I much prefer freezer drawers. We have a French door fridge in the kitchen, with a freezer drawer, and a small, stand up freezer in the laundry room. The one in the kitchen is much easier to use.

I don't even know what you mean by "freezer column," but a well organized drawer is very easy to use...

My parents had a French door fridge in the late 1970s. The upper part was great, but you always had to rearrange everything in the freezer to find what you were looking for. It was a big bin and did not have drawers, so perhaps the drawers add some organization to the space. My mother liked the bin because with all the rearranging, she always knew what was in her freezer.

acm - this is what I mean by freezer column. Just a tall thin freezer that doesn't have an attached refrigerator. It's like the freezer side of a side-by-side fridge/freezer, except it is on its own so you have more flexibility for where you place it in the kitchen layout.

Short people like me like drawers. :)

Spend some time in an appliance store and try to bond with one--this isn't a thing you can easily swap out later on.

Yeah, I'd look for one that has drawers inside, like the bottom of most French door fridges these days -- ours has two thin drawers , and then the base part is divided, and a couple of added bins mostly keep categories of things in line. But I have no first-hand familiarity with freestanding freezers of either type, so I can't speak to their individual merits.

@fori - I currently have all drawers and like them! I just wanted to make sure I'm not forgetting some great benefit of the tall freezer. I guess maybe that you can access things without bending over, but I'm ok with bending over to access freezer items since I don't use it very often.

The biggest benefit to me of having upright freezer space is their ability to handle tall cakes and sheet pans.

As far as I can tell, the only benefit of a tall freezer (and the integrated columns are tall) is that the tall family members have a place to hide things from the rest of the household.

I've had both and I prefer the column, because when items are stacked, I can still see the side and know what I have. I now have drawers, and things being stacked on top of one another means I forget I have stuff hidden below. Organizing the freezer has become a chore.

I agree with fori... spend some time in an appliance store to see which you prefer. Our local appliance stores offer refrigerators (side by side vs. french door) and columns filled with food and beverages. I think most people are going for drawers lately (in cabinet or french), but I prefer side by side or columns as I don't like the digging around, my hands and fingers freezing. I also forget about the items in the bottom of freezer drawers.

The only benefit I can see with columns is that eventually, I will open the door, and something will slide out and land on my big toe.

plllog - thanks! Very comprehensive! For the cookie sheet issue, I think I could fit a cookie sheet in a freezer drawer? The ones I've seen are 24" and 30" wide...maybe I'm missing something since a few people have mentioned this being a benefit of a freezer column?

Well I have columns side by side and I'm 5'3". The only thing I can't reach is the very top door bin, which could be removed or lowered. Do the drawers have an ice maker?

Re cookie sheets, it's the particular size and shape. One of the pros of my column freezer is that it takes the baking sheets that come with my oven. Some baking sheets won't fit anything. You can always find (or alter!) sheets to actually fit in the cooler.

With an upright, clearing a single shelf for the baking sheet is easy. I have a pair of shelves that are only about 5-6" apart anyway, and I try to plan to have space, so I can just move a few things around. With drawers, you'd have to give over a whole drawer, at which point taking the sheet in and out might be an issue and you might want to put some kind of vertical lift handles on your sheet. If you put it on top of other stored frozen things, you have to make sure they're level enough, and insulate them somehow (maybe just putting in a layer of newspapers in a bag (previously chilled in fridge) ahead of time (or kept in the freezer for the purpose), so the room temperature sheet won't warm up what's it's stacked on.

It can be done. Or maybe you have several quarter sheets and use a stacker in a corner. Or maybe you just don't worry about freezing meatballs and the like or put them in a container rather than a vacuum sealed bag.

You can make anything work. Just offering up a potential con, not a deal breaker. :)

plllog that makes sense, thank you for explaining! I don't do that kind of thing frequently, but now that you've explained it, i understand why this would be easier in a column freezer, provided it is large enough to hold the sheets

suzyq53 - yes, you can get them with icemakers.