Annual eating down the freezer challenge

It's come to that time of year once again. Our freezer is still full, yet we need to make a lot of room for this year's garden and foraging produce. 

We have two choices. One, we could buy another freezer. Or two, we could eat down what we currently have. I won't lie. I did have a moment where I thought buying another freezer might be a good idea. But my common sense kicked in, and we will once again try to eat up (or down) the freezers' (yes, multiple freezers) contents.

The first thing I need to do is take an inventory of the frozen vegetables in the chest freezer. Partially used opened bags of frozen vegetables have a way of drifting to the bottom of the freezer. I'm sure there are several open bags of peas in there. So, once I know what frozen veggies we have currently, I will limit what I buy in the way of frozen vegetables. I may use a small white board to track what vegetables still remain as we work toward eating down the freezer.

I should do the same with the frozen fruits, syrups, and fruit juices. I came across some dried figs and dried prunes in the freezer the other day. I am also aware that we have some remaining crab applesauce, crabapple juice, and blackberry juice. Do you have any suggestions for using crab apple juice or blackberry juice in summer? We also have some frozen cherries for pies, too. I need to start making plans to use these fruits, especially as this year's cherries are almost ready for harvesting. But first I need to gather all of the containers into one space, perhaps using another whiteboard to help motivate me to use these produce items in a timely manner.

Next I need to corral all of the bread products into one bag and make plans to do a bread pudding, some croutons, bread stuffing, and/or a strata. We accumulate lots of lone slices of bread, squares of cornbread, and muffins. Finding them and keeping them in one spot will help me use them.

After the vegetables and bread products I think I should gather all of the containers of stock, drippings, and fat to keep in one spot and make plans to use it. Since I've been roasting whole chickens again (instead of using b/s breasts), I've made several batches of chicken stock. It's time I start using it up. Do you have any suggestions for using stock besides as the broth for soup?

That will leave frozen desserts (ice cream, sorbet) and individual servings of various meals. My husband is the only one in the family who will eat everything served to him. The rest of us tend to freeze our leftovers, which is great as we're technically not wasting that food. But it does accumulate. So, I need to get my daughters to help me identify those oddball containers of leftovers.

The one food category that I'm not at all concerned about is meat. I keep all of the meat together in the tiny freezer and sort through it every other week. I roughly know what beef, chicken, and pork we have on hand and am making plans for how to use the older cuts of meat soon.

Am I missing anything? Do you have a method of attack for cleaning out your freezer and eating down all of the contents? You can guess what I'll be doing this weekend.

Have a great weekend, friends!