My Goal to Ditch the Freezer!
I have set myself a rather big goal for the rest of 2026: to ditch the freezers.
Well, almost.
My aim is to work my way down from three deep freezers to one small chest freezer by the end of the year. That one freezer will be kept for the foods that genuinely cannot be preserved in another practical way.
Everything else will be used, cooked, canned, dehydrated or turned into shelf-stable food for the pantry.
This isn’t a sudden decision. I have wanted to become less reliant on freezers for years, and we have already managed to downsize by one freezer. But now I feel it is time to knuckle down and really get serious about moving the food from frozen storage to the pantry shelf.
Why I Want to Ditch the Freezers
There are a few reasons behind this goal, but the biggest one is food security.
Shelf-stable food does not rely on electricity.
Once meat, vegetables, fruit, meals and other foods have been safely preserved, they can sit on the pantry shelf without needing a constant power supply. They are ready to use whenever they are needed, whether the power is on or not.
We have experienced a few longer blackouts, and they made me realise just how much food, money, time and effort we had tied up in the freezers.
A short power outage is usually manageable. A long one is a different story.
The risk of extended power outages is something I think about more now, and world events have added to that sense of uncertainty. I don’t want to be worrying about whether the freezer food is staying frozen, whether the generator has enough fuel or how quickly we need to cook everything before it spoils.
Having shelf-stable food in the pantry gives me peace of mind.
Power outages and rising electricity prices may affect many things, but they won’t affect my ability to safely store food for my family.
The Cost of Running Three Freezers
There is also the cost.
Electricity prices continue to climb, and running three deep freezers around the clock is not cheap.
Freezers are convenient, but they come with an ongoing cost every hour of every day. Even when they are filled with bargain meat, home-grown produce or carefully prepared meals, we are still paying to keep that food frozen.
By moving more food to the pantry shelf, I can reduce the number of appliances running and lower our household power use.
It won’t happen overnight, but every freezer we can turn off is one less appliance adding to the electricity bill.
Freezing Is Easy — and That Is the Problem
Let’s be honest: freezing is probably the easiest form of food preservation in 2026.
You put the food into a bag or container, label it if you’re organised, tuck it into the freezer and shut the lid.
Done.
That convenience is exactly why the freezers became so full.
Freezing makes it very easy to put off dealing with food. Meat bought on markdown goes straight in. Bread ends are tucked away for later. Vegetables, leftovers, fruit and bulk purchases all disappear into the depths.
Before long, one freezer becomes two, and two becomes three.
I know myself well enough to understand that if this challenge becomes too hard, too complicated or too exhausting, I will stop. I will go back to freezing everything because it is quick and easy.
That is why my plan needs to be manageable.
My Small-Batch Plan
I am not going to try to empty three freezers in one frantic weekend.
My plan is to work in small batches and move something from the freezer to the pantry every day, or as often as I reasonably can.
Some days that may mean pressure canning four kilos of mince.
Other days it may mean drying bread ends and turning them into breadcrumbs.
It might be thawing fruit for jam, bottling a batch of soup, cooking meat for shelf-stable meals or dehydrating a few bags of frozen vegetables.
The goal is steady progress, not exhaustion.
Something out of the freezer. Something onto the pantry shelf.
Little by little, day by day.
The Canner Is Going Flat Chat
The pressure canner has certainly been earning its keep this week.
I have been working through batches of mince, turning frozen meat into jars of shelf-stable, ready-to-use meal starters.
Instead of four kilos of mince taking up valuable freezer space, it can become jars of mince, meatballs or other meals sitting neatly on the pantry shelf.
Those jars do not need electricity. They are visible, organised and ready to heat and eat.
That is exactly the kind of practical food security I want to build.
Using the Heat We Already Have
The wood fire has also been put to work.
I had bread ends, crusts and stale rolls taking up freezer space, waiting to be turned into breadcrumbs. With the fire already going, I placed the bread on racks above it and let the gentle heat dry everything until it was crisp.
Once cooled, the bread was whizzed into crumbs and stored in a jar.
No oven needed. No extra power used. No food wasted.
It was a small job, but it cleared more space from the freezer and added another useful staple to the pantry.
The Dehydrators Are Next
The dehydrators will be getting a workout in the near future too.
There are frozen vegetables that can be dehydrated and turned into shelf-stable pantry ingredients. Once dried, they can be used in soups, stews, casseroles, pasta sauces and other meals.
Dehydrated vegetables take up far less room than frozen vegetables, and they do not need electricity once they are dry and safely stored.
I will work through them in small batches, just as I am doing with everything else.
There is no need to tackle the whole freezer at once.
One bag is progress.
No Waste
I want to make one thing very clear: ditching the freezers does not mean throwing the food away.
Everything will be used.
It will be eaten, cooked into meals, canned, dehydrated or preserved in another safe and practical way.
There will be no waste.
The aim is to protect the food we already have and make it more secure, not to clear the freezers simply for the sake of seeing empty space.
Every packet represents grocery money, and often time and effort too. I intend to make sure it all feeds us.
My Goal for the End of the Year
By the end of 2026, I hope to be down to one small chest freezer.
That freezer will hold the few things that are best kept frozen or cannot easily be preserved another way.
The other freezers will be empty, switched off and no longer adding to the electricity bill.
In their place, I hope to have pantry shelves filled with useful, shelf-stable food: jars of meat and meals, dried vegetables, breadcrumbs, preserves and ingredients ready to turn into simple family dinners.
It is a big goal, but I believe the small-batch approach will make it possible.
Follow Along
I hope you will follow along as I work through this challenge.
I will try to share an update every day that something is moved from the freezer to the pantry. Some updates will be big batches. Others may be just one loaf of bread, a bag of vegetables or a container of leftovers.
It all counts.
Perhaps you have a freezer you would like to eat down too. You may not want to give up your freezer entirely, and that is perfectly fine. This challenge isn’t about telling anyone they should stop freezing food.
It is about using what we have, reducing waste, cutting running costs and building the kind of food security that suits our own families.
For me, that means fewer freezers and more food safely stored on the pantry shelf.
Little by little, day by day, I’m going to get there.
Well, almost.
My aim is to work my way down from three deep freezers to one small chest freezer by the end of the year. That one freezer will be kept for the foods that genuinely cannot be preserved in another practical way.
Everything else will be used, cooked, canned, dehydrated or turned into shelf-stable food for the pantry.
This isn’t a sudden decision. I have wanted to become less reliant on freezers for years, and we have already managed to downsize by one freezer. But now I feel it is time to knuckle down and really get serious about moving the food from frozen storage to the pantry shelf.
Why I Want to Ditch the Freezers
There are a few reasons behind this goal, but the biggest one is food security.
Shelf-stable food does not rely on electricity.
Once meat, vegetables, fruit, meals and other foods have been safely preserved, they can sit on the pantry shelf without needing a constant power supply. They are ready to use whenever they are needed, whether the power is on or not.
We have experienced a few longer blackouts, and they made me realise just how much food, money, time and effort we had tied up in the freezers.
A short power outage is usually manageable. A long one is a different story.
The risk of extended power outages is something I think about more now, and world events have added to that sense of uncertainty. I don’t want to be worrying about whether the freezer food is staying frozen, whether the generator has enough fuel or how quickly we need to cook everything before it spoils.
Having shelf-stable food in the pantry gives me peace of mind.
Power outages and rising electricity prices may affect many things, but they won’t affect my ability to safely store food for my family.
The Cost of Running Three Freezers
There is also the cost.
Electricity prices continue to climb, and running three deep freezers around the clock is not cheap.
Freezers are convenient, but they come with an ongoing cost every hour of every day. Even when they are filled with bargain meat, home-grown produce or carefully prepared meals, we are still paying to keep that food frozen.
By moving more food to the pantry shelf, I can reduce the number of appliances running and lower our household power use.
It won’t happen overnight, but every freezer we can turn off is one less appliance adding to the electricity bill.
Freezing Is Easy — and That Is the Problem
Let’s be honest: freezing is probably the easiest form of food preservation in 2026.
You put the food into a bag or container, label it if you’re organised, tuck it into the freezer and shut the lid.
Done.
That convenience is exactly why the freezers became so full.
Freezing makes it very easy to put off dealing with food. Meat bought on markdown goes straight in. Bread ends are tucked away for later. Vegetables, leftovers, fruit and bulk purchases all disappear into the depths.
Before long, one freezer becomes two, and two becomes three.
I know myself well enough to understand that if this challenge becomes too hard, too complicated or too exhausting, I will stop. I will go back to freezing everything because it is quick and easy.
That is why my plan needs to be manageable.
My Small-Batch Plan
I am not going to try to empty three freezers in one frantic weekend.
My plan is to work in small batches and move something from the freezer to the pantry every day, or as often as I reasonably can.
Some days that may mean pressure canning four kilos of mince.
Other days it may mean drying bread ends and turning them into breadcrumbs.
It might be thawing fruit for jam, bottling a batch of soup, cooking meat for shelf-stable meals or dehydrating a few bags of frozen vegetables.
The goal is steady progress, not exhaustion.
Something out of the freezer. Something onto the pantry shelf.
Little by little, day by day.
The Canner Is Going Flat Chat
The pressure canner has certainly been earning its keep this week.
I have been working through batches of mince, turning frozen meat into jars of shelf-stable, ready-to-use meal starters.
Instead of four kilos of mince taking up valuable freezer space, it can become jars of mince, meatballs or other meals sitting neatly on the pantry shelf.
Those jars do not need electricity. They are visible, organised and ready to heat and eat.
That is exactly the kind of practical food security I want to build.
Using the Heat We Already Have
The wood fire has also been put to work.
I had bread ends, crusts and stale rolls taking up freezer space, waiting to be turned into breadcrumbs. With the fire already going, I placed the bread on racks above it and let the gentle heat dry everything until it was crisp.
Once cooled, the bread was whizzed into crumbs and stored in a jar.
No oven needed. No extra power used. No food wasted.
It was a small job, but it cleared more space from the freezer and added another useful staple to the pantry.
The Dehydrators Are Next
The dehydrators will be getting a workout in the near future too.
There are frozen vegetables that can be dehydrated and turned into shelf-stable pantry ingredients. Once dried, they can be used in soups, stews, casseroles, pasta sauces and other meals.
Dehydrated vegetables take up far less room than frozen vegetables, and they do not need electricity once they are dry and safely stored.
I will work through them in small batches, just as I am doing with everything else.
There is no need to tackle the whole freezer at once.
One bag is progress.
No Waste
I want to make one thing very clear: ditching the freezers does not mean throwing the food away.
Everything will be used.
It will be eaten, cooked into meals, canned, dehydrated or preserved in another safe and practical way.
There will be no waste.
The aim is to protect the food we already have and make it more secure, not to clear the freezers simply for the sake of seeing empty space.
Every packet represents grocery money, and often time and effort too. I intend to make sure it all feeds us.
My Goal for the End of the Year
By the end of 2026, I hope to be down to one small chest freezer.
That freezer will hold the few things that are best kept frozen or cannot easily be preserved another way.
The other freezers will be empty, switched off and no longer adding to the electricity bill.
In their place, I hope to have pantry shelves filled with useful, shelf-stable food: jars of meat and meals, dried vegetables, breadcrumbs, preserves and ingredients ready to turn into simple family dinners.
It is a big goal, but I believe the small-batch approach will make it possible.
Follow Along
I hope you will follow along as I work through this challenge.
I will try to share an update every day that something is moved from the freezer to the pantry. Some updates will be big batches. Others may be just one loaf of bread, a bag of vegetables or a container of leftovers.
It all counts.
Perhaps you have a freezer you would like to eat down too. You may not want to give up your freezer entirely, and that is perfectly fine. This challenge isn’t about telling anyone they should stop freezing food.
It is about using what we have, reducing waste, cutting running costs and building the kind of food security that suits our own families.
For me, that means fewer freezers and more food safely stored on the pantry shelf.
Little by little, day by day, I’m going to get there.