Good points from QuickSilver and Capone
We just started feeding our boy 2x daily and got away from "free" feeding. It will get him on a schedule and hopefully make things easier on you.
Don't think that he'll starve, he won't, he'll pick up on that one quick
We keep ours in the crate from 830-530, hubby come home for lunch every day for an hour and he gets out and plays, and does his business.
He actually LOVES his crate, when we go out on the weekend for a few hours or so, we leave him out only to come back and find him inside the crate, HA
Good luck to you.