How to Clean Your Freezer for More Storage

When was the last time you thought about your freezer? That workhorse of modern kitchens often goes unnoticed – and unmaintained – until a crisis hits: either you lose power and have to trash the soggy and spoiled contents entirely or the freezer frost becomes so overgrown that your storage space is affected.   

If you haven’t cleaned out your freezer recently, or are pulling your combination refrigerator / freezer out of storage, have we got the blog post for you. Keep reading to learn eight tried and true tips to clean out your freezer for more storage – and pack it back up for better electrical efficiency. Of course, these are meant as general guidelines. You’ll want to take a look at your manufacturer’s instruction manual for specific instructions before you start. (If you’ve misplaced it, don’t worry – instruction manuals can often be found online.)

8 Steps to Clean Out Your Freezer

1. Gather your supplies

You will need a number of cleaning supplies to make short work of your freezer cleanout task, so make sure to gather everything necessary before you start the job. We suggest the following:

• Plastic gloves
• Homemade cleaning solution: one tablespoon of baking soda or one tablespoon of vinegar) per quart of warm water is non-toxic and very affordable.
• Homemade sanitizing solution (one tablespoon of liquid bleach per quart of warm water)
• Bucket
• Microfiber cleaning cloths or clean rags / towels
• Activated charcoal or additional baking soda if you are dealing with persistent odors
• 3-4 towels or a stack of newspapers if you plan on defrosting

Pro Tip: It’s always recommended to use organic, natural, and/or nontoxic cleaning solutions around food.

2. Empty out your freezer

Take everything out and assess its condition: Is the bag open or leaking? Does the food have freezer burn? Has it been frozen for too long to be edible? Anything you have any doubt about should go straight into the compost bin. Everything else, you’ll want to store in a cooler with lots of ice throughout the entire cleaning process.

The Food Network published the below guidelines on how long specific meats can be stored in your freezer:

• Lunch meat & sausage: 1-2 months
• Fatty fish (tuna, salmon): 2-3 months
• Cooked meat leftovers: 2-3 months
• Ground beef & pork: 3-4 months
• Pork chops & roasts: 4-6 months
• Lean fish (cod, haddock, flounder): no more than 6 months
• Beef steaks and roasts: 6-12 months

Even if something you’ve frozen should still be edible according to guidelines, you don’t want to mess around with food safety. Take a close look at everything you are considering saving and toss anything that seems remotely past its prime. As anyone who’s had it can tell you, food poisoning is not anything to take lightly.

3. Defrost your freezer

If your freezer needs to be defrosted, you’ll want to check your owner’s manual for any specific defrosting instructions, including how to unplug and empty the drain or drainage tube. In general, you will need to turn the freezer off, unplug it, and leave the door or drawer open. (This is also a good time to pull it out from the wall to clean up any dust or debris that’s collected behind it.) Put your towels or newspapers beneath the freezer as best as you can to absorb the water. Take out any removable shelves, drawers, bins and trays from the interior. Defrosting often takes 2 or 3 hours (or more!), but you can speed up the process by directing a fan at the freezer. Of course, if you don’t own a manual defrost freezer, skip ahead to step 4.

4. Clean shelves, drawers, and other removable parts

While you wait for the freezer to defrost, bring any interior pieces to room temperature and then wash them with your baking soda mixture or any hot, soapy water. Dry with a microfiber cloth to prevent spotting and set them aside.

5. Clean and sanitize the freezer interior

Once your freezer has defrosted, it’s time to get down to business. Pick up and dispose of any sodden newspapers or put wet towels immediately in the washing machine. Use your baking soda mixture and rags or microfiber cloths to clean the inside (don’t forget the door seal!) and then wipe away soap residue with fresh water. Dry with a clean towel and then give it a once-over with your homemade sanitizing solution. Be sure to rinse off your cleaning cloths frequently as you work.

Pro Tip: If the freezer has odor even after you’ve cleaned it, place some activated charcoal or boxed baking soda in it to absorb the smell.

6. Clean the freezer exterior

Follow much the same process for the freezer exterior, though be careful to use cleaning products specifically manufactured for stainless steel if necessary. If your freezer isn’t stainless steel, you can probably use the baking soda or vinegar and warm water mixture described above. Dry it off with a clean microfiber cloth to prevent smudges and streaks. If you’ve pulled it out from the wall, now is also a good time to clean the floor beneath it: you might be surprised by what’s accumulated there!

7. Put the freezer back in place

Now is a good time to assess whether your freezer is in the best spot for you and your family. The Spruce advises freezers should be placed in a “dry, cool place with a nearby plug-in” as a warm or sunny environment will cause the freezer to work harder – and use more electricity while it’s at it! If you haven’t had the room to fully open the door while using it in the past, look around your home or garage for a different, more convenient spot.

8. Fill ‘er up!

Now’s the fun part. Take everything you’ve decided to keep and organize it within your sparkling fresh freezer!

Pro Tip: If you’ve got space left over, pack it with filled water bottles. A full freezer is an efficient freezer, plus your food will stay cold longer in the event of a power outage and you’ll always have a source of emergency water.