ekreider wrote:I have an upright freezer but my late parents at different times have had both types. There are two big considerations in my mind. First, the footprint relative to capacity is much greater for a chest freezer. This factor alone will dominate in many cases. Second, the chest freezer is great when you have a lot of packages of the same few things. The upright provides better access if you have a few packages each of a lot of different items. Somebody with a large garden who also raises batches of chickens or buys quarters or halves of beef is a much better prospect for a chest freezer than someone who buys moderate quantities of different things when they are at sale prices.
A smaller consideration other things being equal is that a chest freezer uses less electricity because there is not major air exchange with the room every time the door is opened. Other smaller considerations are how much bending and lifting you want to do putting large items in and out of the depths of a chest freezer or trying to read labels down there when you wear bifocals. What works well at forty may not be so great at eighty says someone who is over 80.
Reusable shopping bags are a must for keeping the chest freezer organized and accessing what’s in there. Seafood in one, beef/pork in another, veggies in another, etc. And I only store certain things in it. Smaller, more frequently used items go in the kitchen freezer.
"Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad." Miles Kington