In Zurich, I very much wanted a standalone freezer because our new compartment freezer was tiiiiny and I wasn’t allowed to fill it all with ice cubes and cranberries. (Important things for Americans!)
But back in 2011, Kay thought his job then would maybe send him away soon, so he didn’t want to waste the money on a freezer and carry it up five flights of stairs with no lift. So we never got one, but we ended up staying in that flat for three years.
I actually wanted to get an extra freezer in our current flat as soon as we moved, but again… Kay was pretty down on the idea. Finally this year, I asked for a freezer as my birthday present so that I would be able to make big meals by myself next year and freeze the portions so that I am not always eating the same thing.
Kay agreed and said that we should order only an A+++ energy rated appliance so that it’s a little more environmentally friendly, although honestly this criteria pushed me to order a bigger freezer, so I’m not sure how good an idea that was. I anyway promise to fill it up with yummy gluten free food!
After a lot of hemming and hawing, I ended up ordering the freezer myself and stayed home to have it delivered. Thank God that a) it fit in the lift and b) there was a cleaning man around to help the delivery guy unload this.
I had cleaned the entire pantry out the night before the delivery and dismantled the shelves with Kay’s help. We installed the freezer during the week and then on Friday night before our trip to Liechtenstein, I went to Migros Do It on foot and bought 50lbs of shelving to carry home in my arms because I wanted to put the pantry in order ASAP and knew it would be hard without a weekend at home to buy things like this.
It’s a tight squeeze, but the freezer is in the left of the pantry with some of the original, taller shelving between the freezer and the back wall, with the shorter, newer shelving to the right. I could even sneak the cordless vacuum in the door frame so that it can still plug in since there is only one plug on the wall of the freezer.
I was mildly annoyed at myself that I did not realize how much shorter the new shelving would be considering we have our tall ceilings, but it has the same number of shelves as the older shelving and honestly I was in a IDGAF mood.
I believe the older shelving was from Jumbo and the newer was just from Migros DIY, but the Migros wood is much worse quality than from Jumbo. The slats are closer together on the older shelving and smoother, making it easier to store smaller bottles on the shelves.
Anyway, after assembly and putting everything back in the pantry that is not trash or to be sold, there is actually quite a lot of room in the pantry even with the addition of a huge freezer.
On the smaller wall above I still have room to sneak my cleaning mops in. I might space the cleaning products out more so that they are easier to get to individually, but this is where it’s at for now.
After the empty shelf I have cleaning cloths, food shopping bags and paper bags. Below that is cardboard recycling, bound up to go out.
Up on top I still have room for buckets and cleaning products that are too tall to fit on the shorter shelf.
With the taller shelf set between the freezer and the wall, it makes for really deep shelving. I put all the glass, metal, and PET recycling on the ground back there and hopefully it will be less annoying to deal with than our previous corner shelving, which had a lot of extra shelf legs mucking up space below.
On the upper shelves I can store electrical things we rarely get to as well as Kay’s tools.
And above are even more bags, because who has a ton of reusable bags?? This girl!
Overall, I’m really happy how everything fits in and as long as the floor remains free so I can open the door, which is likely considering Kay is gone next year, I will be a happy camper.
I have already made an entire lasagna and portioned it off into 8 pieces for the freezer. 😀
I also made Kay install a hook on the door so I could store my clothes drying rack there for easy access. I am infinitely less annoyed when I need to take it out of the pantry nowadays.
Do you have an extra freezer in your home?
Marc is always saying that we need a chest freezer, but it’s just the two of us and I have been reluctant to give up space for it. I also fear that having the space will just mean we fill it with random stuff from Costco and I don’t want an excuse to be able to buy a package of 50 ice cream sandwiches. 🙂
I am in awe of your tidy pantry!!!
I thought about chest freezers too, but I figured they are more prone to buying and piling things up. I’m hoping I use this freezer for good only, but I admit that our ice cream maker bowl is already in there too. 😉
Hooray for more freezer space!! We got a second freezer when we moved into our house in May and WOW it has made such a difference. We always have frozen meat, fruit, and veggies on hand and it makes whipping up something random for dinner so much easier. Kudos on lugging that shelving through the streets of the city, I’m impressed!!
A few years back a friend of ours ended up with a spare chest freezer after Christmas and offered it to us–I adore it! I would much rather have an upright with shelves like yours to have slightly more easier access to everything, but I’m not going to quibble about something that was free 🙂 Eventually we’ll move our current fridge into the laundry room (where the chest freezer also lives) and have it as spare cold storage as well (useful for parties and such) when we upgrade our current one. You can never have too much storage space 🙂
Looks great, Katie! 🙂