I'll share some here. After a short outage, I bought a new generator. Right in the middle of the outage, the old one blew a rod, literally. It knocked a hole in the side of the engine and went flying out into the woods. It was small but would run the fridge OR the two freezers, not all at the same time. I bought it used but I think it was around 1500W or so. Tiny really. It did show how handy they were tho. It gave me ideas.
The new Generator I bought, it's 3500W running and 4800W start up. When we had our last power outage, I ran cables I had for the generator. The fridge pulls the most at about 800 to 900 watts running. The start up on the fridge is large. The deep freezers pull a couple hundred watts each once running and the start up is a lot better too, shorter and not such a large draw. The way I do is this. I start the fridge first on its own leg. I wait a couple minutes, usually while I'm running the next cable, then start the freezers one at a time with a minute or so between each one. After that, I plug the TV into the same leg as the freezers. We have DirecTV so it takes a few minutes to load itself up. Even with all that running, the generator doesn't seem to have much of a load on it. It doesn't have a meter or anything but judging by the sound, it isn't working to hard. The hardest part is when the fridge starts up. That puts a load on it. Going by power draw when on local power company, I figure the fridge on one leg and the rest on the other pretty well balances it out. It may not be perfect but pretty close.
Also, if I need to recharge some flash light batteries, I plug that in with the TV, cell phones too. I have dozens of rechargeable batteries and chargers that can charge as many as eight at a time. Must have flashlights.
I usually run the Generator until the fridge and freezers turn off. I have external temp gauges on the freezers so I can tell what they are without opening the door and loosing any cold. Once the fridge and freezers are cold, off goes the generator.
Heat. We have electric central heat that we no longer use. It's just not efficient at all. The duct work needs replacing. So, we use space heaters in each room. I get the real good ones that cost a little more and have safety features. I like the ceramic ones myself. Also, I have a kerosene heater that can heat the place all by itself. If there is no power, kerosene it is. For the summer, I could run a A/C but likely won't. We'd just have to sweat it out a bit.
Also, I have a Coleman stove that is dual fuel. I have some camping fuel for it but I also have 55 gallon drums of gas with Marvel Mystery Oil in it. I'm not saying how many I have but I'll likely have gas when no one else does, including some gas stations. I also have diesel in drums for the tractor as well, in case a tree falls around the house. Chainsaw ready for business too. I could heat some foods on the kerosene heater, if it just needs warming up, like can foods or something.
Everything I run on the generator has to be unplugged from the wall to hook to the generator. That is my way of making sure there is no power going out into the lines. I like the guys and gals working at our local power company and certainly wouldn't want any of them to get hurt, or any of my neighbors either. I'm just not worried about a transfer switch and making it that easy, yet.
To the OP. You have a lot of good advice. You seem to be doing things that make it easier than my setup, even if you use a manual switch and manual start to do it, but one could do it my way IF power outages are somewhat rare. Even tho I live quite a ways off from the coast, we do get power outages from hurricanes at times. Our local power company is really good at getting things back going tho. The longest I can recall since I was a kid, about 26 hours. We live waaaaay out to just about the end of the line too. We are about as far from the power station as you can get so we are usually the last to get power back. The biggest thing I would suggest, make sure you have options. The thing I don't like about propane, if the outage lasts long enough or the weather is bad enough, it could limit your options. Gas, even Diesel, can be found in several places, vehicles, tractors, large trucks etc. Propane, not so much. If it were me, I'd at least consider having a larger tank or a gas generator as backup, just in case. Look at the history of power outages you have had in your area over the last couple decades and plan for at least that. If your setup can't last that long, you may want to work on a new plan. Remember, plan for the worst, hope for the best.
I wish I had a diesel generator. Those engines last so long. I'd worry more about the power generating part than the engine going out. I could run it off the tractor too. OP, do you have that as a option? Since you are sort of manual like me, if you have a tractor, having a generator that hooks to it could help.
Oh, I've monitored power after major outages before. A place I used to work at had what we called the blue box. It was a line analyzer. It could detect if even one cycle was missing. Low voltage, to high a voltage etc etc and it prints it out. When we would hook that up after power outages, the power was a mess. Sags, surges, extended brownouts etc etc. It would be printing pretty steady if not continuously. Word of advice, even when power comes back on, give it at least a couple hours before going back on line power with anything expensive or sensitive to that sort of problem. The longer it has been out, the longer one needs to wait. Afterwards, check all your surge protectors and make sure they are still working correctly. Some have those LEDs that change colors when they die. Just a additional thought.