Anyone have more than one stand-alone freezer?

[quelindo]

Would it be crazy to buy a second stand-alone freezer? We currently have the usual fridge-top freezer in our kitchen and one (ten-year old) upright freezer in our basement. I'm considering getting a second stand-alone freezer, this time a chest freezer, and putting it in our kitchen.

Do I just need to organize better? Or is this a good idea? Right now our freezers contain a lot of on-sale meat, vegetables, fruit, pre-cooked beans, leftovers, etc. I would buy more breakfast sausage, hot dogs and other things if we had more room (I belong to a buying club so it would all be things I bought at the best possible price).

I'm finding that going to the store a lot less often has been helpful with cutting our grocery bill, but I realize our electric bill would go up a lot if we did this, too.

Sorry, I'm rambling...

[Kristine233]

yes, lol. We have 1 side by side fridge /freezer upstairs in our kitchen, 1 top and bottom freezer/fridge in our basement (that doesnt work all that great) a small chest freezer in our kitchen and a upright freezer in our kitchen. We have a huge kitchen though, lol. Our second standalone freezer we bought a couple months ago after deer hunting season. The small standlone freezer is all filled with deer meat and the other freezers are filled with bread, veggies and other meats. Our electric bill did not go up noticably. We bought the 2nd standalone freezer because I'm a sucker for sales. I buy tons fo stuff when I find it on sale and freeze it. Saves us TONS of money.

[Alyantavid]

I would.

Right now we have a big chest freezer and 2 refrigerators with freezers. And they're all full. I love having my freezers full of food I bought (or grew) at great prices.

[Denvergirlie]

So we have the standard refrig/ freezer combo, we also have a good medium sized chest freezer, as well as a mini upright freezer (think of an office/ dorm room frig).
We are now on a quest to buy another freezer as well. I think we might get rid of the half mini freezer and just get another larger freezer, but we haven't really spent any time thinking on all this.
We have a 1/4 cow coming soon, we don't have any space for it, all my freezers are packed full.

So no, I don't think it's too crazy of an idea, but you'll have to keep my personal background in mind.

[luv-my-boys]

well we are in the market for a 2nd freezer. We have the room, space wise. I want to be able to stock up more sale items and since we are buying a side of beef I need room to store it. I figuire I would use one freezer for meats and the other for well others. I freeze a lot like breads I make, veggies/fruits, prepared casseroles and what not.

[StormySar]

I have two large chest freezers, for a family of 6 soon to be 7. My husband hunts, I grow a lot of food, and I cook in bulk a lot, we buy our meat in bulk, etc. so it has been great to have all the space we need. I find we can fit much more in a chest freezer than a stand up one, but it's hard to gt to stuff sometimes. Doesn't bother me, but something to think about. They're most efficient when half or more full, and ours stay that way year-round as we rotate food and I cook and freeze more meals. We've been talking about adding a fridge to our basement so we can stock more milk and store leftovers more efficiently but I just don't think the excess use of energy is really worth it, especially considering the food I sometimes forget about in our one fridge!

[MJ13]

We have a stand alone freezer and then a stand alone fridge/freezer both in the basement and then a fridge/freezer in the kitchen. We had a chest freezer and I sold it and bought the upright because I couldn't find a way to organize my chest freezer and always had to dig for what I wanted.

One is full of frozen fruit from my parents orchards and berry patches and the other holds the 1/2 cow we bought this summer and other frozen meat. I have no idea what we would do without all that space so if you are already thinking you would use it...I'm sure you would!

[Ola_]

I think it's good to keep in mind that foods do start to deteriorate in texture when they've been frozen for a long time, even though it seems like they'll keep forever. Especially in modern freezers which I've been told do little freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw-etc. cycles (to reduce frost buildup or some such?).

Though it depends on the size of your freezer. Ours is quite big (upright) and in the past I've bought meat in bulk, portioned it out, and stored about 180 lbs? in there. And it wasn't even empty at that point. So I would say that organizing definitely helps!

[Norasmomma]

We do-we have a small one in the house and a big one in the shed. We live far from town, are often low on funds and so for us it is great. I am a big stockpiler, I went to Safeway last week just because ground turkey was on a smokin sale. That may not be a big deal for some, but for me SW is 45 minutes away. I freeze a ton of food, buy meat on sale and make my own make ahead meals.

No I don't think it's crazy. I almost wish I had another fridge at times. You'd think I have a big family, but no I just don't like going to the store more than I have to.

[velochic]

If I said it was crazy, I'd be a hypocrite! We do... we have 2 stand alone freezers, that equal almost 35 cu. ft. of freezer space, the freezer in our fridge, and a small freezer as part of a smaller fridge. We also have 10 cu. ft. of freezer space at the meat processing plant that cuts our meat. We buy a side of beef each year, a whole lamb, whole chickens, turkeys, hams and side of pork. Then we have lots of other things such as homemade sauces, vegetables, butter, feed-the-freezer meals, ice cream... etc., etc. I'm a stockpiler, so I also cover-my-butt by having a generator that would run all of these if the power went out and canning jars to can all the meat if I needed to. That would be my biggest concern... if you are going to expand your freezer space, have a backup plan.

[littleplum]

Originally Posted by Ola_

I think it's good to keep in mind that foods do start to deteriorate in texture when they've been frozen for a long time, even though it seems like they'll keep forever. Especially in modern freezers which I've been told do little freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw-etc. cycles (to reduce frost buildup or some such?).

Though it depends on the size of your freezer. Ours is quite big (upright) and in the past I've bought meat in bulk, portioned it out, and stored about 180 lbs? in there. And it wasn't even empty at that point. So I would say that organizing definitely helps!

Only the automatic defrosting units run a thaw cycle.

I have one that's about 15 cubic feet, and I have plenty of room for our family's food. 180 pounds of beef barely fills half. I would suggest using baskets to organize items. The plastic crates from places like Office Depot are ideal for that.