I don't buy my meat at Costco, but I'll stock up when it's cheap at Ralph's. I also use it to protect leftovers. I can only eat so much leftover lasagna before I'm sick of it.

I don't have an ant problem (knock wood) so I can't tell you how much they help or don't help. I keep most of my food in a Macgyvered metal-shelf pantry off the ground. The sugar and flour I do have is in Ziploc bags or Tupperware. I've tried to use the canisters for flour and sugar but the granules get stuck and prevent it from sealing.

My biggest problem is actual freezer space. My fridge is "cabinet depth" to fit in the allowed space. This means I loose something like 8 cubic feet of fridge/freezer space compared to the same "regular" model. Of course I didn't know this till the fridge was in place.

The fridge space is fine. I can't put a whole costco pizza box in it (it's not deep enough) but for the most part it works out. Freezer on the other hand doesn't hold a ton. So can't stock up on a lot of stuff as there just isn't room for it.

We have the same problem with our kitchen fridge....that's why we have a second one in the converted garage. Before the garage was converted we had one in there. We needed the extra freezer/fridge for meat and drinks.

Yeah, that's my other problem. The crappy freezer space that I have in the appliance that came with my apartment doesn't even have a shelf, so I have to try to pile things on top of one another to use all the space.

I would never have room for frozen food in my freezer. The freezer belongs to the frozen raw food for the dogs (with some ice cream on the side for Chris).

Can you buy a couple stand alone cabinet shelves from Bed Bath and Beyond? I have a couple of these in my cabinets and they would fit in my freezer with room under and on top.

Steph I had a similiar issue in my last apartment and I got a couple of stackable baskets that fit in. Worked great for meats and such that aren't stackable shapes.

My freezer is full of stuff that we will never eat. I need to clean it out and make better use of the space. Another project for me later on...

1) Make big pot of chicken soup.
2) Have bowl of soup.
3) Cover.
4) Refrigerate.
5) Repeat steps 2-4 for several days, scraping fat and reheating soup first if preferred.

Ah, good one! I love the pot-of-soup-in-the-fridge, because it tastes better over time.