falling off. I once read on a thread like this one that they use those reusable shopping bags in their chest freezer, so I have started to do that which really does help a lot. I make up lunches for my husband and keep them in the bags. It makes it a lot easier to organize the lunches. I also have a bag full of bread items too. If you allow the bread to freeze and then put it in the bag, that keeps it from being smashed.