The Creek Line House

easy-peasy farmhouse decorating and homekeeping

Coin in the Freezer Trick

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The coin in the freezer trick is something that everyone should know about. Great for when you travel or when there’s a power outage! So simple, but so incredibly useful!

The coin in the freezer trick that helps you out when there's a power outage! This coin in the freezer trick is definitely one of those ones that made me go “Yes! So smart! Why don’t we all do this?” I have to admit that I’m a little bit of a food safety geek from all of the training I had when I ran the coffee shop back in the day, but this is still super handy for everyone to know about. Seriously, food safety is so fascinating. I know you don’t believe me, but it totally is. 🙂

How the Coin in the Freezer Trick Works

So here’s the trick:

Take a small container, fill it with water, and place it in your freezer until it’s frozen solid. Next, stick a quarter (or any coin, really) on the surface of the ice and put it back into the freezer.

The coin in the freezer trick that helps you out when there's a power outage!

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Let me explain: If you’re ever away on vacation or (unfortunately) evacuated from your home for some kind of emergency and you come home to see signs that the power has been out, that little coin just may save you a lot of stress and illness. It could also provide you with a lot of peace of mind. Of course, whenever the power goes out for an extended period of time, we all worry about the food in our freezers staying frozen. This is especially true if you always like to keep a well-stocked freezer like we do. That’s a lot of food that could go to waste!

It Makes So Much Sense!

Whenever you think you’ve lost power in your home or even if you’re not totally sure and you just want to double check, go to your kitchen and look at the coin in the freezer! If you find the coin still sitting on top of the ice, then the power came back on soon enough. Everything stayed and frozen. When you see that the coin has fallen to the bottom of the container, you know that the power was out for quite awhile and most of your food probably defrosted. If you see this, get rid of all the food in your freezer and start fresh.

The coin the freezer trick can really save you a lot of worry and uncertainty and I just love that. If you’re reading this, I hope you run to your freezer right away to try this out, just to give yourself a little bit of extra peace of mind the next time you’re away from your home. I know I ran straight to my freezer when I heard about this!

More Travel Tips: Travel Essentials and Tips

The coin in the freezer trick that helps you out when there's a power outage!

I hope you found this tip helpful!

Definitely be sure to pin this one on Pinterest if you can’t get it done right away and share it with your friends and family on Facebook too using the buttons at the top of the page so we can all have nice, safe freezers! 🙂

The coin in the freezer trick that helps you out when there's a power outage!

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Comments

  1. What a great tip! We take many road trips in our RV and this will give us peace of mind when we return home. Thank you.

    Reply

  2. What a neat trick!! We have had power outages in the past & now I know what to do when we are not at home, which is not very often, but gives me peace of mind. Thank you for sharing!!

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  3. Hi there! How useful is this post? Well you can be sure I’ll be doing this today! My freezers are stuffed and I really need to organize them anyway! You have really great posts that I’m enjoying. I look forward to reading your new cleaning book! Thanks!

    Reply

  4. Thanks for the tip, i never thought about it but i am gonna try that tip because we never know when our power is going to go out because we live in Michigan!

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    • So glad you liked this one, Judy! We’re just across the border from you in Canada, so I know how crazy your weather can be over there!

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    • Mine was just a little square container that holds maybe 1 cup of liquid if you fill it right to the top. You want enough liquid that you would definitely be able to tell if the water melted and allowed the coin to sink to the bottom, but it doesn’t need to be huge. A cup-ish seems to be about the right amount! 🙂

      Reply

  6. Hi Courtney, Thank you for such a useful tip, this could save a lot of people from getting sick ! I also read your tip on carpet cleaning with an iron, of all things ! And your tip to get all that glue off of jars from the labels ! They’re all brilliant !! I can’t tell you how many times i have had bloody knuckles from scrubbing the stains on my carpets over the years and yes, they all looked great…….until they dried and those pesky stains came right back. I can’t wait to try this tip, and as soon as i make coffee in the morning i will put a quarter in the freezer (. Thanks for some of the best sounding tips I’ve heard in along time, i can’t wait to try all !

    Reply

    • Hi Diena! Thanks so much for your kind words! I’m so glad you like the tips. I always try to come up with interesting tips that we haven’t all heard a million times before so I’m glad to know I’ve been at least a little bit successful with that! 🙂

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  7. I am 64, have an upright in outside building, it’s old ( like me) and acts hinky at times. Headed out there to implement this tip as soon as post this comment. This will give me such ease of mind. Just proves We are never, ever too old to learn. I store my single serving portions of soups, stews, & other leftovers for quick meals since I live alone. I’m excited.

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  8. Thanks for the great tip! Can u help’ with a problem
    I have a beautiful hand made quilt that I found a size
    Of a half dollar of dried blood on it and has been there for
    Several months. The quilt has to be dried cleaned but I want to
    Get that blood off of it first. Can u try and help me please and
    Thank u

    Reply

    • First, I would rinse the stain with cool water from the backside of the quilt. This will kind of help to “push” the stain out the direction it came rather than forcing it deeper into the fibers. Next, get a big bowl of cool water and add one tablespoon of salt. Let the stained section of the quilt soak in that overnight. Hopefully that will help to loosen it. If it’s still visible in the morning, get a clean white cloth and blot the stain to try to gently lift it out of the fabric. You could also use hydrogen peroxide, but that might be a bit of a risk on such a precious quilt. It’s always best to start with the gentlest method first whenever possible! Hope this helps! Good luck!

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  9. Freezing a bag of ice cubes is another method of determining if your power was out for too long while you were gone. If the ice cubes melted completely and then refroze, they’d be one solid mass of ice – a sure sign of uh oh for the food in that freezer…

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  11. This is a great idea but I use an ice cube in a plastic cup. Place a couple of ice cubes in a plastic cup. If the power goes out for any length of time the ice cube will melt. You will see that the ice cube has melted and the water frozen.

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  12. This is excellent, and I’m about to go raid my coins to do this for our freezers (I cook lots of leftovers because hubby is in the fire brigade and you never know when it will be a late night dinner, or a dinner for one with his calls).
    Random question, what if the power goes out and you arrive home to find your coin is now frozen somewhere in the middle of the container, not quite top, but also not quite bottom…? Safer to throw out still, or play it on an individual basis depending on the food?

    Reply

    • It’s probably more of a case-by-case type of situation for partially melted stuff, BUT that being said, The way the ice melts, it would probably melt from all sides and if there was a little chunk of ice left in the container it would float and your coin would still be on top. If this happens and then everything re-freezes, your food would never really have gotten warm enough to become unsafe. The danger is when food gets to be above 40 degrees F and stays at that temperature for more than 2 hours. That’s when bad things start to grow. You would maybe notice quality issues for certain finicky items, but everything should still be mostly fine in a partially-melted-and-then-refrozen situation. It’s really only if everything has time to melt completely that you would need to be really concerned. That being said, if you feel like your case is different for some reason and you have any concerns about the safety of your food, you’re definitely better off safe than sorry and you should get rid of the food! Hope this helps and makes sense! 🙂

      Reply

  13. Another neat thing to do with a coin, and prevent the endless and annoying scrabbling when trying to find the end of any kind of sticky tape roll (sellotape, Duct tape, electrical tape etc) , it to stick a small coin on the end, roughly halfway up the coin. Does that make sense? It has saved me (I have a visual handicap) hours of frustration.

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  14. Good tip. I’ve always put an ice-cube tray (filled of course), upside down. That way, if the ice has melted, again you could tell. Like your idea too.

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  15. THAT WAS A GREAT IDEA WITH THE COIN. I HAD THAT HAPPEN BEFORE AND IT IS HEART BREAKING WHEN YOU LOOSE A WHOLE FREEZER OF FOOD AND NOT TO MENTION A LOT OF MONEY THREW OUT THE DOOR. MY BROTHER HAD THAT HAPPEN. HE WENT TO CANADA ON A HUNTING TRIP. FINALLY GOT HIS BEAR KEPT IT FROZE ALL THE WAY BACK. PUT IT IN A FLOOR TYPE FREEZER OUT IN HIS GARAGE. HE WAS GOING TO HAVE A BEAR SKIN RUG MADE OUT OF IT. WELL LOW AND BEHOLD ONE OF HIS EMPLOYEES UNPLUGGED IT TO USE THE OUTLET AND FORGOT TO PLUG IT BACK IN. HE DIDN’T KNOW IT TELL HE WENT AND OPENED IT AN OH MY GOSH. THAT COULD HAVE REALLY HELPED HIM IF IT HAD ONLY BEEN A COUPLE OF DAY. IT WAS ABOUT $4000. MISTAKE AND THEN SOME.
    WELL THANKS FOR A GREAT IDEA I AM GOING TO TRY IT. HAVE A GOOD EVENING.

    Reply

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