The Organizing Hack That Will Free Up Space In Your Freezer

If you have a standard, classic fridge/freezer combo in your kitchen, the kind that has a fridge on the bottom and a freezer above with one wire shelf and a grooved plastic bottom, you've likely gotten frustrated at the lack of pre-designed organization space in that freezer. At least the fridge has drawers, shelves, and other organization tools built in, but if you're like us, you end up just shoving things into the freezer. This can lead to forgotten and wasted food, not to mention the annoyance of having to pull everything out to find that bag of frozen broccoli you bought a few weeks back and swear has to be in there somewhere. 

Maybe you've resorted to using some of the freezer-organizing tips that abound online, like putting produce in small, freezer-friendly containers, using small milk crates to separate items, or building cubbies into the freezer itself (via Good Housekeeping). But what if we told you that none of that was necessary, and your freezer already has a built-in organizing hack you might be missing?

Have you ever noticed those ridges along the bottom of your freezer? Well, we had always assumed they were there to prevent things from getting stuck to the bottom, to let air flow freely under and around the packages in the freezer, and to keep things from sliding around too much. And while those are all definitely useful perks of these ridges, Apartment Therapy totally blew our minds when they revealed what else those ridges can be used for: organizing your food 

Instead of stacking packages on top of each other horizontally, try standing your packaged meat and veggies vertically, on their sides instead. Suddenly those ridges become helpful little separators that not only allow the packages to stand up on their sides, but keep things organized and easy to find. Think library books on a shelf: libraries don't stack the books on top of each other, but beside each other. This allows you to find what you're looking for, remove it without disturbing the rest of the books, and also fit more things more neatly into the space allotted. And there you have it: an organized and well-stocked freezer without having to build or buy a single thing!