Shopping for groceries can be time-consuming and expensive, but one of the best ways to save time and money on your grocery bill is to buy in bulk. The only issue? You’ll need a spot to store your extra food. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to store frozen food, even if you live in apartment or condo and space is an issue. An apartment size freezer is small, fairly light, and easy to slide into a small space or closet.
While apartment size freezers are small in size, they are very roomy inside. Here’s a look how to choose one and the features you’ll want to look for when choosing an apartment size freezer. For more information on larger standalone freezers, you can take a look at the freezer buying guide.
Size range of apartment size freezers
An apartment sized freezer is meant to fit in a small space, so you’ll find they range in size from a tiny 1 cubic foot to around 7 cubic feet. That’s fairly small in comparison to a large standalone freezer that can be as large as 21 cubic feet.
Just like standalone freezers, an apartment sized freezer is available as a chest freezer or upright freezer. A chest freezer is the most common type of freezer you’ll find in homes, and it has an open interior space with removable or repositionable baskets. Some chest freezers will also have a built-in shelf inside the freezer.
An upright freezer looks like a refrigerator, and instead of open space it has shelves inside you can use to store your frozen food.
How big of an apartment size freezer do you need?
Whether you’re a single person living alone or you have a small family, an apartment sized freezer can make a big difference in your weekly and monthly food savings. You can freeze fruit, vegetables, meat, baked goods, or full meals to reheat at a later time.
Before you shop for an apartment sized freezer you’ll want to know how big of a freezer you should choose. Most people will allocate 1.5 cubic feet of space for each person in their family, so if you have two people living in your apartment you should have at least a 3 cubic foot freezer. Each cubic foot will hold around 30 lbs of food, but you’ll want to keep in mind that bulky packaging and how you organize your freezer will affect how much you can fit inside it.
Measuring for your apartment freezer
If you’ve decided between an upright freezer and a chest freezer, the next step you’ll want to take is to measure the space you’ve allocated for your freezer. It’s very important to know where you’ll put your new appliance before you choose your freezer, especially if it will be in a small area where space is at a premium.
You’ll want to measure the space the freezer will be placed in as well as the doorways leading into the area. That way you’ll know whether or not your freezer box can fit through the door.
Before you order your new freezer you’ll also want to have a plan for how you’ll move your apartment freezer up any stairs or into the space you’ve dedicated for it. You can see the dimensions and weight of all chest freezers on Best Buy by looking at ‘Details’ in the product listings.
Features to look for in apartment size freezers
Just like full-size freezers, apartment size freezers have different unique features.
Easy temperature control
Many older style chest freezers didn’t have a temperature dial at all. You would plug in the freezer, it would get cold, and the only way you’d know it was on is a small light on the handle or lid. The latest apartment size freezers have temperature controls so you can set it to the exact temperature you’d like, and those controls are easy to access right on the front of the appliance.
Runs quietly
A loud appliance will sound even louder in a small space, so you want to make sure any appliance you bring into an apartment will run quietly. Many apartment size freezers run so quietly you won’t even know they are plugged in unless you see the power light.
Child safety locks
One of the most important safety features on a chest or upright freezer is a child safety lock. You want to ensure that a child can’t access the freezer, and many of the latest models come with locks and keys you can use to keep your freezer secure.
Baskets and shelves
Chest freezers come with baskets you can use to organize your food. You can place items like ice cream and popsicles in the baskets because you access them frequently and place meat, vegetables, and bread in the lower area for occasional access. Many chest freezers have a built-in shelf you can use to lift frozen items off the bottom of the appliance, and that makes it easy to reach inside and pick out what you need.
Storage shelves inside an upright apartment size freezer make it easy to organize your frozen items too. You can adjust the shelves in case you have bulky items to store or utilize the shelves on the door for smaller frozen items.
Defrost drain
You’ll want to defrost your apartment freezer if you find there is ice build-up inside, and most new freezers have a drain plug inside and outside the freezer. You just unplug the appliance, let the frost melt, then open the drain plug outside the freezer to empty excess water.
Soft freeze and fast freeze
Some models of freezer have a fast freeze option that instantly drops the temperature inside the freezer to quickly freeze your food. You can also find a soft freeze feature on some freezers. With soft freeze you have an area inside the freezer for food like ice cream, and it will keep it frozen but still soft enough to scoop.
Choose your apartment freezer
An apartment size freezer will give you the storage space you need to buy in bulk and store all of your favourite frozen food.
You can shop for apartment size freezers right now at Best Buy.
Good information … thank you
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