This weekend, the deep freeze in the basement finally got cleaned. Here are 10 reasons I knew it was time for the dirty job.

10. You’re electricity bill is infinitesimally higher, and the utility company says defrosted freezers are more efficient. Your freezer has so much frost, cleaning it should prove the assertion.

9.   Every time you open the freezer, you imagine your mother shaking her head and shuddering as she says, “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

8.  You’re limping because a frozen hunk of something fell out and hit your bare foot.

7.  You find yourself reframing the job as an opportunity to do a stretch glove inventory.

6.   Your deep freeze contains more frost than food.

5.   You’ve been moving “defrost the freezer” from one to do list to the next since March.

4.   One of your ceramic pie pans is missing, and you need to find out if it’s lost or if you made a pie in a fit of industriousness months ago and forgot about it.

3.  You bought $8.00 a pound steaks to grill for your anniversary and can’t remember eating it with your husband.

2.   You know the freezer has plenty of room to freeze cheap blueberries, but a quick look makes you doubt what you know.

1.   Your husband’s home and says he’ll help you.

How do you know it’s time to defrost your freezer?