Freezers

[OnTheBrink]

Ok, I've decided to get one. But, how large of one do I need? Right now, I have an 18 cf. bottom freezer/refrigerator, and it holds a lot. I was thinking of letting ds have that freezer for his frozen pizzas, etc, that he buys (and I don't) and for bags of ice; then getting a chest freezer for stocking up and for the foods dd and I eat.

 

So, to store about 4 months of food (to get us through to February) for one adult and one child, plus a bit extra for helping others, how large a freezer should I get?

[H.S. Burrow]

When we purchased our freezer just after DD (who will be 14 this month) was born, we bought the largest frost-free Kenmore had out at that time...21.4 cubic feet.

 

Our family of 4 is currently looking for another upright freezer as it only takes one trip to the store to fill it and we cannot really use it for long term (6 months) storage.

 

Our freezer paid for itself within the first year we had it.

 

HTH!

[cougarmom4]

We bought a freezer not too long ago, and went with the smallest because we didn't think we'd need to put too much in it. Well...now that I've started doing Once a Month Cooking (which is SO awesome btw), our freezer is way too small. So if I could do it all over again, I'd go bigger for sure.

[love2read]

When we purchased ours, I was told that 1 cu foot holds about 30 pounds of meat. We buy a lot of flash frozen chicken pieces and that doesn't pack as tightly. It seems that I can get about 20 pounds of frozen chicken pieces take up 1 cu foot.

 

Call around for prices and what's in stock. We bought a back up freezer last week and paid $229 (or there abouts) for a 12 Cu ft. freezer from SAMs Club. That was the lowest price I could find. At a few other places they told me the smaller ones were selling like hot cakes, so don't ponder this for too long. The 12 Cu ft holds a lot of meat, enough to last our family 3 or 4 months, but we use meat more to season food (e.g., bean dishes). Together we only eat about a pound of meat a day.

Edited October 3, 2008 by love2read

[OnTheBrink]

I'm planning on getting this done in the next week. I need to clear a place in the basement for it, and then clear out the hall closet for non-perishable foods. So, it won't be all done today! LOL

 

Sam's seems to have good prices on freezers; I'll most likely get one there.

[Tammyla]

We have a small chest freezer upstairs in our laundry room. The space combined with our kitchen freezer is plenty for the four of us. However, I'd go for bigger and put it in the basement if I had to choose again. I'm toying with the idea of freezing more things and would need another freezer or a bigger one to accomplish it.

 

On the plus side, the freezer top makes a good laundry folding table. :001_smile:

[Cherrie]

I have a large upright in my kitchen and an even larger old chest freezer in the basement. I much prefer the upright, because it is much easier to organize and finding things is so quick. I make a lot of vacuum packed ready foods for when I don't have time to cook a meal and put them in the upright. Large boxes of meat, bread, juice we put in the chest freezer.

 

On the down side every year when I defrost the chest freezer I find lots of things I forgot we had, and it has to be thrown out. My plan is to get another large upright freezer to replace the chest freezer, we are a family of 4.

 

As for what size I would purchase the largest upright freezer you can afford, you won't regret it.

 

Cheryl

[Annie G]

Another vote for an upright. Mine doesn't store as much as a similar size chest freezer but it is SO convenient and the kids have always been able to put things in and get things out for me. We freeze summer veggies for the year and that takes up lots of space. I also freeze things like extra bread flour, large bags of rice, ice cream bought on sale, and products I buy from Market Day. That kind of stuff takes a lot of space and for me it'd be a nightmare having it stacked on top of each other.