Freezer question

[rhiOrion]

Dh and I just bought our first house yesterday, and seeing as how we have a baby on the way, we want to get a decent freezer. The fridge/freezer in the house is a side-by-side, so wide items wouldn't fit in it anyhow.

I had really wanted an upright freezer, because I know I'll lose things in the bottom of a deep freezer (I'm such a disorganized person). But they're way more expensive, and the reviews aren't as good.

So, what tricks do you employ to not lose food in the bottom of your deep freezer? I imagine that properly marking and dating is important. Maybe attach a sharpie to the side of it? But how about finding the stuff in general? Like, I could see myself putting a lasagna in there, and only finding it a year later when I randomly do a clean-out, and by then it's all freezer burned.

And how about smaller items, do you have baskets in your deep freezer? I know a few of the ones we've found have a couple of baskets, but the smaller freezers we saw didn't. And we shouldn't need a big freezer at all, it's only the two of us and one baby-to-be.

Anybody have a recommendation of a deep freezer or things to look out for? We want something pretty cheap. Should I just look on craigslist for an upright? Or do they really not work that well?

TIA!

[sellendie]

We have a small deep freezer, 7.something cu. ft. and the benefit is great in that you do not lose the temp when you open it because cold air sinks, so it does not have to recover as much and keeps a consistent temperature. We use labeled cloth bags to separate different kinds of small items. They are easy to life and move around to get to the stuff underneath.

[mamadelbosque]

Hi there, we have 3 (yes 3!!) freezers... two chests and one upright. My favorite freezer is the big chest, I think its something like 15 cu. I love it because it has built-in dividers and I know (more or less that chicken is in this section, deer in that one, frozen fruit in that one, seafood over there, etc. It also has two big baskets that slide back and forth for random smaller stuff.

Our upright is actually my least favorite - because it has shelves, I can't just drop stuff in it - unless stuff is stacked just right in slides out. I did find a couple big baskets that fit juts perfect on the top shelf that are full of beans/peas/broccoli and pepppers, and that works out fairly well (as does stuff thats in boxes that can be stacked), but just putting bags of frozen stuff in it is a real PITA. Honestly, I can probably get nearly as much food in the little chest as I can in the upright (I think the upright is ~11 or 12 cu), just because its so much harder to really pack full..

Our smaller chest freezer (I think its in the 7cu foot range?), was originally filled with nothing but raw milk & butter this year, though it now has bread & goat as well. It can be a PITA to find stuff in as there aren't any deviders, though it does have a couple of baskets which are nice for smaller stuff (though, tbh, they are actually the baskets that fit just perfecti n the upright and so are in there atm.

Honestly, my advice is to get as big of a freezer as you have space for and can afford. Its *way* easier to fill up a freezer than you realize. Trust me!!

[luv-my-boys]

I absolutely HATED our chest freezer and now have an upright. Im a very organized person (little ocd i think) and I was constantly "losing" things in it. Plus I found it really hard to get things that were on the bottom I felt like I was literally diving halfway into them. Let alone when I was pg, DH had to get everything out for me

Love my upright. It dosent hold as much but it is more organized. It has shelved and a basket on the bottome where I store bagged things like fruits/veggies and the like. I have a shelf designated for certain things. Like a shelf for poultry/pork, another for beef/sausages. I label everything with a date, quantity. For instance the bags will read "thin pork chops 4" 1/1/10" so I know what I have because frankly when its frozen somethimes its hard to tell what it is let alone how many in each bag.

I would suggest getting the biggest one you can afford either way because its very easy to fill a freezer. We are actually looking into getting another one. We bought our upright 2nd hand and it is a dream. Retail would have been at least $1000 but we got it for $200.

I always see freezers on craigslist and such often.

[tanyalynn]

I agree with getting a larger one than you think you need. I love our upright, it's the same size as a medium sized refrigerator.

My parents had a chest-style. When I was young, they worried I could open it and fall inside and suffocate. They kept it locked with the key up high for years--very effective, just takes a bit of extra work. They had problems for a while with losing stuff at the bottom. Eventually they wrote up an inventory, maybe they put it on top of the freezer? Hard to remember that part, but they wrote down everything as it went in and out of the freezer--buy meat to freeze, it gets a line item, take out a beef roast for dinner, cross it off the list. Baskets help too, but it was a later freezer at a different house that had those.

Buying used from craigslist, or from a scratch-and-dent store could save quite a bit. If you want new, figure out what you want and then call around to appliance distribution stores--we got a new frig from a distributor for quite a bit less than I could find anywhere else. I just went through the phone book.

[rhiOrion]

Ooooh, thanks for the tip to buy bigger than we need! I wouldn't have done that... I was going to get the tiniest one available!

[hjrowan]

One thing you may also want to consider alomg with the new freezer is a FoodSaver vacuum packing machine if you are going to do a lot of meat/fruit and veg freezing. I bought one last year and have been quite impressed by how much it has reduced freezer burn on fish/meat/fruit.

Happy shopping!

[Teetina]

My parents had a large chest freezer and they used stacked milk crates inside to organize things and make it easy to get to the bottom without having to dig all the way there.

I think the chest style costs less to operate and keeps the temperature more stable when the door is opened since the cold air can't escape as easily.

[JessicaS]

I have a deep freeze, I do end up digging around in it now and then but it isn't too bad.

I also have a vacuum food saver thing

[CeciMami]

I third the suggestion to buy the Food Saver thing...it's totally made a difference in freezer burn happenings for me!

I'm a big fan of the upright freezer because it's way easier to keep organized (with baskets and the like which act as "drawers" on each shelf...so much easier for my pregnant self to deal with than bending over and fishing stuff out of a chest freezer!

That being said, if you're going to get a chest freezer, I agree with a PP who mentioned getting one big enough to fit milk crates into. That way you can still be organized, put like items in one crate, etc, but you'll never have to lift more than a crates worth to get to the stuff on the bottom. And when you inevitably dig around, like stuff stays with like in it's crate...happily organized!

[Ammaarah]

Originally Posted by rhiOrion

Ooooh, thanks for the tip to buy bigger than we need! I wouldn't have done that... I was going to get the tiniest one available!

I might be the lone dissenter but I'm VERY happy we have a small chest freezer. I know myself, and I don't want a huge one full of freezerburned stuff (not saying other posters on here have that but I would be the one to overbuy and underuse.) Ours is 5.2 cu ft and perfect for our needs. I can get about six weeks' worth of marinated meats in there, plus some frozen veggies and fruit, freezer jams and a few treats. However, do go larger if you are interested in buying a ton of meat (like a quarter cow or whatever.)

[Ola_]

I would totally spend the extra and get an upright freezer. I love mine, it is super easy to organize. I'm a semi-organized person and I would totally lose stuff in a chest freezer. In my upright I have different shelves designated for different stuff, which makes it easy to put stuff in, easy to get stuff out, and easy to see at a glance what we're running low on or what we need to use up. I cannot say enough good things about it.

[425lisamarie]

I have the biggest upright freezer I could get. It's 27 cubic and it's pretty easy to fill up. I have it very organized and it has two big basket drawers one in the middle one on the bottom. I like that I can keep it full, while still having enough space to move things around and have good air flow and not lose things.

Also I have rubbermaid commercial freezer safe HUGE containers that I use to help organize things.