Upright freezers.......do you have a system as to what goes where ?

[Bonefish Blues]

I have one like that. Packs badly too.

Yep, I know that feeling. Shopping is also a series of random careerings around the store as opposed to something that will buy what we need in the least time by using the list which I've written in sequence to match the layout of the store. Familiar?

 

[Reynard]

Cutlery drawer... Now that would depend whether you're talking about the two cutlery drawers in the kitchen, one for cooking utensils and serving cutlery, the other for everyday cutlery (1 & 2), or the two cutlery drawers in the chiffoniere in the dining room (3 & 4).

In order the packing system is as follows:

1) Everything gets wanged in. The soup ladle and the potato masher tends to jam the drawer. Except things like bread knives, carving knives, carving forks and such that have pointy bits get put in with the pointy bits to the end and the cutting edges down.

2) Forks, knifes and spoons from left to right, and teaspoons in the doodad across the bottom of the cutlery tidy. To the right are my kitchen knives, again, point towards the back of the drawer, cutting edges down. At the front are things like scissors, vegetable peelers, citrus zesters, kebab skewers and chopsticks.

3) Forks, knives, soup spoons, dessert spoons. The crossways compartment has fish cutlery, teaspoons and cake forks.

4) All the random gubbins such as cake slices, fish slices, pastry tongs, nut crackers and the like.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

two cutlery drawers in the kitchen, one for cooking utensils and serving cutlery, the other for everyday cutlery (1 & 2),

The cooking utensils I use most are hanging on hooks from a rail, really handy.

two cutlery drawers in the chiffoniere in the dining room

Wow, you're a posh one
What was meant to be my dining room is now my bike room

 

[Gwylan]

4 deep draws.
#1 frozen (surprise) meal portions. There's only 2 of us at home so I tend to batch cook and freeze
#2 frozen bread, pizza, ice cream, sorbet
#3 frozen dead animal flesh and fish corpses
#4 peas and corn as emergency vegetables, frozen portions of garlic, ginger and chillies. Then boxes with coriander and mint

Yep, I know that feeling. Shopping is also a series of random careerings around the store as opposed to something that will buy what we need in the least time by using the list which I've written in sequence to match the layout of the store. Familiar?

Oh shopping!
Why not arrange things in some order on the conveyor belt and then bag upas things arrive.
Start
Wine bottles, heavy undamageable items
Chilled and frozen.Revolutionzry idea - why don't we put those together in the cool bag
Then a bag for fruit and veg
Finally a bag for the heavy, robust items.


Nah, chuck it all in different bags and pile the potatoes on top of the grapes and eggs.
Oh! The bog cleaner has leaked over the flour.

 

[katiewlx]

We used to have a system but its all gone to pot. Now I just shove anything in where it fits. Only 1 basket remains ordered, that's veggie stuff for the stepsons gf, which never gets eaten so we currently have 4 bags of quorn mince in there

yeah I had a system with my old fridge/freezer that worked for best part of 20+ years, unfortunately it went to silicon heaven, and my new fridge/freezer whilst its the same outside space, its smaller inside, and the old system just doesnt work with it, and I cant get my head around a new one, so stuff just goes in gaps and I hope I remember Ive bough it. which frequently in the fridge part Im finding Im not.

 

[Gwylan]

Cutlery, well there's a story. We now have

Everyday table cutlery that hangs on a funny piece of sculpture that lives on a work top.

Utensils,small, compact,cooks for the use of. Occupy the top-drawer of one of the kitchen units. Ranged in trays and filed appropriately
Below that is a deeper draw that holds cling film and aluminium foil dispensers. Also ladles, spatulas and so on.

Cutlery for entertaining is kept in a drawer of the sarcophagus. It's really a huge family heirloom disguised as a Jacobean dresser in the Welsh style.
The cutlery was a wedding present from a friend of my wife's family. She was very generous to us and we never understood why. It's over 50 years old and has worn very well.
The sideboard is about 100 years old and came from my paternal grandfather.

It is one area of our world where I manage to keep obsessive order

 

[Reynard]

Wow, you're a posh one
What was meant to be my dining room is now my bike room

I have a teeny tiny 10 ft x6 ft galley kitchen, so I have to put a table for eating somewhere LOL! Actually, the dining room doubles as the room for crafting (sewing, modelling, painting) and archiving, as it's got the best daylight of all the downstairs rooms.

 

[Reynard]

Cutlery for entertaining is kept in a drawer of the sarcophagus. It's really a huge family heirloom disguised as a Jacobean dresser in the Welsh style.
The cutlery was a wedding present from a friend of my wife's family. She was very generous to us and we never understood why. It's over 50 years old and has worn very well.
The sideboard is about 100 years old and came from my paternal grandfather.

Nice

I love old furniture. My chiffoniere is a skip rescue, acquired for free when such was deeply unfashionable. It's regency and solid mahogany - and good for another couple of hundred years. Drawers house cutlery, the cupboardy bit has all my fancy vintage crockery and serving dishes.

 

[Electric_Andy]

One of the differences me and my partner have in terms of kitchen management is form over function. I very much like efficiency and ease of access e.g. things we use a lot should be eye level and not too tightly packed so you can grab and put back. Whereas she stacks things so they look nice and they must all be like with like. My idea of a buffer system was poo-pooed. I like it where just one of (e.g. can of tomatoes or tin of coffee) is in the easy space, and the rest of the "stock" is stacked away somewhere less accessible. Imagine a supermarket, you have a back store and then decant things to the shelves when you need them. You don't store the whole 3 pallets of lemonade on the shelf (unless you're Lidl)

 

[Electric_Andy]

I wish I had room for a proper chest freezer.
Having grown up with one at my parent’s house, they are so much better than the upright ones.

I agree. We were spoiled growing up on the farm; we had 2 x 6ft chest freezers. One was full of cows and other meat, and the other was your everyday stuff like bread and ice cream. IMHO it saves a lot of money by not having to go shopping as often, and also buying multi-buy stuff or reduced bread to freeze. Also mum used to have bags and bags of frozen fruit which is really handy when fresh stuff spoils so easily

 

[spen666]

Non pointy knives are something of a fashion item at present anyway.
Not all are cheap either.

Use the 5 Finger discount method and they are very attractively priced

 

[PaulSB]

I have one like that. Packs badly too.

Oh, don't start on the shop packing........have a system, Mrs P is utterly random.

 

[Reynard]

Oh, don't start on the shop packing........have a system, Mrs P is utterly random.

If I'm doing a "proper shop" then yes, I do have a system. And yes, I will put stuff on the belt in a particular order, as well as having a separate bag for each type of grocery. The heaviest items in each category go at the bottom of their respective bags, lightest / most fragile at the top. Sometimes fruit & veg wants two bags, but that's not often.

Bag 1: fridgeables
Bag 2: fruit & veg
Bag 3: canned / dry / snacks / toiletries / cleaning products / miscellaneous
Bag 4: bread & pastries

Laundry soap usually gets its own bag for obvious reasons.

Reason for doing this is I tend to shop in the evening to take advantage of yellow stickers, so by the time I get back home, I often just dump the non-fridgeable shopping in the hallway or utility room and just stash the fridgeables. Anything else gets sorted out in the morning.