Regular size fridges without freezers?

[2squared]

Does anyone have a regular sized refrigerator without a freezer?  We are buying a new refrigerator, and I am intrigued  by the idea of buying one without a freezer.  We currently have a small regular fridge, a deep freezer, and an extra fridge.  Our "new" house doesn't have room for a bigger kitchen fridge (which is normal size to most people), and I wondering if we could get buy with only one fridge if we had a unit without a freezer.  We rarely use the little freezer in our current fridge.

 

Any thoughts?  Anyone done this?

[Amy in NH]

Yes.  Our house didn't have any kitchen appliances when we bought it, so we got a full size freezerless-refrigerator (Whirlpool Sidekicks) and a small chest freezer, and then saved up for the matching freezer.  They have a rounded profile on top that makes them fit together as a matched set.  I love them!  I always have room for what I need to put into them.

[milovany]

Same! We have a full size freezerless fridge and full size freezer right in our kitchen (freezer tucked out of the way). Love it -- so much space. Wouldn't do it any other way if given the choice.

[Shamzanne]

We do! I live in a household with eight adults and one child. We have a full size regular fridge in the kitchen, and a full size fridge with no freezer along with a full size chest freezer in the carport. If I only had room for one inside, I would hesitate to select one without a freezer, just for the convenience of accessing ice and smoothie ingredients quickly. But as a second fridge, I love having the extra space!

[2squared]

Now I'm even more intrigued.  The families who do are larger like ours, which is why we're feeling the pinch with our regular "small" fridge.  I use the little freezer more as an organizational tool b/c it doesn't hold the quantity or size of things we use.  We rarely use ice and we never make smoothies, but our current freezer isn't setup to make ice either.  The only negative is that if we did this, our freezer would be in the basement until we could remodel.

[LaCEmom]

Maybe put a piece of tape over your small freezer now and see if you'd miss having it close. Could you get by with only accessing it once a day?

 

We have some friends with a large family and a freezerless fridge and the setup works great for them, but their stand alone freezer isn't far away. Not sure how they'd feel about it if it was.

 

I access my small freezer for ice, frozen fruit, staples that I notice we're running low on (we freeze bread, sandwich meat, etc.) Homemade snacks and breakfasts that I freeze in bulk and periodically transfer from the chest freezer to the small one, and then about a week's worth of meat that I'll pull out as needed to thaw. Personally I couldn't handle having my freezer far away because I access it several times a day, but I'm sure for others it wouldn't be as big of a deal. I think it'd just depend on what you eat and how you manage meal planning.

[2squared]

Maybe put a piece of tape over your small freezer now and see if you'd miss having it close. Could you get by with only accessing it once a day?

 

Great idea!  Too bad we're living in a hotel until our stuff arrives at our new house.

 

I'm working FT, and we are hoping/planning on dh finding PT work within the year.  I am guessing his daily habits won't have him in the freezer much during the day since he doesn't cook nearly as much as I did and the older four are in school.

 

Our chest freezer and extra fridge were out in our garage (not attached), and that wasn't a huge inconvenience.  Maybe it's all in what habits we develop.

[City Mouse]

We have a fridge with no freezer and a separate freezer for a different reason. The part of our house where the kitchen is located is 100+ year old log cabin. The doors are very narrow compared to today's doorways. Most modern refrigerators will not fit through the door. For that reason, the previous owner did OT have his refrigerator in the kitchen, but I did want one in the room.

We now have a refrigerator without a freezer in the kitchen and an upright freezer in the laundry room.

[Vida Winter]

We made the switch recently. Our old refrigerator/freezer leaked water from the icemaker connection and damaged a part of the wood floor and ceiling below, so I was happy to get rid of it. The old one also froze refrigerated things if they were placed too far back. Everyone loves the fridge-only model.

[milovany]

We lived with our full size freezer out in the workshop (outbuilding) for a year or 18 mos. before I got creative and made room for it in he far end of our kitchen. Kind of a pain (especially in winter), but doable.

 

We like the big fridge because we do a lot with gallon or half gallon jars. Daughter milks goats so there's usually 4-5 half gallon jars in there, often there's feta aging in brine in a gallon jar, we make yogurt so there are jars for that, etc. It's nice to have room for it all.

[Amy in NH]

We buy milk in glass half-gallons straight from the dairy farm.  I easily fit 12 glass bottles in there and still have room for everything else.