Do you use an extra fridge or freezer?

[KBecks]

I'm wondering if we should get a 2nd fridge/freezer (probably with a fridge instead of a freezer only but not sure).

Do you have one and are you making use of it? I was going to make this a a poll but I'm really looking for comments.

Thanks

[SnuggleBuggles]

We do but it is more of a wasteland for food we don't use that much in the freezer; food goes down and despite me keeping a list of what's in there I just don't tend to use it. But, the things that are down there won't really go bad. I keep nuts, lentils and other grains in there. The fridge is great for things like soda and beer. I like having a place for the lesser used stuff. The house came with a frdge and we brought our own fridge so that's why we have 2. I am not sure we would have bought a second one simply b/c of how we use it. If I were a freezer cooker/ planner or shopped at a big warehouse store it would be more useful.

Beth

[KBecks]

I am wondering whether a 2nd fridge would be a wasteland or not. I'm thinking of a fridge w/ top freezer because we can keep sodas and food for parties, etc. in there when needed.

I'm not a huge cook ahead person, but I will need to be doing more cooking with 3 kids. :) It will also be nice for when my favorite ice cream is on a good sale, bread, etc. etc.

I just looked at Energy Star fridges and it looks like it would cost about $40/year to operate.

[SnuggleBuggles]

It is great to have for parties so you can prep and store everything. Ds's b-day party and Thanksgiving are the 2 times of year we really like having it. :)

Beth

[JBaxter]

We have a seperate freezer and I love it We buy beef by the 1/2 cow and its MUCH cheeper I also buy things frozen when on sale cheep.

[HIU8]

We have an extra fridge with a freezer on top. Plus, we have an extra deep freeze. We inherited the deep freeze from my parents when they got divorced and split up the stuff in the house. The fridge was here when we bought the house. We got a new one and moved the old one down to the basement. I could not live without the extra fridge and two extra freezers. We are the home that does all the family celebrations so I need the space. Plus, I cook in advance and freeze so I'm not slaving over a hot stove every night.

[tnrnchick74]

I'm currently looking to buy an upright deep freeze. I don't need an extra fridge at this point, but my Mom has one in her garage and its great for keeping drinks cold, pre-planning parties, etc.

I plan on using my deep freeze for breastmilk and stocking up on meats, etc. at the local BJ's wholesale club.

I'm looking at craigslist and cheapcycle for good deals on a used one

[geochick]

Yes to both! We have a large side-by-side in our kitchen. I hate the side-by-side feature. I lose so many things in it. It's so narrow and deep! Grrrrr. Anyway, the freezer space in the kitchen wasn't adequate for all of our Costco purchases, etc, so we bought an upright freezer for the garage. I'm so glad it isn't a chest freezer. My upright garage freezer is easy to organize and find stuff. We are currently having our basement finished. I'm having a full size refrigerator (NOT SIDE BY SIDE) installed in the basement. I now have plenty of freezer space in the garage, but when we have parties and I have large things to store, there's no room in my sbs in the kitchen. So, I vote for both, if you have space. I definitely need both, we entertain a lot!

[sadie427]

We have a 2nd fridge/freezer in the basement we got for free when someone was giving one away. We use it a lot in the summer for parties, and around thanksgiving. When it's empty, we unplug it. We're glad we have it, but probably wouldn't have spent money for it.

[bnme]

Yes, we have an extra fridge/freezer in our garage. I use the fridge mostly for parties/holidays -but it is sooo nice to have it then because I prep alot ahead and when we do have company it tends to be 20+ people. The freezer I use for extras, like ice cream, ice pops, or any larger things. I don't freeze meals or buy meat to freeze really. But it is still useful. We tend to unplug it after DS's b-day party in January and then not use it again till easter (if we have it) or maybe even our first big bbq. I really like having it though.

[Ceepa]

We have an extra refrigerator in our garage. We never use it, though, so it sits unplugged. :(

[pb&j]

Yes - we have one of each! We have a chest freezer in our storage area that was great for storing frozen breastmilk. We buy things like bread, ice cream, and frozen waffles on sale and put them in the freezer. I also will freeze individual meal-sized portions of big things (like lasagna or soup) for later use. I'll also buy a lot of local and/or organic fruits in season (like blueberries and strawberries) and freeze for use in the dead of winter (DH loves to make smoothies). One year I made tons of freezer jam and we ate it all winter long - it was awesome. The only downside is it ruined me on store-bought jam forever.

We also have a kitchenette and mini-fridge in our downstairs rec room. We put beer, sodas, and juice boxes in there.

[emilys_mom]

We have a seperate fridge with freezer on top in the garage. The freezer is always full of meat and make ahead meals. The fridge is only about half full, but we keep all kinds of drinks out there to make room in our indoor fridge.

[ThreeofUs]

We have a basic kitchen fridge (freezer on top), a deep freezer, and two small fridges (bigger than dorm-size). We use the kitchen fridge and deep freezer all the time, so we can buy meats, etc., on sale and store frozen.

We use the small guys only when we have parties or a bunch of food/drink that we want to use slowly. We turn them off other times; otherwise they become mold wastelands.

[egoldber]

We have an extra refrigerator in the garage. It was out old one that we moved from California, but our current house already had one.

I LOVE having the extra room. I stock up on milk when its on sale (I buy the organic, shelf stable kind so its good for several weeks), cheese, etc. I love having cold sodas all the time, but I like not having my upstairs refrigerator space taken up with drinks.

We also eat tons of produce every week and I can kind of stage it. Its a small pain to remember to go downstairs and get things, but I now kind of have myself trained to ask myself whenever I'm in the garage if I need anything before I come upstairs.

I don't think I could shop at Costco if I didn't have the extra refrigerator.

[luvmypeanut]

When we moved in there were two huge Subzero refrigerators and a freezer in the kitchen so we had massive storage space which was great for parties and costco shopping. We've since renovated and I've now got one of each plus 2 refrigerator drawers. I stock the drawers with drinks and yogurt for the kids and it's easier for them to open than the regular fridge doors. I've never been one for freezing dinners and buying then freezing bulk meats so I've never thought to have an extra freezer. My mom has an extra fridge downstairs but she's too lazy to go down there and food spoils because she forgets what's in there.

[elephantmeg]

we have a chest freezer that we love. Big boxes of waffles from costco. EBM, frozen dinners and pizzas live in there. Love it.

[BeachBum]

We have an upright freezer in our garage. I'm glad we have it, but if I was buying again I would probably do a fridge/freezer. Our freezer is never full, but we do buy shrimp in bulk when they are in season, I keep my ice cream bowl in there and some frozen make ahead foods (soups, marinara sauce etc).
We entertain a good bit and that is why I wish I had the extra fridge space. It would be so nice to be able to keep extra beer, waters and sodas cold. Not to mention storing party foods.

[MontrealMum]

We have a chest freezer and I love it. I freeze meals (cooking in bulk, ahead-of-time), and also fruit from the summer, sauces, muffins/desserts and meat/fish when it's on sale. Being able to shop seasonally and in quantity has cut down on our grocery bills and prep time. I'd love it if we had the room, and budget for another fridge, but not at this point. I cook a lot, and at certain times it's definitely a juggling act with the one fridge. My cousins have a fridge in their house, and one more in the garage along with a full-size freezer - but they run a B&B!

[birdie75]

We have a small undercounter fridge built into the bar area of our great room. It has drinks (soda & beer) in it which is great that it doesn't take up space in my normal fridge. We live on a lake an normally have between 2 and 10 extra people around in the weekend in the summer so we are always entertaining.

We also have a chest freezer in the laundry room. My husband is a hunter so this is a must with that much meat plus I also keep extra frozen appetizers in there for when guests come over. I would prefer an upright freezer but DH bought this before I was around.

[Bean606]

Our second fridge, an energystar Whirlpool which I purchased from costco.com, is being delivered on Tuesday for our basement. I can't wait. We have a side-by-side in our kitchen, because that is the only thing that will fit there, and it is horrible - I can never find anything in the freezer, and wide platters and things don't fit in the refrigerator when I am having guests, so I know we will get use out of the basement one. Also, I shop at Costco a lot, and buy several cartons of milk at a time, so I will be able to keep the extras there.

[brittone2]

nak-
we have a regular side by side in the kitchen, a freezer on top fridge in the laundry/mudroom, and a commercial upright freezer (craigslist for $125) in our crawlspace under the house. The upright is a recent addition, and is currently holding a 1/2 of beef (and is verrrry full!)

I find it extremely helpful. I like cooking extra and freezing to simplify meal prep, I like that we don't usually *have* to go to the store (there is usually something we can eat) if we are pressed for time, and I like being able to stock up/buy in bulk when there are good prices.

[Moneypenny]

We have an extra upright freezer that is incredibly useful. I freeze lots of produce from the garden, sauces and meals that I cook extra of, and bread and meats that I stock up on when they are on sale. We don't have or need an extra fridge. We are not soda or juice drinkers so our fridge only has milk, yogurt and fresh produce in it. When visitors come we do run out of room for soda that they drink so we've entertained the idea of getting a small dorm-sized fridge that would only run when we were expecting guests.

[DrSally]

Once the basement is finished, I plan on getting an extra fridge/freezer. We have a bottom freezer and it's nice but a pain to be digging around in there. I'd like to keep bigger boxes of things from costco in there, and meats. The fridge I would use for soda/beer, since we like to have an assortment for when people come over. I hate that cluttering up the fridge. Also, for parties/holidays, it would be great. Costco has a large Whirlpool one for $500

[nellonello]

We have an upright freezer in the garage as well as an additional refrigerator with bottom freezer out there. We mainly keep our drinks in the garage freezer and our frozen desserts in the bottom freezer. Our upright fridge has all of our meats and prepared frozen meals. I honestly don't know what I would do now that I have the 2 in the garage and then our regular one in the kitchen.

[s7714]

We have a extra freezer in the garage. I love having it for things previously mentioned--place to store things like bread and ice cream that I can stock up on when they're on sale. I also try to make up batches of meals ahead of time to freeze for later. (That was a life saver this summer when I broke my foot.)

We tossed around the idea of doing a extra fridge/freezer instead of just a straight freezer, but it didn't seem like we really needed the fridge space except on special occasions (like parties). Not to mention if our fridge gets full, it's usually full of old leftovers that need to be cleaned out--I didn't want a second fridge sitting around to become a catch all excuse for not keeping food moving in and out of our main fridge in a timely manner, if that makes any sense.

[Sillygirl]

We've always had an extra dorm fridge, even in our grotty little apartment in New York. Kimchee is potent stuff. Without the extra fridge, all our milk, etc., would smell funny.

[KrisM]

We have a garage refrigerator: http://tinyurl.com/yvd8lb.

It's a top freezer model. We do a lot of freezer cooking and store most of that out in the garage. We also keep our extra milk, yogurt, all beer, and other surplus stuff out there.

I think I'd lose things in a chest freezer, so this works well for us.

[kijip]

We have a freezer, which for cook ahead meals and food storage I find very helpful. I don't think an extra fridge would be the helpful as large quanities of cooked foods don't keep long in the fridge and for us personally we have a cold storage area for dry goods and we don't buy soda or beer in great quanities (most we would ever have is a 2 liter of ginger ale or 6 bottles of beer at a time).

[KBecks]

I think we are going to get a freezer soon. Today I told Dave I think we should get a freezer and he agreed right away. I'm excited over a freezer, OK, does that make me a really unexciting person?

I think we may also get an extra fridge eventually maybe a smaller size , but later, when we finish the basement and the kids are older. We'll wait and see how all that goes.