Defrosting The Freezer

Blessings Darlings!

Being the busy little home maker I am, I'm defrosting the freezer as I type this.  We have an OLD upright freezer, 14.7 cubic feet, not at all frost-free.  We got it in January 1979, so it predates our 1980 marriage and LONG predates our 1987 Spawn. 

Every now and then (really, more NOW), it needs to be defrosted.  It's one of the easiest household tasks, if you manage things right.  And the one thing that is most critical, to me, in 'managing things right' is to use big cardboard boxes - the type to hold hanging files in - in your freezer to  hold things as a matter of course. 

Our freezer has 4 of those in use.  Two for meats, one for bones for broth and prepared broth, and one for fruits.  I also use the cardboard 'bases' from cases of catfood in two places.

The boxes do two things.  First, they prevent ice buildup on the TOP of the shelves.  This the cardboard bases to, too.  But on top of that, to empty the freezer before defrosting, and to re-fill after defrosting, all I have to do is move the box out or in.  No trying to find things to store that food in.  Easy peasy. 

Once everything is out of the freezer, I just put big pots of boiling water in, close the door, and wait. Thermodynamics FTW! Of course, I have layers of towels on the floor, but since the freezer is in the garage, mostly I just sweep the puddles out after I'm done.

Once defrosted, the old darling runs like a top. 

And while it defrosts, I get to multitask online.

Frondly, Fern

Monday Morning

Blessings Darlings!

Mondays aren't a 'thing' with me.  I work at home, so it's not like this morning is somehow different than other mornings are. 

So it was a real surprise when this morning (and I realize that all y'all will likely be seeing this on Tuesday) turned into a stereotypical Monday.

I was up, had meditated, had nagged the Spawn about dirty dishes in his room, etc, and was sewing a patch on my husband's jeans.  The Spawn headed out to work ... then ran back into the house.  "I can't get the freezer door to close!" 

We have a 1978 Sears 14.7 cubic foot upright freezer in the garage.  It is NOT frost-free.  It already needed to be defrosted after the long humid summer.  But apparently last night, after the spawn got home from work and took out a frozen hash brown ... unit? .... Patty?... to bake, he hadn't closed the door well/totally.  As a result, a bit more frost built up and now the door physically could not be closed.

Having told me, the Spawn left out for work.  Leaving me with, well, work to do.

Now, I've gotten pretty efficient at defrosting this freezer since we bought it in January of 1979.  But I was having trouble this time.  No matter what I did, that bottom shelf WOULD NOT THAW.  It only got worse.  Being clearly brain-dead, it took me 90 minutes of work to figure out the problem - in my rush to get things out of the freezer, get water boiling, etc, I'd forgotten to turn the darn freezer off. 

It's amazing how quickly that shelf thawed after I'd turned the freezer off. 

At least that's done.  Even if it's a rainy/humid fall I shouldn't have to defrost again until after Thanksgiving.

Frondly, Fern