Yes! See the Edy’s ice cream in the door? 1.2°. Friendly’s a shelf higher, -3.9°.

Please excuse the convenience foods. This is not how my freezer normally looks. There’s raw meat and poultry and seafood in there, too, promise!

Well, shoot. I guess I’d better gird up my loins and go rearrange the freezer - again. First I’m going to see if I can hunt down some baskets for the oddly shaped stuff. That will give me a lot more room!

P.S. I judge not your convenience foods. My freezer has a pretty good store of convenience foods right now. Sometimes they are just necessary.

No judgments on anybody's coolers ever! Or pantries! Or tables!

Same with the fridge, not only is the door less cold, the top of the door is least cold, which is why they put the butter box there--unless you have a fancy cooler like mine which has cold air vents in the tops of the doors at which point the top of the door is colder than the middle.

no judgements here, either, BUT what brand of freezer do you have that has those drawers? I would love that; mine just has a wire basket on the bottom.

Oly, I’m with you! I’d love to have drawers like that, or even your baskets! I have freezer envy. Because it is only DH and me, and because I don’t do things like put up a garden, DH and I have a freezer mainly for overflow storage from the house fridge/freezer. It is small, cheap, and only has shelves.

plllog, my fridge is a pretty standard GE. No extra vents anywhere and the butter box is at the top of the door. I now have fridge envy, too!

I managed to scrounge up 2 plastic baskets (DH: why is all of my stuff dumped on my vanity?). Once I put all the meat in one and the fish in the other, I had plenty of room to get the ice cream, fruit, and herbs off the door. When I first opened the door to rearrange the stuff, I checked the temp. Interior was -10 degrees.

Fridge/freezers are all so different. Our up-right freezer is 5-6 years old. Kitchen fridge/freezer is about 10-12 yrs. Both excellent. I do have 4 fridge/freezer thermometers that I used to check the coldest spots and to alarm me if something is off. Especially when the freezer was new.

Over capacity like now can effect the efficiency. My MIL always had her fridge and garage freezer stuffed. (she lives with my SIL now). Both were always way off temp.

I have a small commercial freezer in the barn as well as an inexpensive fridge...not in use at the moment...mostly used for Fall garden harvest. The commercial is great and it was free from a friend. The fridge is meh. Fine for garden harvest but we have to keep it a bit high so veg does not freeze. Veg goes up high rather than the crisper down low.

Both my chest freezer and fridge at the beach house are total lemons. Just horrible. Right out of the box. Can't wait to replace if I can ever get there.

Extra wire baskets are key. I can open my freezer for 5 seconds and pull out a bin, search and organize, then put it back. Minimal door opening.

I'm checking more than usual. What a nightmare if it my fridge or freezer fails.

(I'm re-freezing my Misfit ice packs in zip-locks where the fit just in case). I could pack a cooler if need be.

I use my door shelves for flour, grains, seed/nuts. Bulk whole spices, etc.

Right now the top self door has some chicken, etc and is rock hard.

I’ve got twin 36” sub zero’s. About 20 years old. The appliance repair guy tells me they’re awesome, but they both run 24/7. Unfortunately replacement would cost like 15K plus cabinet work last I looked so I’m stuck. Hoping they hang in until I win the lottery. But I do love the space!

foodonastump - my twin 36" Sub Zero's lasted longer than 20 years. We installed them when we added on to the house in 1987. We moved in 2017 and the freezer (and icemaker too) was still going strong - at age 30.

We did replace the refrigerator at age 27 - it needed a repair and my SZ certified technician who had serviced them for the previous 20 years said that he could repair it but that it might be worth the peace of mind to consider putting the repair money into a new unit with a warranty.

sleevendog, I have a relatively new stainless GE refrigerator with a bottom freezer. No matter what I set the temperature at, everything in the crisper drawers freezes. I have bottles of water in the bottom of both crisper drawers to put vegetables on top of, just for a "buffer". I've been trying to figure out what I can put in those drawers that freezing won't affect, but I can't think of anything that will fit in the drawer that will also withstand freezing. Condiments maybe, but then they're frozen and can't be used. That refrigerator is junk, I hate it. Hate the matching dishwasher too, but I love the GE double ovens. It was a "package deal" when we moved in and remodeled the house.

Annie

20-year-old-freezer envy here. :)

My father spent a good part of his career as a restaurant and/or hotel manager, and he told me to keep items that are less sensitive to temperature on the freezer door. Definitely the place to store bread.

Annie, will cheese and meat freeze in the crisper?

Is it a hard enough freeze for ice cream (which is better in a warmer freezer than standard)?

We had a GE refrigerator like that at the church......I was constantly having to remind people DO NOT put lettuce in that refrigerator. even put a sign on it....do not put lettuce in this refrig.....then blessedly it died and we got a 2nd hand Frigidaire for $250 that works well....

Got this in an email from Whole Foods today: How to Organize you Refrigerator Some what apropos! I’ve fussed at DD about keeping milk on the door. Her position is the manufacturer made a shelf on the door that a gallon jug fits in, so it must be okay to keep it there. Sister does the same. I keep mine on the top shelf, which according to the WF article isn’t the optimal place either. Maybe I’ll rearrange my fridge today.

Depending on the design of the refrigerator or freezer:

1. The door may have thinner insulation.

2. The almost one inch thick magnetic rubber gasket around the whole door is not insulated.

3. Your thermometer may not read accurately inside a freezer because the electronics may not be calibrated to give correct reading in a cold environment. You can check out freezer temperature by putting a small cup of cooking oil inside the freezer and measure the cooking oil after a few hours.

dcarch

Dcarch, I have 2 freezer thermometers. One works. It has no electronics. It is the simplest that can be bought - just a dial that registers the temperature.

I bought another from Thermoworks that I can’t get to work. It is 2 pieces. One goes in the freezer and the other piece goes in the house. It is supposed to alarm when the temp gets too high. I can’t keep batteries working in the part that goes in the freezer! The cold kills them off...even the batteries made especially for freezing temps. I’ve given up on it.

I have a very rudimentary way of telling if the freezer temp went way up while we were out of town. I froze a cup of water. I laid a nickel on top of the ice. As long as it is still on top of the ice, I assume the freezer didn’t thaw.

That WF article struck me as funny. :) Most of what it says is about commercial food service. They usually have wire racks in the walk-ins. Meat, which comes in big cardboard cartons, goes on the bottom shelf so if it drips, it won't contaminate anything. Meat should be kept particularly cold (in the 30's), so in a basic, warmer air rises fridge, the bottom shelf is also good for the meat. If you put your meat in a tray or good plastic bag, you can put it amongst the other foods without worry, in the best place for the meat, rather than the best place for public health.

In a home fridge, the coldest spot isn't always the bottom. For convention and convenience, and because my drawers have temp/humidity settings, I do have my meat (except some vac-sealed deli packs in the flats drawer) in the bottom drawer. The coldest spot in my particular fridge is the high shelf, where the cold air blows in, however. Move a fridge thermometer around. to see what temperature is where, or just pay attention to what lasts best where.

Oh! Annie, you could try putting meat and/or dairy in your freezy drawer. Both freeze at lower temperatures and keep better very cold.

I have a drawer for produce (and most of another fridge) but leafies often keep best in the middle of the shelves, because my fridge has an evaporator, and they seem to do better stored drier.

Basic rules of thumb: Meat (all animal proteins) and dairy very cold. Produce humid. Butter warmer so it's malleable. Preserved foods rarely care (I like to keep mayo colder).