This afternoon I defrosted our chest freezer, which I probably should have done about two years ago. Aside from having spent a long time dealing with frost buildup, another downside of waiting so long turned out to be that by the time I learned that the drain didn't work it was already out of warranty.

We mostly use the chest freezer for three things:

• Buying things when they happen to be on sale.
• Having enough space that we can make large ~quarterly shops when we have access to a car.
• Storing leftovers and other cooked-ahead food.

The main tricky part is not losing track of things in it, since the closer it gets to full the harder it is to find anything.

While I was reorganizing and refilling it I took inventory. This is what was in it:

• Dairy (60lb):
  • 3.4gal ice cream
  • 19lb butter
  • 6lb cheddar
  • 2.5lb shredded mozzarella
  • 8oz cream cheese
• Raw meat (48lb):
  • 15lb stew beef
  • 11lb ground beef
  • 8lb bacon
  • 7lb sweet italian sausage
  • 5.7lb chicken thighs
  • 1pt chicken for soup
• Ready to defrost and eat (26lb):
  • 7lb hot dogs
  • 6lb ravioli
  • 5lb chicken nuggets
  • 2.8lb fish sticks
  • 1.8lb frozen pizza
  • 1lb cooked mussels
  • 1lb shredded ham
  • 9oz par-baked bread
  • 9oz hotdog buns
  • 2 salmon patties
• Vegan stuff (19lb):
  • 5.3lb tofu
  • 3.5lb vegan cheddar shreds
  • 3pt vegan ice cream
  • 2.6lb vegan sausage
  • 2lb earth balance sticks
  • 18oz vegan ice cream sandwiches
  • 1lb tempe
  • 9oz vegan breakfast sausage
• Fruit and veg (16lb):
  • 8lb chopped onions
  • 3lb mango
  • 2.5lb raspberries
  • 2lb peas
  • 12oz spinach
• Frozen leftovers (13lb):
  • 2pt vegan pasta sauce
  • 2pt beef stew
  • 2pt vegan beans
  • 2lb beef and onions
  • 2lb BBQ pork
  • 1pt vegan peanut ginger soup
  • 1lb vegan cardamon saffron sauce
  • 1pt unlabeled sauce
• Other (12lb):
  • 5.4lb puff pastry
  • 1qt bacon grease
  • 2lb shortening
  • one pie crust
  • 1pt red cooking wine
  • 8oz almonds
  • 1C stew mushrooms
  • 4oz dried basil

This is for a house with six adults (three omnivores, two vegans, one vegetarian), and two kids (one of which is kind of vegetarian).