Of all the fridge freezers in the land…
Sep 3rd 2008sarahexpat thoughts
…I like mine best.
I’ve made a lot of ice cream this summer, as my previous posts have shown. It’s brought forth a number of comments, both on and off line. While I’ve enjoyed my ice cream, I couldn’t have done it without having some decent freezer space. It sounds silly, but some of the discussions I’ve had about this made me realize that most of my friends here in the UK have no idea of the size of my fridge freezer. Likewise, my friends and family in the States who have seen my fridge/freezer here in the UK might have been a bit misguided. I thought it might be time to set the record straight, and show people here in the UK just what I’ve got in my kitchen. I thought it also might be helpful to show the Americans what most people I know here in the UK have in theirs.
First of all, let me begin by saying that I wasn’t very switched on when I first moved over here. I didn’t get a lot of photos of anything. This meant that when I decided to put together this post showcasing refrigerators in England, I had to ask my friends to help me out. And boy did they! They gave me enough pictures of fridges and freezers to make me look like a crazy woman. I don’t want all of their hard work go to waste, so here is my study of refrigerators in England. I’m not crazy, honest. If I were really crazy, I’d have asked my mother-in-law and sister-in-law to help me out, and then I could say it was a study of fridge/freezers in England and Scotland – but I didn’t. See, I’m not that crazy!
When I moved over to the UK I was amazed by how small the fridge in Paul’s flat was. I couldn’t believe it. I think I had a larger refrigerator in my dorm room at college. And now, thinking back on that first flat, I can’t even remember the freezer we had, except that it was below the fridge, very small, and full of drawers. When we moved to our next flat, it was the same thing. Tiny refrigerator and a freezer full of drawers and below the fridge. With the freezer, I couldn’t stand the below the fridge thing. Or the drawers.
Now, as mentioned before, with the help of some friends, I have some photos of your average fridge/freezers – what you would find in a lot of homes in the UK. This idea that you see here in these first photos I actually like. Hide your fridge. Hide your freezer.
Look at the first picture in this post. What do you see? Cupboards? Nope.
Check it out, that’s the fridge and freezer in this kitchen!
I love this idea. Not only are they saving space, but they make the kitchen look nice.
The only down side is that I would have to root through all the cupboards before actually finding the fridge. I’ve almost done this in my sister-in-law’s house (luckily Paul walked into the kitchen as I began my search!).
Now, here’s an inside shot of a similar refrigerator, although I think these ones are actually slightly larger. This will give you a better idea of what’s involved here. As you can see, there’s not much space in there. I will say though, that at least you can get a thing of milk in the door here. What frustrated me about the size of these refrigerators was that there was hardly any door space at all. These aren’t big, but they’re easy to keep clean. 
Here’s an inside shot of a freezer – look at those drawers! Her drawers look as if they might actually work. The drawers in my freezers never worked.
Now, you do get free standing fridge freezers here in the UK. I have lived in a flat with one. I liked the fridge part, but not the freezer. Notice how narrow it is compared to the last fridge photo in this post.
I haven’t seen this tall fridge in person, but I guarantee that the freezer is on the bottom half of that and it will be made up of drawers. You know, I don’t mind a drawer or two in a freezer, but I don’t like it to be all drawers. I find them hard to open and I can’t tell what I’ve got with a glance. It frustrates me.
When we bought our flat, we searched high and low for a refrigerator. I probably would have considered something built in like the smaller ones above, but we had no real space made up for it. Our new kitchen was a decent size, and there was a great big, huge, empty corner that was just begging for a lovely American size fridge to be placed in it. And it was with some restraint that I decided not to go ahead and buy a gorgeous double door fridge. Instead, we opted for something a bit more refined. Have a look.
Here it is in all it’s glory. It’s a Whirlpool, not that it really matters. What matters to me is that it’s an American style fridge. This means the freezer is on top and as an added bonus, it’s huge. I only have one drawer in there, which slides right out, and I even have space for ice, plus space on the door. It’s easy for me to get into and manage, and I like that.
It fits in the corner of my kitchen quite nicely, although the delivery men and Paul weren’t sure if it was actually going to fit in the door. In fact, I was even a bit nervous about it. I thought it was quite large when it arrived, but now the only time I
think about the size is when I have new people over for the first time.
They usually say, “Wow, that’s big.” with a bit of awe in their voice. If you click on the picture, the photo will open and you get a much better idea of the size of the fridge. For scale, the cupboard to the left of it is probably about a foot wide.
I love my fridge/freezer.
And I can fit two insets for my ice cream maker in the freezer quite nicely.
