Upright or chest freezer.

[chowder]

I always had a chest freezer but now I have an upright.Was hard to get used to at first,but I bought plastic "baskets" which sit side by side on the shelves.I have them marked as to whats in each.I always buy meat in bulk and freeze each piece separately,so if I need say 2 chicken breasts,I just pull that basket out and get them sliding the basket back in.So simple,and the door isn't being held open while I search.

[abecedarian]

I'm weighing pros and cons about freezer types too, and as I looked at various upright models online earlier, I noticed how the Kenmores looked just like our Kenmore fridge, particularly the shelves in the door. That's NOT a good thing, as we've had a terrible time with them breaking, even though the fridge is just two or three years old. I wonder if another point or ten should go to the chest freezers just on that merit alone. I like the dividers I've seen on the new models, and like the idea someone up thread gave about bagging like items together, and keeping a list of freezer contents..

[OOwl]

We just spent the last few weeks freezer shopping. We ended up with a chest freezer because of the door clearance issue. Our freezer went into the Butler's Pantry, which is a fairly narrow room, so opening the door into the vertical space made more sense. I also don't mind it being deep. I store my dogs' raw food in the bottom (lots and lots of 10-lb bags of chicken quarters, stocked up when they're on sale for .27 a pound). I'm not a huge stocker, so the most that will go in mine is an odd turkey a few days before the holidays or meat that will be used within the next few weeks, so this type works best for my family. Good luck with your choice.