Appliance Withdrawal
"My name is Deb (Hi Deb) and I am an appliance addict."
In an effort to reduce electrical usage and because of a wretched excess of cooling power, we have decided to eliminate one appliance (perhaps two) in our home. As empty nesters, we do not have an immediate need for two full size refrigerator/freezers, one upright freezer, one college dorm sized refrigerator/freezer and one "pop machine". Now the question is which of these appliances will be the one(s) to go.
The primary refrigerator/freezer (a side-by-side model) is the appliance least likely to be selected as the one to be retired. It is the newest appliance we have and although the side-by-side format is very inconvenient (you can only efficiently store long skinny food like bacon, hot dogs and salmon fillets), it fits perfectly in that space in the kitchen and is the color to match all of the other kitchen appliances.
The "pop machine" was purchased as one of the great finds at a local farm sale/auction for $35 about 15 years ago. It is a Coke machine. For those of you from the South, I mean a genuine "Coke" (as in Coca-Cola) can vending machine. It is located in the garage and has been a great novelty for storing mass quantities of Miller Lite and Diet Coke. The coin mechanism has been rerouted and a push button switch installed which when pressed releases your selection of six types of beverage. (BTW, the Minute Maid selection is the one that dispenses the beer.) This unit is probably 35 years old and has a condenser with freon in it. It's known for delivering the coldest beverages in Union County. It even dispensed a piece of jewelry on our 25th wedding anniversary. It has sentimental value but it is probably the highest usage of electricity on the property. But it's really cool - who else do you know that has a real Coke machine in their garage? IMHO, it is a top contender for retirement.
The upright freezer was purchased from Sears in 1978 and delivered to our first home - the trailer house. It was the first major appliance purchase of our marriage right before the portable dishwasher. It lives in the "food room" in the basement. It is typically packed with so many frozen items, that you can't fit another item in it. This appliance stores mostly meat, ice cream and frozen canned orange juice and frozen margarita mix. There are also a few unlabeled disposable Ziploc containers which hold either Orange Sherbert or frozen chicken fat. The freezer pisses me off about once a year by creating so much frost that the door no longer will create a tight "seal" and it forces an emergency manual defrost procedure. This never happens on schedule - but always when I have the least time to do it. On occaision, it happens when I'm on the road and Doyle gets the job. A 30 year old freezer is probably not very efficient in using electricity and since I'm already mad at it for its recent behavior this week, it is the most probable candidate for retirement.
The secondary refrigerator/freezer was acquired in an appliance swap with our good friends Jerry and Carol. It is copper colored and has the freezer on the bottom. Its main function is to store excess vegetables during the summer harvest and frozen corn, tomatoes and stuffed green peppers. It's probably also 30 years old and while not very efficient, it also has value because we really need another refrigerator/freezer on many occasions because the big upright freezer is always full.
The dorm refrigerator was purchased when Roxie left for college in 1999. It has served Roxie, Lucas, and Whitney through their dormitory years. It is nice sized and fits well on top of the storage cabinets in the garage. It gets used to hold excess asparagus (in season) as well as the every other year surplus of apples we have when our trees over produce our demand. It would be a good solution to replace the pop machine since it could probably hold at least a two week supply of the beverages. But then we'd be just like every other family with a refrigerator in the garage. We would lose some of our "cool factor".
So, we are in the evaluation mode. We have decided to do an "eat down" of the upright freezer. We have pledged that we will not put one more item into the freezer, but will only remove food until we can unplug it for a trial run. Wish us luck - if you have any advice, please comment. This is going to be a tough couple of months. We'll take it one day at a time.
In an effort to reduce electrical usage and because of a wretched excess of cooling power, we have decided to eliminate one appliance (perhaps two) in our home. As empty nesters, we do not have an immediate need for two full size refrigerator/freezers, one upright freezer, one college dorm sized refrigerator/freezer and one "pop machine". Now the question is which of these appliances will be the one(s) to go.
The primary refrigerator/freezer (a side-by-side model) is the appliance least likely to be selected as the one to be retired. It is the newest appliance we have and although the side-by-side format is very inconvenient (you can only efficiently store long skinny food like bacon, hot dogs and salmon fillets), it fits perfectly in that space in the kitchen and is the color to match all of the other kitchen appliances.
The "pop machine" was purchased as one of the great finds at a local farm sale/auction for $35 about 15 years ago. It is a Coke machine. For those of you from the South, I mean a genuine "Coke" (as in Coca-Cola) can vending machine. It is located in the garage and has been a great novelty for storing mass quantities of Miller Lite and Diet Coke. The coin mechanism has been rerouted and a push button switch installed which when pressed releases your selection of six types of beverage. (BTW, the Minute Maid selection is the one that dispenses the beer.) This unit is probably 35 years old and has a condenser with freon in it. It's known for delivering the coldest beverages in Union County. It even dispensed a piece of jewelry on our 25th wedding anniversary. It has sentimental value but it is probably the highest usage of electricity on the property. But it's really cool - who else do you know that has a real Coke machine in their garage? IMHO, it is a top contender for retirement.
The upright freezer was purchased from Sears in 1978 and delivered to our first home - the trailer house. It was the first major appliance purchase of our marriage right before the portable dishwasher. It lives in the "food room" in the basement. It is typically packed with so many frozen items, that you can't fit another item in it. This appliance stores mostly meat, ice cream and frozen canned orange juice and frozen margarita mix. There are also a few unlabeled disposable Ziploc containers which hold either Orange Sherbert or frozen chicken fat. The freezer pisses me off about once a year by creating so much frost that the door no longer will create a tight "seal" and it forces an emergency manual defrost procedure. This never happens on schedule - but always when I have the least time to do it. On occaision, it happens when I'm on the road and Doyle gets the job. A 30 year old freezer is probably not very efficient in using electricity and since I'm already mad at it for its recent behavior this week, it is the most probable candidate for retirement.
The secondary refrigerator/freezer was acquired in an appliance swap with our good friends Jerry and Carol. It is copper colored and has the freezer on the bottom. Its main function is to store excess vegetables during the summer harvest and frozen corn, tomatoes and stuffed green peppers. It's probably also 30 years old and while not very efficient, it also has value because we really need another refrigerator/freezer on many occasions because the big upright freezer is always full.
The dorm refrigerator was purchased when Roxie left for college in 1999. It has served Roxie, Lucas, and Whitney through their dormitory years. It is nice sized and fits well on top of the storage cabinets in the garage. It gets used to hold excess asparagus (in season) as well as the every other year surplus of apples we have when our trees over produce our demand. It would be a good solution to replace the pop machine since it could probably hold at least a two week supply of the beverages. But then we'd be just like every other family with a refrigerator in the garage. We would lose some of our "cool factor".
So, we are in the evaluation mode. We have decided to do an "eat down" of the upright freezer. We have pledged that we will not put one more item into the freezer, but will only remove food until we can unplug it for a trial run. Wish us luck - if you have any advice, please comment. This is going to be a tough couple of months. We'll take it one day at a time.
posted by Deb at 10:37 PM
2 Comments:
Save the pop machine!!! The coolest thing in/or around our house!
It's going to be a tough sell to get my friends to come to SD when I tell them the famed beer dispensing Coke machine is out of commission.
I second Roxie's vote. My students love when I tell them that my parents have a pop machine. How about get a new, more efficient, bottom freezer fridge for upstairs and then get rid of the one in the basement? It might be a little more expensive up front but may save money in the long run and with the better use of space upstairs you won't even need the downstairs fridge anymore. And that little fridge has probably served its purpose and can be put on the auction or gifted away to someone in need...you shouldn't try to save it until G & C go to college.
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