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Fridge and freezer choice

“Are you sure about keeping the fridge and freezer?” was a question that kept popping up whenever we discussed the kitchen layout.

Westinhouse fridge and freezer pair

Fridge and freezer pigeon pair

The fridge and freezer choice – one or two units

The devices in question are a Westinghouse fridge and freezer.  We bought them as a pigeon pair a few years ago.  As we are discovering when downsizing, it’s all about the floor space.  Admittedly, they do take up a bit of real estate in the kitchen.  So, could they be replaced with a single unit with a smaller footprint?

Libby was naturally reluctant to make a change.  She has a well-honed cold store system that takes full advantage of the space in both units.  In the fridge, you can always find plenty of vegetables, drinks, jams, condiments, dairy products, lunch materials for me, …   Looking in the freezer, you can find the makings for all sorts of different things and not just meals.  There are the standard items such as packets of mince, lamb shanks, leftovers and ice cream.  But, because Libby makes pickles and jams, there are the bits and pieces she needs to store before a a weekend cooking frenzy.  There was the one time when she was offered a few punnets of blackberries.  It turned out the punnets were the industrial size versions (about a kilogram of fruit each).  Well, if it could, the freezer would have bulged as Libby squeezed in 12 kilograms of blackberries.  A few weeks later, they morphed into delicious jam.

Doors open on the fridge and freezer showing the contents

What’s inside the fridge and freezer?

Taking an open mind to a white goods retailer.

I was busily undermining the future of our fridge and freezer pair, making their prospects quite bleak.  Dark rumours were started about a single unit consuming less electricity than two units.  Could we go off grid with these units chugging away?  There were whispers of having two units not really being in the spirit of downsizing.  How could we truly downsize if we kept the units that fed a family of four?  Were we slaves to old habits that had to be changed?

And so it was that Libby and I found ourselves in a white goods retailer, inspecting the latest offerings from different manufacturers.

Fridge and freezer in one unit

The modern fridge and freezer combination

We wandered into the refrigeration aisle and stared wide-eyed at the offerings.

The cost!  Getting a combined fridge and freezer unit would set us back about $2000.  Whoa.  Not a trivial sum.

Then the size issue reared its ugly head.  The fridge section wasn’t too bad – a bit smaller than our existing fridge but workable.  Libby started chanting, “No, no, no, …” when she looked at the freezer section.  It was too small, too low and too hard to use.  Basically, we’d have to crouch in front of the freezer to dig items out of a couple of small trays.  Some units had a single tray so we’d be forced to rummage around to find the items we wanted.

In the end.

Making a decision about the fridge and freezer proved to be quite easy in the end.

“They’re paid for, they’re in good working order and they’re staying.”

Enough said.

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