I also need ice often. We have an Igloo (9 cube) portable ice maker. It works well and fast. We put the cubes in a zip baggie to freeze a little harder and then drop the bag to break them up and fill a bin in the freezer. It is a bit bigger than I thought it would be but fits on the counter for the couple of hours it takes to make plenty of ice. We store it under the bed. Yea, I suppose you could buy a lot of 10 lb. bags of ice for the price of the ice maker but it is worth it to us. If I needed more storage space, something else would have to go......Patti