See my notes above re organization. Boats often have top access fridge and freezer both so I’m used to that. Something I didn’t think to mention is the value of perforated plastic or wire baskets. They make it easy to get to the bottom without making a mess. One for treats like ice cream, grin some for meats, some for veg, … really helps. Lifting a basket out gives easy access to whatever is under.
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We have a full-sized Frech door fridge with two freezer drawers below in the kitchen, plus an upright freezer in the basement. This is a perfect combo for us, but if I had a smaller fridge in the kitchen I think I would go for a second fridge/freezer combo in the basement. Our fridge is basically just large enough for a week’s worth of fresh produce plus all the other usual suspects. Before corona I shopped more often for fresh things so space wasn’t such an issue, but now the fridge is pretty packed after my single week-10 days big shop.
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That’s what we have, two in fact, one in the garage. To me, that’s the best configuration. If I had big bucks I’d get one with a drawer in the middle you can use as fridge OR freezer. But sadly, I have no big bucks.
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Interesting and helpful tips. In the kitchen the freezer is the lower third pull out drawer of the frig. We use that space for foods used in a week and ice bags, nuts and assorted portioned prep food. The chest freezer is mid sized. It started out in the basement and moved to the backroom/laundry area when we did an add on. That freezer holds 80% of our main meal and stock up items req’ing freezing. Inside the chest are two metal racks and one plastic clip on basket that I bought from The Storage Store to rig the chest. Keeps things organized easily. Twice a year we need to defrost and wipe down. Having to helps us use what we have. We found the chest freezer at Lowe’s 15 yrs ago. Still humming.
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Our set up is as follows:
Kitchen - French Doors with decent space in fridge, pull out freezer on bottom with two various sized pull out trays, and the freezer bin beneath. For frozen stuff we use most often, and fairly easily found. Positioned, so as to not block any critical work or prep areas if someone is rummaging for something. Wine fridge in a different part of kitchen. We use the upper colder shelves to store seltzer’s, sodas, a few white wines or Proseccos. Frees up a surprising amount of space in the fridge.
We had a side by side before that. While it had a fantastic ice maker, the whole thing was a pita to keep organized, like others have said. Also, fridge part wasn’t big enough, nor was the freezer part.
Garage: small upright freezer that needs to be defrosted at least once a year. We’d rather defrost than deal with freezer burn resulting earlier in frost free models. Much easier to find stuff than the small chest freezer we used to have, but less energy efficient. We had the chest freezer so long that it was duct taped together on the lid before it finally died.
Also have a small fridge with upper freezer, lower fridge. The set up works well for make ahead cooking, storage for bigger shops, etc. probably wouldn’t make different choices, except for the wine cooler. It died about a month ago, and was less than 4 years old. Will research the replacement even more diligently than before. It’s kind of a crap shoot these days, unfortunately.
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Good point about wine frig. We own two. They both help contain all sorts of beverages, fruits, bar stuff freeing up space in frig and counter. Both under $50 during appliance sales. I’m thinking of gifting our son one for apartment use. It would be ideal for ltd space living. I re-rigged the racks to our needs.
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Wow, envious on the price you got. We paid a lot for our Danby, and it’s not even considered one of the best, such as a Uline. I like the idea for customizing the shelves to your specific needs.
We took our dead one out and took it to an appliance shop we’ve dealt with, to see if it can possibly be repaired. (Avoiding a more expensive service call). I need to check on something, there’s a slight chance with it’s design, that it could be refilled with coolant, but unlikely. I was surprised how much I liked it just for the extra fridge space, and the ease of getting the cold drinks out. I miss it too.
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After the super-useful tips that everyone provided, I thought that I ought to update on what we decided.
Yes, this project morphed into a bigger multistep effort. You saw it coming, didn’t you? 
Part 1: You helped me think through that a garage-ready fridge with freezer would meet our needs best. The kitchen fridge is small, so even a 19.2 cu model will more than double the available space. Delivery expected in early September—fingers crossed!—because backorders still stretch into weeks or months due to the pandemic.
Part 2: Standby generator is in the process of being installed, which means we won’t lose the food in said fridge. We regularly have electricity outages because there are a lot of mature trees in the area. Outages tend to last a day or more, which gets trickier now that my husband has joined the working-from-home contingent.
Part 3: I am scoping out another wire shelf unit to store dry goods and cleaning supplies in the basement. I already use a wire shelf to store winter squash, onions, potatoes, and garlic from our CSA in the fall and winter months. Some cleaning stuff too. The shelf is a crammed hodgepodge when fully stocked so I ought to tighten up my game.
All this is stuff we’d been considering for awhile, so thank you for the helpful advice!
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Thanks for the update on this; so often we don’t hear the final outcome @tomatotomato. Also, I well know how one thing leads to another and another…but, in the end, all for the best usually. Hoping your choices work well for you, as I’m sure they will.
Thought I’d offer an update on the wine fridge that went south a few months ago.
Our Danby was in fact, not repairable. We replaced it with a Zephyr, and paid a bit more than we did for 1st wine cooler. Not a huge difference, maybe $300 more. You can better believe we bought the extended warranty this time. Anyway, it’s so similar to the last one I wouldn’t even realize it was new, if I didn’t know. They all look and function pretty much the same.
I’m really happy to have one back in the empty hole, and am loving the space it frees up in the kitchen fridge, and the fact you can bypass the fridge if someone is putting stuff away or rummaging in there, to go get a seltzer, juice or some wine. Definitely not a strictly necessary appliance, but so nice to have.
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I do like the compactness of a wine fridge. Though I did consider one for fresh produce, we would have still been short on freezer space.
Trying to fit what we need in the least amount of space has been a puzzle, that’s for sure. Cheers.
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Update: I’m still waiting for the fridge we ordered. The original estimated date just came and went. Mid to late October is the best estimate that my appliance dealer can offer, based on information from the manufacturer.
Supply chain delays continue for these appliances.
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This is an old post, but reminded me of some friends who are wine aficionados, and ordered a wine fridge. It arrived damaged somehow (I don’t remember what was wrong). They called the company and informed them, the company said they’d send out a replacement. Friend asked if they expected them to send the damaged one back, the company said no, just cut the cord off and dispose of it responsibly. So they did- they took it to a refrigeration repair company, had it fixed, and now they have two wine fridges. I apologize if I posted this already, it seems like I did. By the way, they didn’t cut the cord off, just sayin’.
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I realize that I hadn’t reported back on my purchase. Whoops. Thanks are way overdue! The garage-ready fridge did eventually arrive, in October. I’m pleased to say it’s been performing like a champ.
A 19.2 cubic foot garage-ready GE fridge was the only choice available to us because we needed a unit that would function properly in our unheated basement. It’s proving to be just right for our needs. We picked the slate color, which looks like a warm bronze tone, because the wait time was shorter than for the other finishes.
The temperatures in the refrigerator and freezer compartments have held very steady as measured by the ThermoWorks fridge thermometer that I use for monitoring.
Apples have wintered over beautifully in the fridge, and we have plenty of space for all our CSA produce. The freezer gives us enough room for make-ahead meals, a pile of our favorite whole-wheat pitas from the Lebanese bakery, a few different types of sausages from a local maker, and ice cream without being either too crammed or too empty.
Everyone’s knowledgeable advice offered upthread hit the mark exactly. Having this second fridge is every bit as helpful as we hoped.
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Glad that worked out. I have a GE in my kitchen that’s been going strong for several years (no jinx).
I don’t know how I missed this thread. I’ve always had an extra fridge in my basement, left behind by my parents. I replaced it 2 years ago when I redid the basement. Realized that I was too spoiled with the extra freezer and fridge space, and couldn’t imagine going back. Glad you finally got the fridge delivered!
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Ha! My husband tackled the chest freezer that would fit no more food a while back. He found stuff from 2011, which was probably okay last time we cleaned that freezer out, but… anyway, we can now fit several bags of ice in there and a lot of frozen food.
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That should serve you nicely in the basement. I do wonder where the temperature range (38F to 110F) comes from for “garage ready.” Here in Maryland I garage gets colder than that in the depths of winter, although not for long. I expect there is no reversing valve in the cooling system (what turns A/C into a heat pump) so the fridge may freeze if a cold snap lasts too long. In summer our garage gets well over 110F when we come home with a hot car, although not for long.
I suspect the numbers are “what can we get away with” as opposed to engineering requirements driven. Over-temp is a bigger issue than under. The compressor can freeze.
Again, a great fit for your basement Denise. I’m just running down an engineering rabbit hole.
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In our case, that low temperature range was the important one. I read that if the temperature outside a refrigerator gets too cold, it can stop running. Not good for the food stored in the freezer compartment.
The unheated basement in our 1920s house can drop to about 40 degrees F during the winter. The stone foundation keeps things cool in the summer, so the upper range is not a concern here.
P.S. “Engineering rabbit hole” is a fun phrase. I think we find one of those every day around our house. 
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Right. The issue with low temp for you will be days and days of 35F where the compressor won’t run but the freezer will eventually rise above freezing. Two things you can do - keep the freezer thermostat at the “hard ice cream point” about 10F so you get days of thermal inertia and the dime trick. You do know the dime trick, right? grin
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Thanks for the tips! Fortunately the 40 degree mark is the lowest temp our basement reaches.
A couple of years ago, we had a weather pattern where the outside temperatures didn’t break 32 degrees for a month and the basement temp held. Though I will now ask my neighbor if they ever had any issues with basement pipes freezing, as they owned our house starting in the mid-1970s. Every time we find a quirk in this old place, we ask and usually there’s an interesting story.
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