How to feel better defrosting your freezer
So FEEL4 is all about making you feel better and improving your situation. Well here's one focus you may have way down on your list of things to make you feel better: Defrosting Your Freezer!
We are having an amazing summer in the UK. We need some rain but other than that wow, just perfect. So today I thought the combination of the day being hot and the fact my fridge freezer desperately needed defrosting was a good time to focus on getting it done.
This was my FEEL4 path that made it happen, if you have the same focus then I hope it saves you time seeing what worked for me.
Step 1 - FOCUS - I am focusing on defrosting my freezer in less than 30 minutes.
Step 2 - ENERGIZE - I feel energized to do this because I have been waiting since Christmas to do this. I want to sort through the frozen food and make it easier to add more food when I do a big shop. I like the idea of feeling the ice cold air from the fridge cooling me off in this hot weather. I also like to feel I am keeping on top of the home chores I never seem to find time to do.
Steps 3 & 4 - ENGAGE & LEARN - I engaged with these actions and learnt a lot to make the process easier next time around:
1. I engaged with taking all of the frozen items out of the freezer compartment and then placing them into the fridge.
> 1.1 > I learnt that this task would have been easier and quicker if I had made room in the fridge before taking the frozen stuff out of the freezer.
> 1.2 > I learnt that having hardly any food in the freezer and fridge still helped make the task a lot easier to do (even though I hadn't made space). With an empty fridge - even though I had not sorted through the fridge before hand - I found myself able to quickly find a place for the frozen food (which there was not much of also). Lesson is make sure you defrost when there is little food in both your fridge and freezer!
2. I engaged with closing the fridge door and leaving the fridge on and leaving the freezer door open.
> 2.1 > I learnt that leaving the fridge on helps to keep the frozen food cooler and stops it defrosting too quickly.
> 2.2 > I learnt that taking the freezer compartment shelf out makes the job much easier and gives more access.
3. I engaged with getting a hairdryer from the bedroom, setting it to its hottest setting and turning it on*.
> 3.1 > From past experience I learnt that you absolutely must check that there is no risk of triggering an electric shock. You must make sure no water can get to the hair dryer at all times. I therefore have learnt to position the hairdryer outside of the freezer compartment and blow the hot air from outside, you must not put it inside as water may drip onto it.
> 3.2 > I learnt that using a proper fridge freezer scraper is a MUST HAVE! It allows you to scrape the ice away from the freezer sides as it melts and loosens. > 3.3 > I learnt that having a towel and a plastic bowl or bucket is essential to place the loose and melted ice into. I learnt whenever you are doing this you must have turned off the hairdryer and placed it down in a safe place that it cannot connect with any water.
> 3.4 > I learnt that it took about 5-10 minutes of hairdryer heat blowing and then the ice broke off the side much more easily.
> 3.5 > I learnt that once the ice was all scraped off and melted and placed into the plastic bowl, it felt good to wipe the entire compartment clean so it looked like new.
4. I engaged with placing the freezer shelf back as well as adding the frozen food back.
> 4.1 > I learnt that placing the shelf higher (rather than in the middle) gave me much more room to add the frozen items of varying sizes. I learnt that most frozen items are either thin (like fish finger packets, pizza or ice cream packs or ice cube trays) or large (like bags of vegetables and or French Fries); this means having more room below the shelf and less above fitted everything much better than before when the shelf was in the middle.
> 4.2 > Ultimately I learnt that I felt better after doing this chore. I actually genuinely felt good whilst doing it, enjoying going through the positive mindset that FEEL4 places me in to get the chore done.
The End
And that's it, let me know what your path to defrosting your freezer felt like and what lessons you learnt.
*Note: You take sole responsibility for using a hairdryer and the associated risks; do not follow my lessons learnt if at all concerned. I am not recommending you use a hairdryer I am just saying I used one; the decision to copy me is yours alone.
Author: Cn
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