Organizing Your Laboratory Freezer: The Best Practices

1. Organizing Your Laboratory Freezer: The Best Practices Proper organization of your laboratory freezer is one of the best practices in efficiently running your laboratory. Know the tips for freezer organization. ----------- Organizing your laboratory freezer is not as simple as it seems to be. For example, when you engage yourself in the organization process, you might keep the freezer door open for long, putting the temperature-sensitive items at risk. Therefore, you should acquaint yourself with the best practices of organizing laboratory refrigerators. So, here are the essential tips for property organizing your laboratory freezer: Manage Inventory The first step of organizing your freezer is to draw up an inventory management plan. You can use one of the many software available for managing inventory. If you do not want to invest in such software, you can use spreadsheets for this purpose. It is advisable to use Google Sheets because of its cloud-based feature. All your staff members can access the information anytime, enabling ease of collaboration. Put Labels Put labels to dictate places for everything you put inside the freezer. If you are already doing this, the question arises is how disciplined you are in updating the labels and obeying them. Bear in mind that labels are essential to establish a designated place for everything inside the freezer. Ensure that the labels are hooked in their positions even when frost accumulates on the shelves. Ensure Safety Although there is no need to mention why you should maintain safety, yet let us review the idea. Ensure you store dangerous items carefully and not place items that might react with each other nearby. Keep Like Items Near Each Other You can regard this as a golden rule for freezer organization. Avoid keeping things inside your freezer haphazardly, instead keep like items with each other—place samples with samples, enzymes with enzymes, and so on.

2. One Shelf at a Time Ensure that you organize one shelf at a time. It might so happen that there can be a small space to store temperature-sensitive items in your freezer, and in this way, you can make the best use of the available space inside the unit. Moreover, there is another benefit. When you organize one shelf at a time, going down from top to bottom, you can free yourself whenever you want during the organizing process. Cleaning While You Organize It is a good idea to keep a clean cloth ready to wipe the shelf's interior, including walls and racks. Avoid Circular Containers As Much Possible An interesting point to note is that it is good to avoid circular containers for storing items. Instead, use square containers. It is because circular containers do not use the corners and hence waste more space than necessary. But it is also true that you cannot avoid circular containers. What you can best do is stack circular- containers one above the other. Keep Everything Visible It is another golden rule for organizing your laboratory freezer. When items are not visible correctly, you need to pull out everything to pick up an item from the extreme interior, and then you need to take out everything, risking the items. You can use plastic freezer bins that can allow you to pull out items quickly. With such bins, pulling out items from the back is an easy affair. Use Turntables If you see the bins not working, you can use a turntable, which can be the best solution. You can find them in a variety of sizes to fit your needs. Know Your Freezer It will help if you know the temperature zones of your freezer. For example, the arm is the warmest part of a freezer, and since the door opens and closes frequently, the temperature- sensitive items, if you store them on the freezer arm, can be at risk. Why is Preventive Maintenance Necessary? A laboratory freezer calls for periodic maintenance so that it works efficiently. It is the routine servicing of your freezer by certified personnel to keep it in the satisfactory running condition through inspection, detection, and correction of possible failures. With preventive maintenance, you can detect failures, optimize energy consumption, attain effective performance, and prolong the equipment's life. And without preventative maintenance, your freezer will not perform at maximum efficiency levels.

3. Some Best Practices of Freezer Handling Apart from adequately organizing your freezer, you need to actuate the best practices in handling it, such as: Do Not Keep it Empty Avoid keeping your freezer empty. Keep at least 30 percent full. Empty freezers entail temperature fluctuations. They work the best only when stocked. If you cannot stock your freezer to 30 percent of its capacity, you can handle the situation smartly by storing water bottles or freezer gel packs. But do not overfill the freezer to obstruct unrestricted airflow. Clean Gaskets The gasket of a laboratory freezer plays an essential role in making the unit work efficiently. It restricts the inflow of warm air and outflow of cold air by forming a tight seal around the freezer door's edge. Ensure that you keep the gasket clean and check for any leaks. Dirty gaskets can hamper freezer performance. Monitor Temperatures Monitor the temperature of your laboratory freezer frequently. Most freezers come with specific spaces for tracking the unit's functioning. And these places serve the best for checking the temperature. Conclusion It would be best if you did not miss out on organizing your laboratory freezer properly to help your staff use the stored items with ease. At the same time, it also helps you operate your freezer in the right ways, prolonging its life.