The Dreaded Freezer - Challenge#11 - 21 Days to Get Organized

I fussed about the other challenges and whined a lot, but this one may be the worst.

A little rambling backstory:
When we were young stupid newlyweds we bought a chest freezer instead of buying a new fridge when the freezer in our fridge quit working. Still not sure why we didn't buy a new fridge. There was the time that the electricity got turned off and we were both afraid to open it for a very long time.  I still can't stand the smell of Crisp Linen Lysol. Oh those were dark days.  Finally we bought a new fridge (a second hand thing on rent-to-own cause things have always been tight - we still have that same fridge)... so the deep freezer was put in our storage shed. We did run an extension cord out to it and put stuff it it for a while, but finally just emptied it and unplugged it... and there it sat in a leaking icky old storage shed for the next 15 or so years. I was totally surprised to find it still worked when we were getting ready to move to this new home 2 years ago.  Since the laundry room had room in it (before my desk) we put it there when we moved. We used it a little now and then, but not much really. As we moved stuff around and settled into our home, it ended up getting relegated to the back porch (without a roof)- I really figured we'd just put it on freecycle.  But Christopher refuses to get rid of it.  It's still working perfectly even with all the rust and abuse it's taken. It has finally moved back into the house with a piece of wood propping it up where it's actually rusting away. Crazy. The top of it looks horrible. I tried putting a tablecloth on it, but we use the big flat convenient horizontal space so much, stuff keeps getting spilled on the tablecloths which looks bad too. I'm getting a vinyl tablecloth next time I'm out and I remember.  I wonder if I can trim a piece of vinyl like a tablecloth and maybe gorilla glue or super glue it to the top Hmmmm.  Anyway, so that's the story of this monster.  That's why it looked like this....

It's bad.

Ok it does actually look a lot worse in person. I didn't take pics of the outside and pieces falling off.

But it's still working after all this time...  This was taken right around the end of the last 2 weeks. (I do grocery shopping every two weeks.) So, it's pretty empty. Sometimes if there are good deals and I have coupons and extra money budgeted for food, I can fill it pretty full.

I've been so disgusted by this thing for so long, but really didn't know if that black would even come off. Thankfully this challenge forced me to get in there and scrub and find out. The gasket needs to be replaced completely, but I don't even know if you can buy those.

Before I get to the After shots, I have to show the Before pic of the fridge freezer too.  This one was also just gross. The kids had made "popcicles" in ice cube trays and spilled it, plus just dirt and grime that's built up. Ewww

 See the lovely bungee cord? The door thingies all broke off years ago, even in the fridge part. I seriously cannot wait to buy a new fridge.

So, I finally got in there and scrubbed and cleaned as well as I could.  The fridge freezer I did a few days ago actually, and it made Christopher say, "Who came into our house and removed our freezer and replaced it with the inside of a new one?" haha!  Love you Honey! 

I've always had an issue with the rolls of ground turkey we buy being so hard to store in the freezer.  They roll around and slip down to the bottom of the deep freezer. Now I have them all in one basket they fit into perfectly. I never thought about putting baskets into the freezer before, but Toni did it on her blog and I loved it!  I need to find some sort of solid bottom container to fit the ice cube trays into to prevent the problem we've had before.  If they have a little crack or hole in them, the water leaks out and makes a frozen puddle on the bottom of the freezer.

I need another bungee cord LOL.  I also need containers that will fit in the door compartments that I can put things in without them falling out from under the bungee cords.

And then there's the deep freezer.

 It's still icky, but not as bad as it was. Might still get some cleaner with bleach in it and some thick gloves and go at it again later. Maybe if I ever get a new fridge with a bigger freezer, then I can get rid of this thing once and for all.  Or maybe just buy a new deep freezer that's not falling apart.

 Since it's hard to get things out of the deep cold pit, I now put things in tubs and baskets to make it easier to move things around and keep stuff from getting too disorganized.

This is under the pink tub. That sure made it easy to move the pot pies out of the way! I'm going to replace the pink tub with more baskets like this blue one and the one in the fridge freezer. It'll be a better fit and you can see through it. 
I only keep extras in the deep freezer as well as frozen chicken stock etc... and giant buckets of ice cream. Mmm

Well, that's it, not quite caught up. Still have to do under the bathroom sink.  I'm going to do both of them for the challenge cause they both need it.  The medicine one I'm going to probably wait on.. I need to find a many looking basket to put Christopher's meds in. He can't remember to take them if he doesn't see them, but I hate having all those bottles cluttering the top of the cabinet. He takes a lot too since he had a heart attack 4 years ago at the age of 36. The number will likely increase over the years so I need to find something I don't mind looking at to hold them all heh. 

Can't wait to see what tomorrow's (Wednesday's) challenge is! We're up to #16!