To start this post, let me tell you that I swore I wanted a bottom pull out drawer freezer. The side by sides that I had were not very big and I was sure that the drawer would work so much better.
So, when we moved and the appliance in the house we bought had the fridge/freezer that I wanted, I was so excited! It was going to be amazing, I was going to have sooo much more room and things would be easy to find.
Here you can see that I added a couple bins in the bottom of the freezer for organizing. Things work much better for us now.
On the top of the freezer is a pull out drawer, I added a bin with ice cream and Popsicles. The boxes of ice cream fit nicely to the right of the bin.
On this side of the freezer is the meat that is not in our deep freeze. The bin on the right has my steaks and the left has my hash browns and potatoes. Behind those {the top of the picture} has a couple roasts and my chicken.
To the right of the freezer divider is my frozen vegetables.
I have always had a frig with a top freezer and thought I would like a side by side. Not so. I absolutely hated it as it didn’t have enough room to store large items. So then I tried the bottom freezer and fell in love! Besides myself, my daughter and daughter in law have bottom freezers also. We love them. Plus we all have extra freezers. We are big cookers and preservers😄
This is such a good idea! I currently just throw everything in & hope I’ll be able to find it in the future.
I definitely think the key to freezer on the bottom is no boxes! There’s 7 of us in our family and I usually shop for 2 weeks. My freezer is always stuffed but we have found that flatter meat can go on the top pull out shelf in the back, along with any microwave stuff for the kids toward the front. I do stack my meat on the bottom shelf, but I try to put it in the order I plan on making it. Which leaves the second half for veggies and whatever else. I do have a second stand up freezer, however it broke last summer and only the bottom half works, so I do try to get all groceries into our fridge freezer.
Does everyone with a bottom freezer also use a separate secondary freezer? I just moved into a home with a bottom freezer that looks a LOT like the photos in this post. FIVE adults share our kitchen: the homeowner couple, and 3 adult renters. Homeowners use a separate fridge/freezer, so we 3 renters share the unit with the bottom freezer. Since we’re all busy, have very different schedules and food preferences, we don’t really share much food.
I really don’t want a separate chest freezer due to expense and energy usage, but this freezer is driving me a little bananas. Everything is rearranged each time one of us roots through it to get to something. Stuff just gets buried at the bottom and forgotten, no matter how well intentioned we are when it goes in. One roommate cooks a ton from scratch and reuses disposable food containers (deli tubs, spaghetti sauce jars) for food storage. One roommate travels often and never really uses up what’s at home before buying more food. I am is trying to cook and eat from home more, but I like a lot of variety.
I’m not as happy with my freezer-on-the-bottom as I thought I would be. However, I am over the moon about not having to kneel to reach things in back of the bottom shelf of the fridge!
I hear ya! I am getting used to mine, slowly.
I, too, wanted a bottom drawer freezer in the worst way. Now that I have it – I HATE it!! I am so glad I found you! I'm going to organize mine the same way today. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
I have been wondering how to organize my bottom drawer freezer… I really thought it was going to be great, like you did, but I have been a bit unhappy with it (but I can't tell the hubs that)! I really disliked my side-by-side before, and was looking forward to the bottom drawer so very much, never thinking that I would be disappointed with it. You inspired me to try again! Thank you!
I just got my bottom freezer fridge a few weeks ago and I found you from searching “bottom freezer organization” on Pinterest. LOL, that tells the entire story! Still, it's better than my old side by side and I like your idea of using bins. Thanks!
Glad I'm not the only one struggling to organize a bottom freezer drawer. Just got my new fridge and it's been an adjustment, to say the least. I hate digging around in it, searching for stuff I thought I had but now can't find. Love how you organized yours–looks great!
I have a bottom freezer and started out the same as you. Thinking it was the most amazing idea ever. Mine has even less room because the top drawer has an ice maker in it. The bottom drawer is already divided in 2 as that's how it came. Mine is set up almost exactly the same as yours though. 🙂 Thank goodness for the standing freezer in the garage though.
Thank you for this. I've been struggling with my bottom drawer freezer for a while now. This will help. :0)
fabulous job! You've inspired me to work on my mess of a freezer! I'm visiting from the TT7J wrap-up party.
You've inspired me a bit to play around with mine because I absolutely hate my bottom drawer freezer as well and hate digging around in it. I miss my side by side – so much easier to organize.
I DON'T organize it!! I HATE it!! And I will NEVER have another one!! I can not wait to move so I can get a new refrig!!! Yours looks AWESOME!!! 😉
I don't have a bottom drawer freezer and I'm happy for it. I know this because I do have a huge capacity freezer chest in my basement and it's such a pain to organize! I'll have to put some of these ideas to good use!!! Thanks.
You are making me reconsider my lust for the bottom drawer freezer! We have a side by side that was here when we bought the house. I despise it. You can't fit squat in there. It's just so narrow. I am not a fan. But we do have a chest freezer and two more fridges (one in the basement and one in the garage) so we end up with places for everything – but nothing is convenient!
I have a drop in ice freezer so I understand. Your organization looks great. Mine is to deep this would not quite work but would help. try organizing it and then I find a sale on something frozen and it is a mess again. My dream is the full size stand up fridge and freezer, the big boys. But until I get a big kitchen I have a drop in freezer and my side by side.
Looks great! Thanks for sharing! I try to keep our bottom drawer freezer organized too, but my husband doesn't always like to play along 😉 My top drawer has the ice cube tub, frozen herbs, frozen breastmilk (at the back) and most of our meat selection, divided up into dinner portions. The bottom drawer has hashbrowns, perogies, frozen fruit, frozen vegetables (eg – peas), some of the meat (eg – bags of frozen shrimp), and that's usually about it. We are fortunate that we have a second fridge/freezer in the garage which stores our ice cream and other “extra” stuff.