…to think this is unhygienic & potentially dangerous?

[TheStorySoFar]

First World Problem, so apologising in advance. We are moving house. New build..we are broke, owe ££ to workmen. It's (ob) a v bad time of year for having no spare cash & we need to move before I return to work from Mat Leave (in 3 weeks) or it'll be v v difficult to move at all. So no real option of waiting. We need a new fridge freezer. DH is set on gorgeous Siemens side by side larder fridge & freezer. Lots of £££££. He thinks we should be cobbling together money to buy a Siemens fridge & to move with no freezer OR use a freezer he can get through work. That we won't waste £ on a FF we don't want. The freezer he can get through work has been used to store dead rodents!!!!!!!! And he reckons it'll be fine if he cleans it out with plenty of scalding water & cleaning solutions. I'm saying no. We should buy a cheap combination FF & sell when we can afford our dream ones…..WWYD?

Pay the workmen.

I store parts of dead animals in my freezer, pigs, cows, chickens. Isn't that what it is for?

If there's no residual smell then I don't see the problem with the works one tbh. It's a freezer so everything will be in bags/boxes anyway.

To people saying get a cheap 2nd hand one/one from Freecycle - how do you know what that freezer was used for previously?!

Go on your local freegle/freecycle to get a fridge-freezer to see you through, or buy one on eBay for a few pounds. Then as LovleyRitaMeterMaid said, pay the workmen. They have Christmas coming up too.

Be fine after a good clean. Most freezers have dead animal bits in.

Tbh you can probably survive quite well without one at all.

Just get something off gumtree just now. If you cannot pay your workmen it is immoral to spend that much money on a fridge.

how do you know what the ones on ebay / gumtree / freecycle stored??

I certainly would not have the dead rat freezer. Could you not get a second hand one or look on that freecycle.

You need to be quick off the mark to get a freezer on Freecycle. I mean, you actually have to be crouched over the keyboard with the Yahoo group open and a lovely message pre-written and your send finger twitching.

Those kinds of things get hundreds of responses. By all means try it, but it's not a surefire option.

Your town may have a Furniture Recycling Project/Emmaus charity shop, which will sell used white goods. Could be worth a look.

Also, you may want a better Freecycle sob story than 'I would love your freezer, I really need it in the interim before buying giant Siemens side-by-side fridge-freezers (was offered an old freezer but have rejected it on grounds of rodent storage)'

I think much depends on how and why the rats got into the freezer.

Exposure to rat urine is a definite health hazard - if freezer owner also keeps live rats before sending then to a better and colder place this may be an issue.

If DHs colleague is the local rat catcher id be worried about where rats had been and how much poison they'd consumed.

If it's just that colleague is a snake fancier who regularly buys nice clean dead rats from the shop and freezes them in bags or boxes - probably not so different from frozen chicken etc.

In terms of the yuk factor - about 1 million and I would be hard pressed to take freezer in. Id manage without for a while personally.

Do you eat meat?

Just clean it properly.

FFS - it's a freezer that stores frozen things. Just clean it and stop being prissy

This thread is really making me laugh (in a good way) with its detailed and serious discussion of rats in freezers

But there's a difference between naice meat that's fit for human consumption and manky rats that will give you the plague or some such.

Yes, it would certainly be an intriguing story miaow. I'd prioritise it over the 20-30 'I will have this can collect tonight' Freecycle messages I always get

DP has mice in an ice cream tub in his freezer. They don't bother me any more then the various other animal parts in the freezer (I'm vegetarian). The live snake in the hallway on the other hand I could live without.....

I know my mother wouldn't come in the house if she knew about the mice but she has a terrible phobia. I certainly don't think it is unhygienic.

On a separate note I got a fantastic fridge freezer from freeads for a third of the price of new. Barely used - the husband 'won' it in the separation - bit sad really.

'Mice cream' tub, surely

pay the workmen is #1 priority.

give the second-hand freezer a good cleanout.

or forget sparkly-tat-mas and buy a new/newer one.

Dilute bleach even kills the plague - link so I'm with your DH on this.

I think you ought to pay the workmen you owe , before you spend money on new things for yourselves

I would buy a cheaper fridge freezer. A bit odd to want to spend loads on a fridge and then use a dead rodent freezer.... strange! A mid range one will do the same job.

I store dead rodents in my freezer, as they are food for my snake.
As we're vegetarian it's the only meat I can ever offer guests (no take ups yet).

I read it as the OP saying that paying the workmen was one of the reasons there'd be no £££ for new freezer.

If not, then yes (speaking as tradesperson!) pay the workmen. They probably need it for Xmas.