Aibu to think a chest freezer is a waste of time?

[flownthecoopkiwi]

New house came with a large chest freezer. Currently only using it to store bags on. I've seen my in-laws and it's full to the brim but would probably need one of those arctic exploration core drills to get through the decades of random frozen produce that they never eat.

Are they just pointless because you forget and never eat the stuff in it OR are they brilliant?

We do monthly shop so we get use out of ours

Love mine. Only had it 6 months (came with the house) but would hate to be without it now.

I use bag for life bags in it. One for meat, one for veg, one for processed food. All next to each other on the bottom. Then a bag of ice cream and a bag of bread products on top. Just lift out the bag i need. There's a shelf in ours that has portions of leftovers at one end and ice packs at the other.

I can't believe all this love for the chest freezer! Mine used to send me into a rage every time I went into it. Clearly not as organised as some of you…

I was youngest child. It was always my job to stand in the freezer and bail it out when it was being defrosted every couple of years. Bare toes in an inch of icy water with soggy peas and chips drifting around. Yuck. I've not needed to do that with mine in five years so far.

Dog is on raw food diet so excellent for that. Also plenty of space to bag up your jumpers & freeze the bastarding moths that seem to eat everything!

My first ever job was in a school kitchen. The lovely tiny rotund cook bent over to rummage for the fish and fell in on my first day . Unhurt, I hasten to add, she sat in the freezer like a baby in a pram and roared with laughter.

Yanbu. People should just eat their food, innit.

I have a small one and it's great. Easy to store bulky items like bread and meat joints. It has a basket at the top for small items.

I have one, it's handy. But everything falls to the bottom. It's a pain having too take out everything for a pizza.
I'm trying to save for 2 smaller freezers and get rid of the big one

We like ours. We do have theee children though so go through a fair amount of food.

It's good for stocking up on things that are on offer.

I tend to have a stack of pizzas on their end at one side, a lot of bread and milk, also on their ends and then a couple of fabric shopping bags of meat in the middle. Also spare chips as they're quite bulky. Plus frozen fruit in another bag.

We have 2 freezers, a tall one with drawers in the house and a chest one in the shed. The chest one is great for storing home grown fruit and veg, meat from a local smallholder and big items. Like others we have stuff in carrier bags so we can get to the bottom quickly.

We have one and I love it. We don't have a mini freezer attached to our fridge so it works. Our kitchen is pretty small, so its in the integrated garage, which is next to the kitchen. I have compartments in it, so when I start pumping, I'll be able to freeze milk. As well, when I was going through bad morning sickness, I'd do a weekly shop and find myself unable to cook. The big freezer really came in handy, and we've been eating the 3 month old meat for weeks. Will also use it when I batch cook meals for right after giving birth. I can fit months of meals in there.

Bare toes in an inch of icy water with soggy peas and chips drifting around. Yuck.

I always gave plenty of reasons for refusing to buy one but I've never thought about that! So grateful for "self-defrost" modern free standing freezers as it is.

I've got one in the garage and wouldn't be without it, but only because I live in the boondocks and can buy butchered lambs, pigs, half cows, etc direct from the farm. I'm currently awaiting a suckling pig! Not sure that I would use it for normal supermarket food.

Grew up with it at my parents home. I would love to own a chest freezer if only I had the space. Saves me a trip popping into town whenever I feel carnivorous. And it's excellent for those reduced to clear supermarket foods. There's no wastage on my end since I make sure all the food gets eaten before re-stocking up my freezer.

'smaller but big enough for a folded dead husband sized one' - that's ours - out the back. And a fridge freezer in the kitchen.

I've got an allotment so freeze a lot of fruit and veg.

Also handy for freezer lucky dip meals and bread. I also tend to freeze things like half tins of tomatoes, chopped up celery and single slices of bacon to make soup. Usually nicer than it sounds.

Was great when husband's kids were small.

Try and clean out every few months to stop build up of fish fingers encased in ice.

I miss my old chest freezer. I'm weaning my son now so batch cooking food. If I had more space I could get more stored.

It's great for freezing down meals. Spag bold always get split in half.

i have one but its a smallish one we spent nearly £100 today at the market on meat so its handy to freeze that, it was a bugger to defost though it got really over iced and half the freezer was ice but now thats sorted i love it again.

Ours died whilst full of meat. It looked like we'd been trying to hide bodies when it was noticed several days later/ We have replaced it with a normal freezer with an alarm should the temp drop. Takes up less space, you can store stuff on top and we haven't really noticed the lack of 'space' in it compared to the chest freezer.

I think you need to make a conscious effort to get a chest freezer to work for you.
About 5 years ago I realised I wasn't using mine (140 cm so not huge) to its full potential- there were just a few loaves of bread and a packet of fish fingers I'd forgotten about. So I made a New Year's Resolution .
Now it's a regular part of my life and, when used along with the microwave, is a real time and effort saver. Here's what I've found useful:
Freezing stuff I've bought but realise I won't have time to cook before the expiry date (life gets in the way).
Freezing food I've bought on special offer or in high season.
Having frozen desserts like fruit flan or cheesecake for unexpected celebrations or because I didn't get round to making a cake (see above).
Good quality frozen pizzas are nearly as tasty as the real thing and much less faff. The same goes for Aunt Bessie's Yorkshire puddings, puff pastry, lasagne, ready to roast joints, croissants and lots of frozen veg. And no waste.
I have a fortnightly delivery from the freezer guy whose meat is high quality. His pork is the rest of the Parma Ham pigs!
I buy in TV dinners for people eating alone.

Christmas dinner is prepped and in the freezer from mid November but I don't freeze leftovers as I know they would just get forgotten. Extra portions just get eaten the next day.

So I'd say it's a useful tool but you have to work out how it can serve you best.