Last year we purchased a chest freezer to replace our upright. I learned very quickly that one of the biggest drawbacks to the chest freezer is that you cannot visibly scan your freezer inventory.
Each week before I shop, I make a menu plan based on what I have on hand in the freezer. (More about my menu planning three column system in a later post.) With my upright freezer it was easy to open the door, choose a few items to use that week, and make up my menu. When we first bought the chest freezer, I found myself digging through the contents weekly no matter how hard I tried to keep them "organized".
Being the inventory accountant that I am, I knew that an ongoing listing of my freezer contents was necessary. How was I going to keep up my inventory ledger? One day while shopping at Wal-mart the answer hit me. I could use a magnetic whiteboard! My whiteboard cost me roughly $5.00, but has probably saved me that much in electricity since I don't have to have the freezer lid open to rummage around anymore.
The board is magnetized and stuck to the side of my freezer that is visible from my kitchen. Right next to the whiteboard is a magnetized eraser and marker. When I add/delete contents from my freezer I update the whiteboard list by erasing a line or adding another item at the bottom of the list. If I am feeling really ambitious I might even add the date that the item was placed into the freezer.
I am linking this post to Tammy's Recipe's Kitchen Tip Tuesday.
