We stopped using our bar fridge-sized freezer because it wasn’t frost free & it become a PITA. When Ben’s grandad moved into a retirement home we were given a fridge/freezer.
Throughout summer we’ve been running this fridge/freezer & our large all-fridge. But we’re not using the all-fridge often enough to justify it so we’ve turned it off & are putting it into storage.
Whitegoods Conundrum
The freezer part of the fridge freezer is great. Despite the fact it’s only two shelves it feels bigger than our old four drawer freezer, which is kind of illogical. But I guess that’s the good part about frost free – the frost doesn’t take up space.
But the fridge…ahh now that everything is in there it feels SMALL. We keep a lot of things on hand that we don’t use up – sauces and the like.
Right now we’re nearly at the end of our fortnightly grocery shopping cycle and the fridge/freezer is full just with what’s left:
So I don’t really know what we’ll do when it’s time to grocery shop for things that need to go in the fridge.
Ideally what I want is one all-fridge (which we have) and one all-freezer (frost free). But our rental is small and it just doesn’t fit anything but small, basic appliances.
Also, while there’s nothing too wrong with our all-fridge, what I don’t like is that the shelves are wire racks & not glass (spill proof) shelves. I also think the veggie crisper section is too small for an all-fridge & that is kind of ridiculous. At least for the quantity of veggies we buy.
We actually haven’t made up our minds about selling or keeping the all fridge & small all freezer. It seem silly to keep white goods you aren’t using, but I’m still not sold on the size of the fridge-freezer we were given; I think it will be too small.
The freezer as it stands really only holds a fortnight of groceries. Which is ok, but it doesn’t really allow me much flexibility to pre-cook & store meals like I prefer to. The fridge seems too small to hold leftovers and veggies and two loaves of bread.
I guess we could sell all three and get a slightly bigger fridge freezer, possibly. If it would fit in the kitchen!
Tell me about your household & what fridges & freezers you use. Should I buy a second hand frost-free freezer to keep in the garage for bulk buying? Would that be a good solution?
I have a small fridge freezer. It’s really not big enough and I find myself limited with what I can buy because of the room available. I freeze left overs in resealable sandwich bags because it means I can flatten them out to take up less room. I do the same when Paul and I do a bulk meat shop (we split it in half). I do wish that I had a bigger freezer, but I don’t have the room for it. I did have a bar fridge at one stage which really helped store the condiments, alcohol etc, so there was more room in the main fridge. A friend has one of those side by side full size fridge freezer and honestly there doesn’t seem to be that much more room in it than one like yours.
I’ve started using the ziplock bags for anything in the freezer just because you can squish things flat. It does help with the space but it’s also a bit annoying when I want to take a frozen meal to work because zip locks aren’t as good for commuting with. I’ve seen some side by side ones that don’t look like they hold a lot either.
When I had a tiny fridge for three of us, I removed my crisper drawer and replaced it with Tupperware fridge containers and used the rest of the space with beer and other bottles. That small change made a big difference to space.
Oh that’s not a bad idea. I probably should have done that with the all-fridge. The crisper seems to be working well enough for now in the fridge/freezer.