Books on Decluttering

The Best Books on Decluttering

Decluttering books are a valuable resource for anyone looking to simplify their lives and create a peaceful, clutter-free home. These books offer step-by-step processes, practical tips, and insightful advice on decluttering and organizing your belongings, making it easier than ever to transform your space and your mindset.

If you’re ready to take the first step towards a clutter-free life, here are six must-read books to guide you on your journey:

“Clean My Space: The Secret to Cleaning Better, Faster, and Loving Your Home Every Day”

by Melissa Maker

In this book, Melissa Maker, a cleaning expert from Toronto, shares her cleaning strategies, techniques, and product recommendations. She provides practical advice on how to create a cleaning routine that works for you, and tips on how to clean your home in less time.

“The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Guide to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify”

by Francine Jay

Francine believes that having less stuff is the key to happiness. As such, her book is a masterful guide to simplifying your life by decluttering and embracing minimalism. It provides a step-by-step process for decluttering your home, and pieces of advice on how to live a more intentional life.

Books on Decluttering

“Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff”

by Dana K. White

In this book, Dana K. White provides a practical approach to decluttering that focuses on finding the root of your clutter problem and developing a system that works for your specific circumstances. She includes tips on how to make decluttering a habit and advice on how to maintain a clutter-free home.

“Simply Clean: The Proven Method for Keeping Your Home Organized, Clean, and Beautiful in Just 10 Minutes a Day”

by Becky Rapinchuk

Becky’s book provides a practical and achievable cleaning routine that only takes 10 minutes a day. It also offers tips on how to create a cleaning schedule and advises on the most effective way to clean each area of your home.

“The Minimalist Home: A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life”

by Joshua Becker

Joshua is one of today’s most influential minimalist advocates. In this book, he delivers a comprehensive guide to decluttering and creating a minimalist home. His goal is to help readers turn their houses into launching pads for a more fulfilling and productive life in the world.

“Cluttered Mess to Organized Success Workbook: Declutter and Organize Your Home and Life with Over 100 Checklists and Worksheets”

by Cassandra Aarssen

Do you dream of getting organized, but have no idea where to start? This comprehensive workbook provides checklists, worksheets, and step-by-step guides to help you declutter and organize your home and life in the simplest way.

Sometimes, even with the best intentions and guidance from books, it can still feel overwhelming to tackle the clutter in your home. In those cases, it can be beneficial to seek the help of a professional decluttering and organizing service. These professionals can offer personalized advice, support, and practical solutions to help you create a clutter-free home that suits your unique needs and lifestyle. If you feel like you need help and guidance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our ClutterBGone team!

Declutter for the New Year

Ready To Declutter For The New Year? 8 Ideas To Get You Started

The new year is always a terrific chance for a fresh start. It presents an exceptional opportunity to set new resolutions and plans for ourselves – and, of course, to tackle a decluttering project!

Truth is, if you enter 2023 with a clean and organized home, you’ll find it easier to focus and make progress toward your life goals. A tidier space can really make for a more relaxed mind! If you’re ready to start decluttering, follow our tips to clear out some space in your home and start your year off with a clean slate:

1. Start by assessing your gift situation

Don’t worry, we’re not suggesting you get rid of your new Christmas gifts! But go ahead and ask yourself this question: are these new items replacing any older items you don’t need or use anymore? If the answer is yes, gather the duplicates and set them aside for donation or to give them away to someone.

2. Check your wardrobe

Dedicate a full day to go through your closet and dresser drawers and get rid of anything you know you aren’t going to wear again. Chances are, you’ll find more stuff than you thought! And if you ever feel doubtful about a piece of clothing, use the 6-month rule. You know how it goes: if you haven’t used it in six months, chances are you won’t use it ever again. Sell it, donate it, or swap it with a friend.

Declutter For The New Year

3. And kitchen

The kitchen is often the place that gets more disorganized throughout the year. Things get shuffled around, shoved to the back, and pushed out of sight and out of mind. So before entering the new year, dedicate a day to your kitchen counters and pantry. Don’t forget to clean crumbs and spills off shelves and check the expiration dates of everything. It might take a while, but spices and canned goods do eventually expire.

4. And… laundry room, linen closet, and cleaning supplies

Isn’t it true that some routines are much easier and more pleasant when the supplies you need are neat and organized? Sheets, towels, and other household linens do not last forever. Before the new year kicks in, go through them and make some space.

5. No more junk drawers

Most homes have at least one junk drawer loaded with the most random (and often useless) assortment of items. Spend a few minutes getting rid of the stuff you don’t need, and find a proper home for the stuff worth keeping.

6. Beware of your beauty products and medicines

Like spices, prescriptions and beauty products don’t last forever. Although you should declutter your medicine cabinet, make-up, skin care products, and so on, and check the expiration dates a few times a year, it’s always a good category to declutter for the new year.

7. Your subscriptions

Nowadays, you can subscribe to virtually anything. From video streaming services to meal delivery programs, you can get pretty much anything with a recurring payment. If you are subscribed to many services and platforms, take advantage of the new year as a time to review your plans and declutter. There are surely many things you no longer use or need.

8. Your apps

Our phones get used (probably) too much. With all the apps, tabs, videos, and photos, phones can become a digital cluttered mess. Take a few minutes to work on deleting apps you don’t use. Eliminate those duplicate and blurry pictures. Enter 2023 with a clutter-free phone!

From digital clutter to the most chaotic junk drawer, there are many things you should organize as the new year kicks in, But of course, if you would rather let someone else take care of all the heavy lifting, you can also hire a professional team to help you. Remember that the ClutterBGone experts are here for you! Schedule a free telephone consultation and tell us all about your goals for a clean and comfortable environment.

organizing sentimental items

How To Declutter Sentimental Items

Decluttering is hard. It’s tough to sort through your stuff, say goodbye to many items, and find new strategies to organize the rest. And if you add some sentimental items to the equation… then your clutter problem gets even more challenging!

Of all the habits that cause people to hold on to clutter, an emotional attachment to items such as souvenirs, gifts, and inherited pieces from loved ones is probably the hardest to beat. But as difficult as it is to give up these items, you shouldn’t allow them to clutter your home. Whether your clutter consists of a house full of furniture, books, gifts, or tiny mementos, one thing’s for sure: it’s essential to get it under control.

Here are some decluttering solutions that will allow you to hold onto your precious memories while still streamlining and organizing the stuff in your house:

Be honest about what’s worth keeping

Gather your sentimental items and start by evaluating them. When doing so, ask yourself: What exactly am I sentimental about? Chances are it’s not the object itself but its association with a place, moment, or person. Remember that you can keep that memory without a physical object to remind you. However, if you truly love the item and have a strong attachment to it, it’s likely worth keeping it.

When in doubt, create a “maybe” box

Chances are, the answers won’t come to you instantly, and some items will be tricky to evaluate. A great way to give yourself time and space when decluttering these sorts of items is to do a trial decluttering. You can do it by creating a “maybe box.”

If you’re hesitating over an object, box it up and put it out of sight. Mark a date in your calendar to come back to the box. If you haven’t needed, wanted, or even thought about the items in that time, it probably means you should let them go.

Find new ways to preserve your sentimental items

Another great way to make sentimental decluttering less of a struggle? Find ways to give new life to old clutter. For example, if you’re holding onto an old piece of furniture – like a dresser – because it’s got too much sentimental value to sell, you can try to transform it into something smaller or with utility. You can, for instance, turn its old drawers into customized shelves. With a little imagination and a new coat of paint, you’ll be surprised to see how easily you can transform something unused into something new, exciting, and just as sentimental as ever.

Give these items to other family members

If you received a family heirloom, don’t feel obligated to keep it. What you consider clutter might be a relative’s treasure. So before you get rid of an item or stash it in storage, ask around to find out whether someone would like to have it. And if you don’t have anyone in the family who wants the items, consider gifting them to a local charity group or organization. It feels better to give sentimental items to someone who really wants them.

Let go of the guilt

Decluttering sentimental items can bring up a variety of feelings. And truth be told, many people often keep items not out of love or nostalgia, but guilt. Guilt is an entirely unhelpful emotion when it comes to decluttering and getting organized. You don’t have to feel guilty when evaluating and decluttering sentimental clutter. Instead, find it empowering to clean your space and prioritize what’s truly important in your life.

In short, when decluttering sentimental items, the goal doesn’t need to be getting rid of everything. It’s ok to keep some important items you feel attached to. The key is finding the balance between keeping the things that mean the most and getting rid of the clutter.

If you find this task too overwhelming, keep in mind that hiring a team of professional organizers might be a good choice. At ClutterBGone, we work with the best experts to help you achieve a clean, organized, and peaceful environment. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you want a customized plan to declutter your sentimental items!

Organized Moms

The Top 6 Organizing Tips For Moms

Feeling constantly tired and overwhelmed is a common problem for moms. Between kids, jobs, housework, and all sorts of errands, the to-do list can seem never-ending. However, with a few changes in your routine, you can save time and energy for the things that matter most. The key is not to get overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything or trying to be perfect. Just adjust your mindset and follow these 6 tips:

Delegate

Stop trying to do it all yourself! One daily habit of organized moms is they know when to delegate. This could mean hiring a cleaning service or offloading a few chores to your kids. Make a chore chart for your kids with simple tasks they can help you with: making their beds, getting dressed, brushing their teeth, etc. At the end of the day, you can even reward with stickers.

Chore Chart

Make a Calendar

The quickest way to get more organized when it comes to housework is to schedule time for specific chores. Put routine tasks on your calendar and on your to-do list to make sure they get done. And this isn’t just for you: your spouse and kids should have their chores scheduled as well.

Prepare School Outfits & Lunch Ahead of Time

Get the whole family into the habit of preparing what you’ll wear and take for lunch the night before. Meal planning alone will save you a lot of time. Spend a few minutes each week figuring out what you will have for lunch/dinner over the next few days, and buy all the ingredients. Knowing what you’ll make and having everything you need will make the process way more relaxed.

Finish Laundry Right Away

Don’t do your laundry and let it sit in the basket saying “I’ll handle it later”. Fold it right away and get the task done. The longer you draw it out, the more you’ll dread it. Get everyone to help – even the kids can sort the socks, fold and put their clothes away.

Plan Your Groceries

Plan a big weekly trip to the supermarket and buy everything ahead. But remember: to make the most of it, you’ll need a menu planning and a shopping list. Moreover, before going to the grocery store, check your fridge and cabinets/pantries. This way you can avoid spending money on repeated items.

Try to Pick Up Everyday

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with your family’s mess, but if you stop thinking of it as a chore and rather something you do as part of your daily routine, it will feel less daunting. You can also involve the whole family in this chore by using, for instance, the basket method. This is a great technique for picking up the random toys and clutter that has accumulated around the house.

Getting organized is the first step to de-stressing a household. However, it is important to note that many families cannot keep up with all the tasks and responsibilities that fall upon them. If you feel like it is too hard to get organized, remember to delegate. If this means hiring a service to help you out, don’t hesitate to do so. Organizing your home is always easier with expertise, support, and coaching from an organizing professional. Get in touch with ClutterBGone, and we’ll help you find the best solutions for your home!

clutter and our mental health

How Clutter Impacts Our Emotional And Physical Health

Bursting closets, messy drawers, and piles of paper are stacked around the house. This may seem harmless, however, research from Princeton University shows disorganization and clutter can actually have a negative effect on our brains.

As it suggests, constant visual reminders of disorganization drain our cognitive resources, reducing our ability to focus. In the long run, clutter can affect our mood and how we feel about ourselves, adding to our mental and emotional stress. A chronically cluttered home environment can lead to a constant low-grade fight-or-flight response, which also impacts our physical health. That’s why having a clean and decluttered house isn’t just a matter of aesthetics: it’s a matter of health.

How Clutter Affects Our Emotional And Physical Health

Clutter can be a tremendous source of stress and anxiety. Darby Saxbe and Rena Repetti conducted a study in 2009 that found higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in people whose home environment was cluttered. As they also found, this increase in cortisol frequently triggers physical and psychological changes that affect how we fight viruses and digest food, as well as leaving us at greater risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Another study conducted at Cornell University found that people living in cluttered and untidy environments feel more prompted to eat more snacks, eating twice as many cookies than participants in an organized kitchen environment. Similarly, another study from Florida State University found that people with extremely cluttered homes are 77% more likely to be overweight and suffer from obesity.

In short, many studies have shown us that the clutter in our homes not only makes our homes look bad, but it also makes us feel bad. Messy environments can negatively impact our long-term well-being at all levels.

Clutter and Mental Health

A Vicious Cycle That Must Be Broken

And the worst part about this link is that it is a vicious cycle: anxiety and depression can lead to a cluttered home, and a cluttered home can lead to depression and more anxiety. As people feel worse and stop caring for their personal spaces, the situation can easily get out of hand.

That’s why it is essential to break the spell and regain control.

However, living with stress, anxiety, or depression can sometimes convert this task into something too overwhelming. If you’re feeling swamped by sadness or other negative emotions, and don’t have the energy to clean and declutter, it is always a good idea to seek support, whether from friends, family, or a doctor. Remember that if you suspect that your clutter might be a sign of hoarding, help is available.

And, if you feel like the clutter in your home is causing you a lot of stress and anxiety, hiring a professional organizer might also be a good solution – both for your house and overall health. If you need someone to help you declutter and organize your space so that you can enjoy a clean, clutter-free environment, don’t hesitate to contact us for a free consultation. Our team at CluttberBGone will be delighted to help you on this journey!

Home Organizing Mistakes

The Worst Home Organizing Mistakes People Make

You look around your house and everything seems fine. It is fairly clean, and there aren’t teetering piles of clutter scattered around. But is it truly organized? Is it efficient? Can you locate anything you might need quickly and effortlessly? Truth is, some organizing mistakes can reduce the form and function of your spaces, which eventually can lead to great disorder. The benefits of a clean and organized home are outstanding and long-lasting, which is why it’s worth learning how to do it right. In this article, we’ll pinpoint the six top organizing mistakes you might be making.

Avoiding Decluttering

Clutter isn’t just about the stuff. It has more to do with what your belongings represent to you. Items can evoke strong memories and give you comfort, security, and even a sense of identity. That’s why decluttering can become the type of task most people avoid. But as you know, failing to declutter is definitely one of the biggest organizing mistakes you can make. If your closet is overflowing, no amount of containers will create a tidy, organized space. When you have too much stuff for a space, you’ll never succeed. The only solution here is to roll up your sleeves and face that you need to start decluttering.

Forgetting Efficiency

Sometimes, we get so obsessed with the best organizing solutions that we end up making things harder. As tempting as some organizing strategies may seem, you have to ask yourself: are they really useful in my particular situation? For example, a common pitfall to avoid is overfilling spaces and containers. A suitable organizing system is easy to access and has room to grow. To get it right, you should always keep efficiency in mind – and how it relates to everyone in your household.

Confusing Clean With Organized

In our minds, clean and organized generally go together, but in reality, one does not necessarily indicate the other. It’s very possible to have a clean home that’s very cluttered or an organized home that’s actually dirty. So don’t confuse the two and put equal effort into both. Declutter, organize your belongings and clean your home regularly.

Leaving Out The Labels

When it comes to organizing, it’s the little things that matter most! You can have the prettiest bins and baskets in the world, but if they’re not labeled correctly, they’ll just become containers for clutter. That is why labels are key. They can be simple, written by hand on little cards, or printed. In truth, it doesn’t matter what form the labels take. All that matters is that they are made and structured to keep your items adequately classified into categories.

Clean the Junk Drawer

Keeping A Messy Catch-All

We all have that place in our homes where miscellaneous items automatically get thrown. We often call them junk drawers or catch-all. The thing about these places is that they go against the entire organizational system. And although cleaning up the messy closet in the garage is one of those unpleasant home organization tasks we put off for as long as possible, it’s something that should be tackled. If you truly want a tidy storage space that serves your home’s storage needs more effectively, it’s something you should do.

Failing To Maintain

Living an organized life is more than a weekend pantry makeover – it’s making an effort to keep it that way. Although it might seem challenging, maintenance doesn’t have to be that difficult. It can take as little as 10 minutes a day. To make things even easier, you can follow an organized system of simply returning things to their proper places daily. This mindset will make it easier to keep your home organized and neat on a regular basis.

Organizing your home is never a “one and done” activity. It requires constant attention to putting things where they belong, getting rid of what you no longer need, and adapting your methods to maintain a neat, functional, and decluttered space. If you feel like you need some extra help decluttering and organizing any space in your home, don’t hesitate to get in touch with ClutterBGone for a free consultation! We will be delighted to offer you some tailored solutions.

Home Organizing Challenges

Top 4 Organizational Challenges Most People Face

Do you find it hard to keep your home organized? You’re definitely not alone. Each person faces different challenges when trying to organize or declutter spaces. The problem is when these obstacles have the power to discourage you and make you give up. If you fear that’s your case, you need to recognize your personal barrier in order to overcome it. To help you in this task, we made a list of the top challenges most people face when trying to organize their houses. Take a look and find out what’s preventing you from having a neat, organized home:

Lack of self-discipline

When it comes to accomplishing goals, one of the biggest problems people face is the lack of discipline. Having the willpower to keep a house organized and decluttered isn’t easy for anyone. But remember: it’s all a matter of attitude and dedication! It’s hard to organize your home if you put it off because you want to go out or watch TV. The same goes when you don’t resist the urge to purchase unnecessary things that will only clutter your house. To be successful, you have to be committed to your goal and try to take frequent steps.

Having too much stuff

It’s nearly impossible to get organized if you live in a one-bedroom home but own enough stuff to fill an entire mansion! But don’t feel bad about it – truth is, most of us have too much stuff that we don’t need or use. The solution here is quite evident: make a purge and get rid of the things you don’t need. You can start by emptying each room, assessing the items you own, and deciding whether you should keep them, toss them or donate them.

Little Spare Time To Home Organize

Little spare time

When your life is already busy, it can feel impossible to find time to clean and declutter. However, you can try to make some progress a few minutes at a time. Slowly build decluttering into your daily routine. For instance, when you check the mail and get an advertisement that doesn’t interest you, toss it immediately instead of leaving it on the counter. The more you declutter, the easier your home will be to maintain and manage!

Feeling overwhelmed

Feeling overwhelmed about decluttering is very common. The best way to deal with it is to stop looking at the amount of work ahead as a whole and break it down into small, bite-sized projects. Another great way to start decluttering when you’re feeling swamped is by starting at the door and working clockwise around the room. You can do as much or as little as feels comfortable at a time. Accept that the outcome doesn’t need to be perfect, and feel good about what you’ve accomplished!

No matter where you are on your decluttering journey, clearing the clutter will likely feel hard at one time or another. To make it even easier to break the work down into small, manageable tasks, you can hire the help of a professional. At ClutterBGone, we provide personalized organizing services to help you declutter and achieve a clean, organized, and peaceful environment. Get in touch with our team of experts, and we will be delighted to offer you a free consultation!

Storage Solutions for Small Homes

Storage Solutions for Small Homes

Do you have a tiny house and don’t know how to make it functional? Creativity is the answer to many of life’s problems, and when it comes to smaller homes, it is absolutely key. When space is limited, it’s essential to be inventive and resourceful about what you do have by making the most of your square footage. Follow these tips and tricks to organize your space and make the most of it:

Hidden storage spaces

If you want your place to look clean (or even minimalist), you can use hidden storage that keeps things out of sight. Furniture tricks, like a sofa or bed with storage underneath, can stylishly disguise items you’d rather not display. These spaces are usually great to store blankets, pillows, sheets, and all your bedroom essentials.

Double duty furniture

Pieces that can work in a variety of ways are a wonderful fit for smaller houses. Home offices, for example, can be a bit tricky to assemble out of limited square footage. However, if you strategically place a bookshelf with desk space and a small stool, you can have a little office without taking up too much space.

Maximize the area above the cabinets

Put the dead space between the ceiling and cabinet top to good use! Buy some nice boxes and baskets and fill them with all sorts of items. But remember: don’t put too much stuff in there, as it can very easily veer into cluttered territory.

Use plenty of hooks

Hooks and hangers are the backbones of an organized tiny home. Super-strong magnetic hooks make a great solution for the kitchen, for example, as they don’t require tools or drilling holes in your walls. You can also grab space on the back of a door and place more hooks and hangers for coats, hats, umbrellas, and other small accessories.

Storage Solutions for Small Spaces

Open up storage

Cabinet doors take up square feet that may not be available in small spaces. If you get the opportunity to choose your furniture, opt for narrow open shelves to gain extra surfaces to store frequently used items, such as plates. To keep the shelves looking neat, be strategic about what you store and try to leave plenty of open space between stacks of items.

Vertical shoe storage

It might not be the most attractive solution, but over-the-door shoe racks get the job done and use dead space in an effective way. You don’t have to put one of these on every door – your closet doors are probably enough!

Key pieces of furniture to arrange the spaces

In small houses, often the living room is also the kitchen, dining room, or even bedroom. If you want to organize your spaces strategically, you can select block furniture and handy storage to divide them. For example, a freestanding island can be a great option to divide a kitchen and dining area. Placing units behind a sofa is another genius way to maximize your storage space.

If you have a small house and don’t know how to maximize its potential, we’re here to help! At ClutterBGone, we provide many levels of organizing services depending on your needs, lifestyle, and budget ranging from coaching to hands-on organizing and maintenance plans to help you achieve a clean, organized, and peaceful environment. Get in touch with our team of experts, and we will be delighted to offer you a free consultation!

Stacked Linens

Organize Your Linen Closet With These Tips!

Who wouldn’t love to have a linen closet worthy of a home design magazine? Everyone! But let’s be honest, your linen closet is probably overflowing with years – or maybe even with decades worth of accumulated bedding, sheets, tablecloths, and towels.

Say goodbye to your teetering stacks of towels and piles of sheets. We will show you how to get your linen closet magazine-worthy with the following tips.

Take Everything Out

Most of the time, things like sheets and towels get shoved in a closet to be dealt with at a later date. So the best place to start when organizing a linen closet is to remove everything and start purging. The process is quite simple: get rid of the linens that haven’t been used or touched in years, but make sure you keep seasonal linen staples.

Sort Everything By Type

Once you’ve decided what to keep and toss, it’s time to sort the items into categories. There are many ways to do so, but we recommend storing linens by type and room. For example, put all the same size sheets together, and divide them by bedroom. Like matching your socks after a load of laundry, make as many towels and sheet sets as you can.

 Invest In Baskets And Bins

Use baskets, bins, and bags to store your linen and any related items. These recipients are a great choice for organizing your linen and making the closet look clean and clutter-free. Moreover, these recipients come in all sizes and can fit neatly on any shelf. If you want a low-cost option, you can also install adjustable shelf dividers to keep your sheets, towels, and other linens separate.

Organized Linen Closet

Find The Right Method To Fold Your Linen

Choosing how to fold and store linen can be tricky, and it really depends on how much room you have. Our advice? When it comes to towels, generally the best thing is to use the rolling method. As for sheets, the best way to store them is inside the matching pillowcase. For larger, bulkier bedding or thick sheets, you can try a vacuum-sealed, airtight storage bag to shrink them.

Donate The Things You Don’t Want

Rather than finding a spot for the hideous towel set your aunt gifted you ten years ago, donate it instead. And this also applies to towels and any sort of linen you don’t use anymore. Give it a good airing and wash if it needs a bit of a refresh, and find it a new home.

Having an organized linen closet is wonderful for many reasons – for starters, it helps relieve stress because everyone knows where to find what they need, and makes your home feel more organized, clean, and harmonious.

But if you reckon you need some extra help dealing with your clutter, you can always hire a professional service to assist you. At Clutter Be Gone, we offer you a free telephone consultation so that you can tell us all about your goals for a clean and comfortable environment. Get in touch with us and learn more about our services!

Organize Your Deep Freezer

5 Quick Tips to Help You Organize Your Deep Freezer

Summer is finally here, with plenty of colorful berries, tomatoes, summer squashes, peas, peppers, and rhubarbs to liven up our meals. But if you know you’ll probably struggle to eat all of summer’s bounty, there’s an easy way to keep it for months to come: freeze it.

But before you engage in this labor, you need to make sure your freezer is properly clean and organized.

Organizing a deep freezer is not always easy, but if you neglect this task, you’ll soon begin to have to dig down in the abyss for your frozen berries, which can get very frustrating.

In this article, we’ve collected a series of fundamental tips to help you make the most of your freezer and keep it properly organized for the whole family. Take note:

Everything out!

When was the last time you took everything out of your freezer? Probably a long time ago, right? So this is the moment to do so. Take out all the items and open up every container to do a thorough inspection. If anything is freezer-burnt, spoiled, or just plain old, throw it away or compost it. Then, you should also clean it (we recommend using a mixture of warm water with baking soda or vinegar) and dry the interior with a clean dish cloth.

Organize your food into categories

Now that everything is out on the counter, here’s the first golden rule: always group your frozen food in categories. This way, it will make it easier for you to keep track of what you have and easily access the ingredients/meal you need on each occasion. You can, for example, use categories such as ground meats, frozen vegetables and fruit, prepped freezer meals, or homemade soups.

Frozen Fruit and Vegetables

Separate the items with containers

If you don’t use any type of storage container when organizing your deep freezer, you’ll quickly have a jumbled mess. To makes things more manageable, use a series of easy-to-move bags and containers to separate the food. Needless to say, you should avoid plastic containers as plastic is prone to cracking under freezing temperatures.

Label everything

So that everyone can easily access what they need, you should also label the containers and bags with tags. You can use freezer-safe sticky labels or a simple Sharpie marker, which works well on all kinds of packaging, including glass.

Keep track of your stash

And lastly, always keep track of your stash. You can do it with a whiteboard attached to the wall by the freezer, with an app on your phone, or simply by printing an inventory list template. Make sure that you take off the list anything you consume and that you add in it all the frozen food you buy and the items you freeze at home.

Whether you’re stocking up on seasonal fruits and vegetables, cooking in big batches, or making your own convenience foods to eat at busier times, one thing’s for sure: keeping your freezer clean and organized is key. If you need help with it don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We’re here to help!