So do I. The problem arose when we were living elsewhere and on return had to shift a chest freezer full of food back, packed it up in large sturdy bags and hoped it had survived the transit (not too far) so we re-froze it immediately. A lot of it may be ok assuming no freezer burn, it will just take time to find out unless we just chuck it all and there’s the dichotomy - defrost and try or just assume it’s bad and chuck it.
There’s also the issue of defrosting a large amount at once and then having to dispose of it in one go if it isn’t great, andweekly ‘food recycling waste’ will not cope with that. I guess it’s similar to a power cut tripping the consumer unit when away and finding your freezer is full of unpleasnat squishy gunk.
Not worried about the power usage so much as the logistics of how we’ve tended to use chest freezers over the years. An upright freezer with easily accessible drawers would get a lot more use and be better vfm.
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I think it’s clear we don’t use chest freezers well/efficiently/whatever. On holiday we’ve always found upright freezers much better as you can access the drawers easily and store/sort stuff more efficiently, so yes I think it probably needs to go unless we empty, accept bad practice and start from scratch not filling it up though most articles suggest fridges/freezers are better fairly full as it’s the air exchanged on opening that’s required cooling.
This all ties in with my bad hoarding habits, so even the malfunctioning fridge was something I didn’t want to chuck so long as I could live with its oddities.
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You’d be apoplectic if you went to our local Waitrose - I cannot believe the amount of fresh produce on its last legs they discount by a pitiful amount so no one bothers buying it. Maybe it gets shipped to food banks, but meat on ‘use by’ being sent somewhere after 8pm is unlikely to get a good reception.
Far too often also discounted meat eg sausages is still more expensive than the discounted price for buying 2 with a week or more ’shelf life’.
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I might have enabled cruise control.
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I don’t eat meat, but regularly get tomatoes and various bits of fruit and veg from the cheap shelf at the local Coop. I bought some coriander in M&S today for 90p instead of £1.60. With veg it’s fine, as you can easily tell it’s good to eat. We do eat fish and I’m very wary of stuff at the end of its dates. Still, the whole use by thing needs looking at.
I know you have hoarding habits, and a tendency to procrastinate (don’t we all?) but think how much happier you’ll be when you just get shot of that horrible freezer.
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I think I’ve come to realise that with the discounted stuff unless it’s veg you have to use it immediately. A food bargain is only such if you actually use it.
The best bargain I got in Waitrose was tuna for 99p a kilo. Yes, we ate it that evening.
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The other thing which is pretty clear these days is that I prefer fresh produce of most kinds - frozen veg is handy but I’m more likely to buy fresh meat thsn defrost and use frozen meat. Freezers are probably fine for not particularly healthy mass produced family ‘staples’ and maybe seafood. The bad habits probably hark back to my parents getting a chest freezer in the 70’s. I can recall the trips to a butcher/abbatoir where you’d buy half a lamb prepared into various cuts. They were trying to br frugal.
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