We have an upright that we lucked out in finding at a yard sale 4 years ago for $25! I've never had a chest freezer, but as a short person I guess I always imagined having a hard time digging through everything to find what I wanted. I've never had any complaints against our upright.

__________________

My grandmother had a chest freezer and some of my best memories is her fannie up in the air searching around for some frozen corn or strawberries that she had packaged the summer before. She was short and the chest was HUGE. But anyway its all about price, the space you need to fit it in and what fits your personality. Mostly price....LOL! I share a chest one with my brother who lives next door and I put not used so much stuff in it and the more used stuff in my refrigerator freezer. Oh and FYI, you can freeze milk and it defrosts just fine. Get the ones in plastic jugs. We get WIC and you get 4 1/2 gallons of milk a month and I just defrost a gallon when I get near the bottom of the one in the fridge. Good luck, and try looking or a scratch and dent model, they usually take some off the price and they work just fine. My fridge was $200 cheaper because of a few cosmetic damages. Like it won't get beat up at my house.

__________________
- Kathleen

We are freezer freaks. We have a 7 cuft in the laundry room, by the kitchen, that I keep "quick" frozen stuff in - popsicles, pizza if we ever have it, any grocery store food that is frozen, frozen fruits/veg. It's generally about 2/3 full all the time.

In the garage we have a large stand up one - the side of a large fridge. That one gets all the game meat - deer, turkey, goose etc. By January, that will be completely full, and some meat will have to be put in the inside chest freezer. When that happens, some stuff gets put in the refrigerator freezer in the kitchen. I don't like using that one, but will if needed.

Then I have a 30cuft chest freezer for my "hobby". That is about 1/3 full right now, but by the end of hunting season will probably be full at the rate I'm getting customers.

I may look around for another chest freezer for buying bulk meat since I've taken over the big chest, and there is now no way to store a whole pig's worth of meat or a half a cow's worth of meat.

Yes, yes I like freezers :D I prefer chests because I always get into a fight with the stand up one - chests I can start whipping food around inside until I find what I need, and then just shut it and reorganize later. Stand up, I generally have food stacking everywhere but IN the freezer, and have to fight to pack it in again. We keep it "organized" by meat, but when I want a particular cut, it gets ugly fast.

Oh yeah, I'm also tall, so the height thing doesn't come into play! :D

We have an upright and love it. We can find things much easier in it. We designate certain sections for certain items such as vegtables, meats, bread etc.

We have a 22 cu. ft upright. I love it in that it doesn't take up too much floor space. Also, as others have said, I would find tons of stuff piled on top if we had a chest freezer.

The shelves make for easy organizing and our doors hold quite a bit as well.

Good luck!

__________________
SAHM of 4

August food budget (groceries/take-out): $500.00/$75.00
Total spent: $238.97/$14.12

July budget/spent: $500.00/$650.00