Thursday 23 July 2015

A Satisfying Job Completed.

Few household jobs, for me at any rate, are as satisfying as defrosting the freezers.  I always do this twice a year, once just before Christmas when I wish to put lots of Christmas stuff in and once about now when produce in the garden is almost ready (anyone down South who is already harvesting peas, broad beans and runner beans - lucky you).

It is a chore - but then aren't most household jobs so; after all as soon as one has finished the job it begins to want doing again doesn't it?

Yesterday it was the turn of the smaller freezer to be switched on again (I defrosted it a couple of weeks ago) and the big freezer to be switched off.   Last evening the food was transferred to the little freezer and the farmer kindly gave the big freezer a jolly good clean for me.

Now the big freezer is back on and I am just about to transfer the stuff back again - but with one big difference.  Is everyone like me or are there really some people who label everything, put it on the correct shelf in the freezer and use it in the correct order?

I shall start as I mean to go on (fingers crossed behind back) and put everything in the right place.  Really cleaning the freezers out was a salutory lesson in bad household management - half empty bags of peas and other vegetables, half a packet of oven chips (nasty things anyway), two curries bought from a stall at one of our coffee mornings a long time ago and well past their sell by date, and many bits and pieces I had completely forgotten about.

I have just driven to our Brymor ice cream parlour to buy several different flavours of ice cream, always a good stand by for an instant pud if someone calls unexpectedly (I always make a selection of fruit sauces with some of the raspberries, blackcurrants etc. in the garden and freeze them).   So off I go now to begin the job.   Any obvious gaps will be filled tomorrow (market day) using my cool bag and we shall be up and running again.

I shall not get the freezers in a mess this year (but I shalln't sign any agreement to bank on it).

12 comments:

Cro Magnon said...

My freezers are chaotic.... I really must do something about it.

jinxxxygirl said...

I have to say all my freezers have been frost free. I have never had to defrost a freezer although i can remember my grandmother having to do that..... I don't envy you the job Pat. Hugs! deb

donna baker said...

Weaver, I must say that would be last on my list. However, I do try to label what and when. If I don't, I never can remember what and when I put it up.

Rachel Phillips said...

I haven't got a freezer, so no decisions for me to make one way or the other. I have a fridge with an ice-box made for two.

Anonymous said...

That's a job I've been putting off for several weeks :o) I am fairly organised about what's in it though, and apart from several fat trout which have been gaining ice crystals slowly over the last year (because they keep being added to every time someone goes fishing) everything's pretty much in order. I foresee a large dinner party with several trout as the centre-piece!

Joanne Noragon said...

You bring to mind the freezers of my youth; those cubicles above the refrigerator. When frost consumed all but a slot into the freezer we began the defrost process with a pan of boiling water to start the melting process. The good old days.

angryparsnip said...

I have a side by side freezer/refrigerator.
The small freezer has shelves and bins.
So I do keep things in order. I have to.

cheers, parsnip

Doc said...

Lucky for me my wife is fanatic about order, our freezers look like store shelves. Everything labeled with content, date etc. Vegetables on one shelf fruit on the next, beef pork and chicken on the next, seafood on the next and so on. Thankfully they are both frost free, but she still empties each once a year and disinfects all the shelves.

Heather said...

The drawers of our current freezer are slightly smaller than the previous one and after each defrosting everything gets put back in the right drawer. But when I buy a few bargains or have a batch cooking session it all gets jiggled about and things are fitted in anywhere they will go. I try to be efficient and label everything but even so there is a lot of rummaging before I find what I'm looking for. We have recently defrosted ours and it will get done again just before Christmas.

John Going Gently said...

One of my freezers is so frozen, ive given up with it.... There could be a baby mamouth in it for all we know

Penny said...

I have an old chest freezer and I am not as good as you at cleaning it out. About once a year, and then it is amazing what I have found at the bottom. Wish I had one with drawers! Bit with John G, could be something I don't know about down there.

Virginia said...

I used to be good at it, putting various meats in colour coded bags, but now I mainly use the freezer as a repository for leftovers, and although I tell myself I'll "use it soon", all too often things languish, unloved, for months and then get tossed out. It's a source of guilt!