An upright freezer was not something I honestly thought of when I first purchased my chest freezer 5 years ago. Why?, because I just didn't think it would be as beneficial as a spacious chest freezer. I had remembered my mum having one when I was in my late teens, but just remembered a lot of drawers with frozen meat in them lol lol lol. The thing is, I just didn't realise HOW I could use it, HOW I could best take advantage of the space available and HOW I could make it function for ME. I wanted to be sure I could utilize it as best I possibly could. In today's video I'm going to show you how I have started to set up my new upright freezer and how I will be working it in the future.
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How I Chose The Right Size
Choosing a size that works best for you can be hard without visually seeing it and imagining what you will do with the space. For me, I was ordering online so all I had to go by was comparison to my chest freezer. I knew my chest freezer was 200 litres and this one was said to be 172 litres. It's also important to note that even though they give you a 'litres' measurement on space, their capacity is usually a little less. In all I had some idea on what I would be getting.
If you do not have anything to compare then I would suggest perhaps going into a physical store and having a look at different sizes that would be suitable. You can then relate that to any online freezers you may be looking at for a better deal. The size of your freezer will greatly effect the price you are paying. I was on a budget of no more than $400, so I knew I would have too look at lower litre capacity. That was fine for me as I already had my other freezers and knew exactly what I would be doing with each of them functionally.
The Right Price
Because I already had my chest freezer and the freezer in the top of my fridge, I didn't need anything too big in size and could keep my budget quiet low. Upright freezers come in a range of prices. Some can be as low as what I paid $377, right through to high prices above $15,000! It is all going to depend on the size (single and double doors available), brand, functions, warranty and functional need you are after. If you do not have a freezer at all then you will probably want something of a larger size at least 300+ litres. If you are like me and already have other freezers, then a smaller cheaper option could work for you so you can stick to a lower budget. I knew I only had a budget of $400 so I kept searching until I found something in that price range. Eventually I did and now I could not be happier!
Thinking Functionality
There is absolutely no point purchasing an upright freezer unless you have a plan on how you will utilise it. Its very easy to have an upright freezer and just throw everything into it as you would a chest freezer (unless you're like me who has a system for my chest freezer as well). Unorganised and unaware of things you have without any sort of rotation is such a cause for both food and money wastage. If you do this with an upright then you may as well just get a chest freezer.
Upright freezers are designed to give the user a much more organised function, much like the capabilities of a fridge. They usually have a number of deep drawers and shelves for you to organise. So taking the time to plan what you are going to do in each area is a huge part of making it worth purchasing. I knew before purchasing my upright freezer what and how I would be using it. Because I already had a fridge and chest freezer that worked together with my fortnightly meal planning, I knew exactly how I was going to put an upright freezer into the mix.
As I meal plan fortnightly, I put everything that I need for the current fortnights main meals into my fridge freezer for easy access. My chest freezer holds extra frozen vegetables, raw meats to make meals, boxed/party style foods and sweets. The upright freezer now holds all ready to go bulk food prepped meals and ready to cook raw meats eg sausages, hamburgers, steaks etc. That upright freezer is what I now go to first when meal planning for each fortnight. It is organised by shelf/drawer based on meat type. I have organised each individual section so I can clearly see what I have and can rotate as new items get put in. As an improvement for the future, any new meals I bulk cook I will now freeze flat, so they can be sitting upright in the drawers. The drawers then hopefully functioning like a filing cabinet. This will utilise the space available in each section much better, whilst also being much easier to see each meal, with names and dates situated at the top.
Overall an upright freezer can be a wonderful purchase and at an affordable price. The key is to be sure what size you will be purchasing and have a plan on how it can function best for you and your family.
If you would like to purchase the upright freezer you see in my videos, or similar, head on over to Appliances Online.
Don't forget if you would like to see a tour of my 3 freezers head on over here to do so.