New Fridge Freezer - how best to manage transfer?

To get past the "resting" new fridge I just had to crawl under the kitchen table to get some lentils out of the cupboard.

true, rosequartz!

Nellie let's hope all your inconvenience will be worth it in the end!

We lived for months with a chest freezer in our lounge/diner when we moved to a smaller (but much more expensive) house due to job relocation.
Better to put up with the inconvenience than lose all your food phoenix

phoenix I have spent most of the last month with white goods in my living room due to a kitchen refurbishment.

A freezer and cupboard in the the living room and from Friday until Monday a dishwasher and washing machine in front of the the cloakroom door and a fridge in the dining/everything else room.

Right now I have two fridges in the kitchen while waiting for the new one to settle enough to be switched on.

Currys permitting there will be two cookers in the kitchen on Friday.

pheonix it would appear that she appears to want it and the change of pick up day will hopefully solve your problems. Do let us know if and when the old f/f goes.

Hello again, well, I have just had another email from her, see below:

Well id love it lol just about to move into a new flat with our baby so am really desperate! Would you possibly be able to hold it till Monday? The bloke with the van is not available till Monday

(I don't really see why anyone would "laugh out loud" over something like that, but I suppose it takes all sorts)

I have re-iterated ALL the relevant info, size, number of shelves/drawers etc and said I will keep it if she assures me that it WILL be collected.

So, I face a weekend with a fridge freezer in the hall, not exactly the interior design look I would choose to go for, but I suppose it does solve the problem of storing/moving the contents!

I have used my garden shed as a temorary fridge (and even freezer) on more than one occasion. Living right on the North Sea coast it can get very cold in there. Last Christmas I cleared some of the shelves of DH's clutter tools and used them to store all kinds of stuff.

Soutra you are so lucky- if more councils did what yours does, there would be less dumping.

Our council collects for free. I just put the old fridge outside the garage door and it went within 2 days. Many people malign Milton Keynes but environmentally they are spot on.

It would appear phoenix that it depends on the make of the f/f. I followed the instructions (for once) and as stated had to leave it switched on for 24 hours before putting in food, which I had not ordered on line. I did not have a problem with the freezer section because every bit of food was ruined.

I had just been discharged 24 hours having had a knee replacement so I need this like a hole in the head, sitting up at 11pm at night ordering a new f/f and havingto get a neighbor to bag my disgusting defrosted food.

I agree, some of the Freecycle folk are downright rude. One clever clogs wanted to pick up something at 11pm. I do not think so. The problem is that you do not know if this person will bother to pick it up. I am like you, I would offer it to somebody with some manners but in the event of none, one must hope.

I filled up some surplus milk, plastic, bottles with water and froze them, as many as you can fit in the freezer.

Put them and the frozen goods in laundry baskets/boxes, and covered with downies.

Once you have the new freezer in situ it has to be left for 4 hours to stabilise before turning on.

My frozen items were still frozen

I believe there is a scrap metal company not too far away pompa, but they don't come round very often, and I wouldn't have anywhere to store whilst waiting.

The company supplying the new one will take the old one away for £9.99, but apart from the money, I feel it would be a waste to send it to landfill when someone might eb able to use it.

Liz46 I agree, there are some very bad mannered people on Freecycle. Someone (a different person) had posted a "want" for a freezer, so I contacted them just in case my fridge freezer might help them out. That was on Monday and so far I haven't heard a word.

Not unreasonable to perhaps expect a "thanks but no thanks", surely?

In our village we have an old fashioned "Steptoe & Son" that will take metal scrap. With the vale of scrap, you may well be able to get rid of it for free.

Make her wait. I regularly use Freecycle and am amazed at the bad manners of some people who ask for items. 'I will take this off your hands' for instance.

Many thanks to all of you for the replies, it is appreciated.

I would struggle to eat very much of what is currently in there, but will see if the person who has said that she would like the old one can hang on.

By the way, here (C&P'd) is the message that I had from her:

I would like this could I pick up on Friday ??

If I had received other expressions of interest that were more polite, she might not have been the one receiving it!

NOTE -- this 24 hours BEFORE switching on.
To ensure all is working OK, you should then let it run for a further 24hrs to ensure it gets down to temperature, so total of 48 hours from delivery.

Phoenix - you are being really accommodating. I'd be suggesting they collect it Saturday at the earliest, after your new freezer had been delivered and food was successfully transferred, without hassle.

As you cannot be 100% sure how the freezer has been stored/transported it is best to leave it 24 hrs for the refrigerant to settle before switching it on. To turn it on before it settles could ruin the compressor.

Have you a neighbour who could store stuff for you.

When we had a 16 cu ft chest freezer that had to be manually defrosted (usually after it had been left too long and had a buildup of ice) I used to take all the contents to a cool place, pack them into one big parcel in layers of bubble wrap, and wrap that in old blankets, towels and duvets. Everything survived the experience for the couple of hours that a thorough defrost and cleanout took, and we survived without any food poisoning too.

Freeze a couple of containers of water and include them in the parcel to help keep everything cold. Cook and eat as much as you can, and cook anything vulnerable. It can be refrozen cooked once it has cooled and the freezer is cold enough to deal with it.

The new fridge should get down to temperature overnight, so unless there is an unseasonable heatwave, your stuff should be OK after a night well wrapped up in the garage or the back garden (fox-proofed!) Ice-cream and similar things might be best eaten up and not kept.

I agree with Ana and Charleygirl

I agree with Ana.

Have you got a neighbour or nearby friend who could take your frozen stuff until the new one has settled? Otherwise the person will just have to wait until you're ready (they are getting it for free).

From memory I am sure that my present Samsung f/f had to be plugged in for 24 hours before I could start to fill it up. Could whoever is picking up your present one not come over the weekend- less stress for you, although your house maybe a bit overcrowded temporarily. I suppose that it would be okay to put frozen items outside but as far as I know we are not expecting cold weather. I think that the maximum time you could leave the frozen food outdoors would be 2-3 hours before it started to defrost.

Have you got accommodating neighbours who could help you out?

PS Newspaper is better than towels.

Yes, do that. When we got our new one earlier this year, the instructions said to give it several hours to stabilise and be ready for use.

We didn't have much to salvage though, as most stuff had to be thrown away after the old one gave up the ghost unexpectedly!