With the storms in the mid Atlantic and subsequent power outages, I felt it was time to put out this reminder for everyone…

It’s a simple matter of practice…

Next to my freezer, you’ll see plastic milk cartons filled with water… Here’s why…

A full freezer will stay cold up to twice as long as a freezer half full of air. So…

As a general practice, I keep milk cartons filled with water in every empty space of my freezer. As I need more room, I just move the frozen milk cartons out, and then put them back in to fill space as needed.

Even your refrigerator freezer should be kept full.

If you have a power outage, do not open your freezer. Once power comes back on, immediately crack the door open, and see if everything is still frozen. If it is, shut the door quickly, and let the power do it’s work.

My freezer story… We were in the Northridge quake in 1994, without power for 5 days. Our freezer was full, and it thankfully it was also January. When the power came back on, we immediately checked it, and all was just beginning to frost up, and softening a little on the surfaces when I poked at the meat. It felt very cold, but the meat had a layer of about 1/8 inch soft. So we shut the door, let it all freeze back up, eventually ate it all, and we were fine. I’m not recommending you do the same, but we couldn’t afford to lose our investment, so we took the risk. All that to say, after 5 days, a full freezer works, and filling space with water jugs is the most effective insurance against a power outage, and gives your freezer a fighting chance.

Another added benefit to keeping your freezer full is that it saves on energy. It takes less energy to keep a full freezer cold, than a freezer that is half full of air.

So start this now, and keep it up as a general practice to save money and protect your food investments.