WFMW - A Freezer Tip

I've always heard that the freezer works better when full but never really took any action. Every two months my freezers are VERY full, then they slowly empty until there's enough room for a family of four to live in there.

A couple weeks ago when the world's nicest appliance repairman was over to fix my dishwasher, refrigerator, and pronounce my washer not-worth-fixing, he convicted me to work harder to keep the freezer full. It seems that the freezer uses the frozen food to cool itself down when defrosting. This results in less energy used and the freezer doesn't have to work as hard and will therefore last longer.

So the question was "How to accomplish the never emptying freezer?" Here's the our simple solution:

• After big grocery, the freezer is full.
• Every time we empty a jug of milk, fill it 3/4 full of water and stick it in the freezer.
• As time goes on, we end up with a freezer full of frozen jugs.
• When it's time to grocery, (since we live a ways from the store) we'll use some of the jugs in our coolers to keep our food cold on the ride home.
• We'll water the flowers with the water and recycle the jugs.
• Repeat.