How often do you clean out your freezer?

At our last house, I cleaned it about three times a year, mostly because it was tiny. Now we have a big side-by-side and I haven’t cleaned it out at all this past year. It’s actually pretty empty aside from a few things. I only buy enough meat for pre-planned dinners and an occasional snack food like taquitos or pizza rolls. The refrigerator needs cleaning at least once a month usually. I also find it helpful to get rid of any unneeded food every Sunday after grocery shopping. I toss all the uneaten leftovers and old fruit or milk to make room for the new stuff. Doing that, I’ve only cleaned the fridge 3 times this year – and once it was only because I spilled something.

Once a year. We buy a whole cow so we make sure we eat everything in freezer just before it comes and I clean the freezers then.

I think I cleaned out a freezer once. I’m a renter, and I’ve moved a lot.

Unless it is a commercial “deep freezer” I would get rid of stuff after six months.

Food passes through my freezer very quickly. I doubt anything stays in there longer than six months, and that would be the broth that I freeze from Thanksgiving.

Hmmm, we empty stuff out every few months because we run out of room – cleaned out totally… I can’t remember. We have one of those that doesn’t get all frozen up.

I clean out the almost empty ice cream containers every six months or so. The rest of the stuff I start to throw out after a couple years. I don’t use the freezer much for long term storage.

My freezer rarely has very old stuff in it. It goes from 90% packed to only having 3 or 4 things in it regularly. I would say by the 6 month mark if something has not been eaten I ditch it.

Every time I do a big food shopping – which is every two weeks.

On alternate weeks we just buy bread, milk, butter, eggs, water, etc.

Every time I move.

Only on the rare occasion when I find myself unable to locate the babby.

Twice a year, before fishing season starts in the spring and the big one before hunting season starts in the fall.

what makes them get that frosty hard stuff? and how do you get it out of there? I bought a used freezer refrigerator and I notice it’s getting that stuff-

@trailsillustrated most of it is frozen condensation. When you open the freezer, fresh room temperature air gets into the freezer replacing the cold air that escapes. Warm air holds water better than cold air, so as the temps drop on the fresh warm air the water vapor is squeezed out and first condenses on and then freezes to the available surfaces.

@trailsillustrated It can indicates the freezer doesn’t work well, or that your food got too warm before you put it in the freezer. Like when you buy frozen pees or corn each little veggie should easily move around or at minimum easily break apart in the bag. If it is like a solid piece of ice, then it melted and refroze.

I have a freezer in the basement that had not been cleaned out in many years, 8? 9? . I decided to make a concerted effort to eat everything that was in it. If the food was bad, it went to the critters outside. I did it slowly, one package at a time.
I basically grocery shopped from my freezer, one package at a time – wasting nothing. Even the 3 and 4 year old frozen turkeys I got for free were still good.

I clean it regularly every 10 to 15 years or so. Thanks for the reminder I’ll get right on it.

In terms of checking the contents of the freezer, I’m quite on top of that. Like @LuckyGuy, I make a conscious effort to make sure I eat the food I’ve bought. I actually thought this question was about defrosting the freezer. :/

@glacial When I first saw the main question I thought it might be about defrosting an old freezer, but the supporting details only talks about eating or getting rid of the food. What makes you say it is about defrosting?

@JLeslie I suppose I’ve never thought of “eating the food I froze” as “cleaning my freezer”.

Also… I didn’t say “it is” about defrosting… I said “I thought it was about defrosting”.

@glacial I did misinterpret what you wrote. My mistake. I guess we are old enough to remember when people had to do that. LOL.

Eating the food in the freezer makes it much easier to clean out.

^^ Yeah, I’m getting the impression from most of these answers, that most folks don’t eat through their freezer contents regularly.

I know the freezer is used to store some foods for “later”, I just never took it as “much later”.

@cookieman Same here. It made me think of a recent Q we had about whether people save leftovers they know they probably won’t eat. I wonder if people with full freezers that have food sitting forever have leftovers frozen? Or, is it frozen meals? What is it in there so long? Most frozen food I have is eaten within 2 weeks I would say, some things might stay 6 weeks. Once in a blue moon something sits for months like I mentioned above, but it is very rare.

One jelly mentioned buying a lot of beef at once, I think practically the whole cow, that I can understand. But, if it is regular grocery store food?

Thanks guys you are all awesome!