Freezer Inventory

 I hesitate writing this blog post because some of you might make the false conclusion that I am OCD and I promise you, I am not.  I do like order and I do strive to be organized.  I also am not a perfectionist....here's the BUT....but, I am the manager of 8 people and I do have a total of 4 refridgerator/freezers so I realized recently that it's important for my own sanity to know what those bottomless, frozen pits contain.

SO, I took everything out of them, tried to organize them someway (like meat on one shelf, veggies on another, etc.) and then wrote out an inventory for each one.  The 2 in the laundry room I taped to the door.  The one in the basement and the one in my kitchen I keep in my Home Management notebook.  I wrote them in pencil so I can easily add tallies and erase them.

 The benefits of doing this is that it helps me tremendously in meal planning.  It also helps me not keep things in my freezer for eternity until there is more frost on them than food. 

Before I do my monthly meal plans, I can quickly scan the freezer inventory lists and can see if I need to buy more pork or if I have lots of squash from this summer's garden that I need to use up.  I know this will also help me when I begin to plant the garden next month.  I can gauge how much vegetables we have eaten since last summer's garden so I won't over plant any particular vegetable.  Speaking of, anyone want any frozen yellow squash or zucchini??  I'd love to erase some of those tallies!  :)