I’m thinking about putting a freezer in the basement so I don’t have to go out so much during winter.

Do you have one? Upright or chest type? What do you store in it?

How do you keep track of what’s in it?

We have a 20 cu ft refrigerator in the kitchen; it's the only thing that will fit in the space we have. The freezer on that unit is a not-so-big drawer.

We buy in bulk and freeze a lot of stuff, so a separate freezer is really nice to have.

We started with a 9 cu ft chest freezer many years ago.

Pros: Acquisition and operating costs are reasonable. Keeps food well frozen. You can pack a lot of stuff in.

Cons: The bigger the chest freezer, the more of a pain it is to get to things stored on the bottom. No interior light.

We currently have a 14 cu ft upright freezer that is not self-defrosting. We thought the food would get less freezer burn but not sure that's the case.

Ours has a big drawer at the bottom and three shelves. Shelves in the door. We put a couple of large storage baskets on two of the shelves, which basically gives us more "drawers" to help organize items. Has an interior light.

Pros: Much easier to get to everything.

Cons: Probably less efficient but it's down in the basement and it doesn't get opened/closed as often.
Defrosting is a pain. Will go self-defrosting next time.

We buy Costco-sized packages of chicken, cut apart the individual sealed packages and freeze them.

I pick a ton of currants this time of year, wash them, bag them, and freeze them for later use.

Frozen pizzas (we just discovered Connie's, which is the best frozen pizza we've had).

Other frozen goodies from TJ's and Costco. Ice cream (at least I burn some calories to retrieve it).

Oh, and we have a bunch of those blue gel packs that you use to ice down injuries. As we've gotten older and clumsier, having those at the ready is nice.

As for keeping track....Mr wtg has the inventory in his head....

Looks like food will keep longer in a freezer with manual defrost, but defrosting one does sound like a PITA.

Probably best to get a self defroster and rotate the stock regularly? They use a bit more power, but not a whole lot more.

We have to defrost the upright two or three times a year, and even then we get major frost build-up, including inside the door seals. We figured that out when we saw water running on the floor out of the bottom corners of the door as that ice thawed.

I don't remember defrosting the chest units, and I don't think they were self-defrosting.

Mr wtg has a protocol that involves Igloo ice chests, hair dryers, and towels for the defrosting ritual. It is a total PITA.

To be honest, I think self-defrosting is the way to go. Or I guess you could do a small chest freezer and a small upright and get the best of both worlds.

We have a large (25 cubic foot, if I remember correctly) chest freezer that we have had for many years. It is a manual defrost and typically needs defrosted about twice a year. Defrosting is not too difficult as there is a defrost cycle that circulates warm refrigerant through the coils behind the walls of the freezer. It also has a light in the lid and a lock (that we don't presently use) that primarily can serve to keep a curious child from falling into the freezer and not escaping. When our children were young, we did use the lock and left the key hanging on an out-of-sight hook near the freezer.

The defrost cycle loosens the ice and most of it can be removed in big chunks or sheets with occasional aid from a plastic scraper. Having previously removed the two layers of suspended baskets and everything on the bottom floor of the freezer, the ice can be pulled off and any pieces that fall to the bottom gathered up with a plastic dust pan. There is a drain plug in the bottom that can be removed and that would let any water drain to the exterior, but I don't normally remove it because taking the ice out in chunks doesn't permit much water to form.

The freezer is in a laundry room on the lower level of the house so it's easy to toss the ice into the laundry tub where it melts and goes down the drain. After wiping the floor and walls dry of any remaining moisture, the food is returned to the freezer. Sometimes, I put some of the food going on the bottom in boxes or bags to segregate it by categories or just line it up by categories. The baskets tend to be sorted by categories as well and they are removed and replaced with their contents in place during defrosting.

The freezer typically has a lot of meat in it. We buy a lot of meat in bulk from relatives in Ohio, direct from my nephew that now farms the farm where I grew up, some 4-H animals bought at the county fair, and meat from a slaughterhouse/meat market that some other relatives own and operate. We'll usually buy a whole lamb, a half hog, or a quarter beef (sharing the portions for partial animals with someone else) along with additional ground beef, ham loaf, smoked meats and such. In addition, bulk items from Costco like chicken, fish, shrimp, and butter go in the freezer.

We freeze some garden vegetables and food like frozen pizzas and vegetables bought when they are on sale at the supermarket. In addition, portions of some things like soup and chili that we cook in bulk get frozen for later consumption.

The only real worry I have (aside from the freezer ultimately failing) is a long term power outage. We had one that lasted two days quite a few years ago when a tornado destroyed power lines in our area. I bought dry ice and put it in the freezer to keep it cold. That's not an issue for outages of a few hours or less. Of course, a portable or permanent emergency generator could also eliminate that worry.

I think a freezer is a great convenience and doesn't cost a great deal to run.

Big Al

We do not have one though have considered it. My parents have a giant chest style and while it was convenient for having things on hand and storing frozen convenience foods, things tended to go to the bottom to be forgotten. We already are pretty bad about forgetting about things in the freezer so I fear for us it would make the problem worse. However, we buy our dog food frozen and it would be great to have the extra space! We don’t eat a tonne of meat and are excellent meal planners, shopping once weekly and then sticking to the plan. Growing up my family was more the “what’s for dinner tonight” type, so having lots of choices on hand was great.

Clearly I’m no help!