5 Tips to Maximize a Small Freezer: How to Use Your Freezer Space Efficiently

As a homeschooling mother of three small humans, I am always trying to find ways to plan and work efficiently. For me, a lot of my focus over the last year or two has been around how to make feeding my crew a smooth process and minimize time in the kitchen. I really value homemade food with lots of nutritional density while sticking to a realistic budget that works for our family. And I enjoy cooking. But I don’t want to spend all day, every day in the kitchen cooking. So one of the best ways I’ve learned to streamline our food situation is by figuring out how to maximize our small freezer.

Our living space is pretty small (our rented cottage is 650 square feet + 100 square feet of a detached bonus room), and our kitchen’s fridge/freezer is not large by American standards. So it’s taken me awhile to figure out how to organize the freezer above my fridge to make the most of the space. Preparing for postpartum with baby #4 has given me extra motivation to use the freezer space well so that I can have plenty of meals ready for our family to eat. (Yes, my husband does cook, and he’s very capable, but I know how chaotic it can be to try to meal plan/grocery shop/make food in the midst of the homeschool and house maintenance with the kiddos underfoot, so I wanted to give him a bit of a helping hand.)

In this article, I’ll share my five tips for how to maximize a small freezer space for convenient eating for a family.

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Tip #1 to Maximize Your Small Freezer: Flat Freeze Your Frozen Food

This adjustment was THE game changer for me when it came to figuring out how to maximize my small freezer. I first saw this tip on a youtube video about postpartum food prep from Now That We’re A Family YouTube Channel.

Basically, the premise of this strategy is to put food you want to freeze into a large zip freezer bag, squeeze excess air out of it, and then lay it flat on a cookie sheet or cutting board to freeze solid. This makes a flat, rectangular frozen object to work with, which can then be “filed” into your freezer space (see tip #5 below).

Prior to using this strategy, I typically froze things in leftover containers (ice cream containers or coconut oil containers or yogurt containers, etc). Alternatively, I would sometimes freeze things in a zip bag, but I would shove it into the freezer unfrozen, and it would freeze and conform to whatever shapes of other things were around it. This worked fine while those other things were around it, but once I took one of those other things out of the freezer, it never fit as strategically.

It did take awhile to predominantly shift over my freezer into flat objects, so there was a bit of an awkward shuffle-things-around stage while I was in transition, but once I’d used up the majority of things not frozen flat, and I’d replaced the space usage with flat frozen stuff, it was AWESOME!! (I mean, as awesome as having an organized freezer can be!)

Tip #2 to Maximize Your Small Freezer: Measure Your Freezer

Knowing your freezer dimensions can be really helpful. The large zip bags I buy to freeze stuff in are a bit longer than my freezer is deep. So that means when I put my unfrozen food in the bag (after labeling it, of course) and place it on the cookie sheet to freeze, I need to fold the end of the zip bag under the contents of the bag by about 2 inches (5 cm) to leave that space empty so the length of the zip bag will fit into the depth of my freezer. Basically, I want to fill the space just right between the back of the freezer and the door of the freezer, so I’m not having to deal with an awkward small sliver of space.

So, it’s very helpful to know what space dimensions you are working with. You can do this in an official way (with a tape measure), or you can just see how containers or zip storage bags fit in your freezer. I’ve opted for the unofficial way until today, when I got ready to write this post and figured it might be helpful to have actual numbers to reference! So, the official measurements of our freezer is:

20.4 inches wide (52 cm)
18.9 inches heigh (48 cm)
13.3 inches deep (34 cm)
And there’s an additional 3 inches (8 cm) of depth for two shelves on the door.

When you know your freezer’s useable space, you can plan how you store your food in a small freezer to maximize the space efficiency.

Tip #3 to Maximize a Small Freezer: Have a Plan for How You Store Food in the Freezer (and what will go in the freezer when you get home from the grocery store)

I needed to develop a clear plan for how to organize my freezer when I began the transition phase of moving to flat-packing stuff in the freezer. I quickly found that rectangular, large, flat frozen objects are a bit awkward to work with when your freezer is full of random shapes and bags all tetras’d together like a complicated 3D puzzle. So, it takes some strategy!

When I started to freeze things flat, I found that I needed to be really intentional about not stuffing my freezer full for awhile. I was moving from more of a fill the bottom to the top of each shelf method of storing food to filling it vertically from one side to the other . This meant I needed to stop buying fresh chicken breast or packages of hamburger meat and coming home to shove it into the freezer to deal with later. I waited to buy stuff until I was going to be ready to cook and use it in a recipe I wanted to freeze within a day or two, and I stored the meat (or veggies, or whatever) in the fridge until I made the food and could freeze it.

Since I do like having frozen fruits and veggies on hand, I needed to have a spot to keep them in the freezer as well. So I divided my freezer (in my head!) into different “zones.” Since we have a shelf in our freezer, I used the bottom part of the freezer for the flat-packing operation, and anything that was more bulky (like bags of berries or broccoli) I put on the top shelf. So the top half continued to be a bit haphazard for awhile, while the bottom half slowly got more organized and space efficient.

Tip #4 to Maximize a Small Freezer: Freeze Cooked Meals or Create Easy to Assemble “Kits”

Once I started flat-freezing my meals, I quickly realized that meals that are cooked seem to freeze flatter than meals that are uncooked. Previous to trying this method of freezer organization, I’ve been a fan of “dump” meals for the crockpot. But since the ingredients are typically raw, they tend to be more bulky and awkward shape.

So I started cooking the meals, and then freezing them flat after since that resulted in a more uniform shape in the zip bags to freeze – particularly with sauces and soups.

I also used to be a big fan of frozen casserole (lasagna, enchiladas, this amazing rice and chicken and celery casserole my Mom makes, etc), and I would usually assemble the casserole into an aluminum pan, and then freeze the pan. It would be a simple thaw, pop in the oven, and bake process to have dinner on hand with a frozen casserole.

But aluminum pans don’t fit as efficiently in the freezer. So I started thinking about how I could make the casserole filling and then flat freeze it to be thawed and transferred to a casserole baking dish later. Or, for more complicated casseroles, I could make the components of the casserole, flat freeze them, and then have just a little more assembly to do when it was time to cook the meal. Thus creating a casserole “kit” of sorts.

Although it does require a bit more work up front to cook meals before freezing them, I think it is worth it to have more meals in the freezer!

Tip #5 to Maximize a Small Freezer: Adjust Your Freezer Shelves or Layout to “File” Your Meals

I think being able to file your food into your freezer is the way to make the most efficient use of your freezer AND make it the easiest to utilize.

First, filing allows you to use the full amount of space efficiently. Specifically, having food frozen flat in thin rectangles that are customized to the depth and height of the freezer space availability allows you to fill up that space completely. As you add more flat frozen bags, you can line them up next to each other to maximize the width of the small freezer space as well.

Second, having things filed (and labeled near the top of the zip bag) means you don’t have to stack or unstack anything to get to meals or bags that are in the bottom of a stack. It’s really easy to pull a flat packed, filed zip bag 2-3 inches out of the freezer to see what the label says, and then slide it back in if it isn’t what you want.

And third, if you can adjust your freezer’s shelves to best fit the height of your flat-packed frozen meals, you can then use the excess space really efficiently. In our freezer, I have our shelf set to a height of about 12 inches (30 cm) above the bottom of our freezer. The bags I freeze stuff in are 10 inches wide (26 cm) by 14 inches long (38 cm). So I have a little clearance space at the top of the filed meals to slide the cookie sheet to flat freeze stuff.

For Reference: Current Contents of Our Freezer:

Since I thought you might be curious about what I have been able to fit into our freezer, this is a list of the current contents of my small, above-the-fridge freezer:

Family-Size Portions:

We have 15 dinners (some of which will be enough for a 2nd dinner of leftovers) and 4 breakfasts:

• Beef Barley Soup
• Ham and Bean Soup (x2)
• Chicken Pot Pie Soup
• Bean and Chicken Fajita Soup
• Beef Minestrone Soup
• Enchilada Filling + Enchilada Sauce (frozen separately – will need to be assembled and cheese added)
• Thai Chicken Sauce (to be served with rice)
• Breakfast Egg Bake Casseroles (x4 – will need cheese added)
• Taco Bowl Filling (x2 – can be served with rice + steamed veggies)
• Lasagna Red Sauce (x2) + Béchamel Sauce (frozen separately – will need to be assembled and cheese added with lasagna noodles)
• Beef and Rice Casserole (will need cheese added)
• Chicken Peanut Curry Sauce (to be served with rice)
• Taco-flavored Shredded Chicken (to be served with rice and steamed veggies)

Individual Sized Portions:

I wanted to make some foods that would specifically support my healing and nutrition postpartum. So I made several dishes with that in mind. Then I froze them in sandwich sized zip bags so they would be easy to reheat for lunches postpartum. Where I could, I tried to use bone broth and warming spices to facilitate healing.

I flat froze all of these meals as well, and have them filed either on our freezer door or on the top shelf, 2 deep. I have 17 individual sized servings:

• Chicken Pot Pie Soup (x2)
• Beef Minestrone Soup (x4)
• Curry Coconut Soup (x7)
• Peanut Butter Curry Sauce (x2)
• Beef Barley Soup
• Creamy Tomato Soup

Other Random Stuff (most NOT Flat Frozen):

This is the stuff that is in the top shelf on the left of the freezer. That is my appointed space for a bit of disorganization and chaos in the freezer!

• chopped nectarines (2 cups)
• Chicken Stock (1 Liter)
• Blueberries (1 kg)
• Mixed Berries (about 500g)
• Spinach Chunks (about 1 kg)
• Bananas (about 12 – peeled)
• Cauliflower Rice (400 g)
• Oatmeal Peanut Butter Snack Balls (about 12)
• Bread Crumbs (about 1.5 cups)
• Ice Cubes with blended mint (about a dozen)
• Ice Cube Trays (x2)

BONUS: My Strategy for Creating Freezer Meals for Postpartum Preparation

In case you’re here specifically related to postpartum prep, this is what I’ve done to get these meals prepared for using after we have the baby:

Plan Your Types of Meals:

We like to eat a variety of meals, and the baby will be born in the autumn here in New Zealand. So I made a list of ideas for meals (mostly soups, curries, and casseroles), and then tried to create a diverse flavor plan. I didn’t want to plan on the same flavors every day for the family. Since my kids sometimes have fickle taste buds, if they decide they don’t like something, it’s a drag to make them eat that five days in a row!

I kept the list on the fridge, and worked my way through the list to prep a diverse array of food. This was helpful as I saw sales come up at the grocery store, or had excess seasonal produce to use. I could choose a meal to make for postpartum that used the sale or cheap produce.

Start Working on Meals About the Beginning of 3rd Trimester:

I didn’t want food to go bad in the freezer before we would eat it. So I didn’t want to start too early on meal prep. But I also didn’t want to wait until the end because I prefer to chip away at a big task. And I know my energy starts to lag toward the end of pregnancy. So at about month 6, I made my list of meal ideas. Then each week, I’d pick a few meals from the list to make. This also meant the cost of buying all the supplies for this food was spread out over a bit. It took me 6-8 weeks of this type of progress to make the meals I now have on hand.

Get in the Habit of Bulk Cooking 1-3 Times Per Week:

With most of these meals, I simply planned the meal for part of our weekly meal plan. And then I tripled the meal when I made it. I often rely on leftovers for dinners throughout the week. So by tripling the amount I needed for one meal for our family, we could eat the meal fresh, also have it for leftovers within the week, and I could freeze the third portion for postpartum prep. This meant I was able to not have to plan in extra time to cook. I just did my normal routine (with a tiny bit more time to chop extra veggies, etc), and stockpiled the results.

Parting Words (and Disclaimer):

I hope this tour of my freezer has been helpful for organizing your own space. And if you’re preparing for postpartum, I hope having some ideas for meals as well as strategies for how to cook them and store them efficiently is useful.

As a disclaimer, I do want to share that we have a 2nd freezer in our sleepout which has some additional prepared meals in it, along with a variety of frozen veggies and meat and dairy products. I decided to use our kitchen freezer (above the fridge) to store our flat packed food because the dimensions of the freezer seemed like they would work better for the filing system. (The freezer in our sleepout is an upright freezer, but with fairly shallow drawers.)

I also wanted Gabe to be able to access the meals at any time – late at night, early in the morning, etc – without needing to go out to the sleepout. Since I will use the sleepout as my postpartum recovery zone for the first week or two, he won’t want to come in when the baby and I are sleeping, since maximizing sleep is a priority postpartum for us!

Let me know in the comments below if you have any brilliant freezer organization tips, or if you are expecting a baby soon and have found the postpartum prep tips helpful!