by Vanessa Cowley

Created on: November 12, 2008

Housework is, let's be honest, utterly tedious. In this modern world full of engaging distractions, why on earth would you choose to waste a perfectly good morning defrosting your freezer? It's not like laundry or dishes, where, once the machine is set, you can walk away and deal with it after a nice walk in the park or some retail therapy. If you walk away from a defrosting freezer, you will likely come home to puddles, wet floors, and most likely some mystery meat that has been buried in the ice like a Neanderthal in a glacier, which has thawed and is dripping juices on your beautiful floor.

On the other hand, if you defer this taks, you will eventually have to face the fact that you have so much ice lining the inside of your freezer that you can no longer put anything in, nor are you able to pull anything out. Your freezer has ceased to be useful in its current form, and you can no longer put off the task. You have to defrost it - or get rid of it. The good news is that this tedious task can be tackled aggressively, considerably speeding up the process! Don't be timid, and get it over with quickly.

First, turn up the heat. If you have space heaters, use them. Empty the freezer, using whatever boxes, coolers or tubs you have. As this is going to be fast, you don't need to worry about your food thawing and spoiling, although if you have a cooler location in your house, it would be wise to move the frozen food there. Take out all the shelves, racks and anything else that isn't completely sealed in the ice.

Next, boil several pots of water and put the bowls of hot water inside the freezer. Get several old towels or rags and put them in the bottom of the freezer, and on the floor if you have an upright freezer. If you have a Magic Bag, heat that up in the microwave and put it in a plastic bag before placing it on the thickest section of ice. Leave the freezer door open, and while waiting for the ice to soften and begin to thaw, wash the racks and baskets.

Now, you need to go and get your hair drier, heat gun or, in a pinch, blow torch. Speaking from experience, you have to be careful with the latter or you will melt the inside wall of the freezer. Also, if you live in a northern climate, pull the ice scraper out of your car. If you don't have an ice scraper, a kitchen lifter the kind used for flipping pancakes will probably serve just as well.

Now you are armed. Hopefully the combination of the bowls of hot water and the space heaters is starting to work and you will have dripping water and softening ice. Holding your hair dryer in one hand and your ice scraper in the other, tackle a likely bit of crusted ice. Go for something that looks ready to break away. Chip aggressively at the ice while strategically applying the heat from the hair dryer.

Pause occasionally to put more hot water in the bowls, reheat the Magic Bag, remove any loose chunks of ice and wring out the rags. Continue in this manner until most of your ice is free. This method not only gets your freezer ice free with a minimum of wasted time, but it can also be therapeutic.

Now your freezer is ice free, return all the food to the freezer, and go out and enjoy your day, knowing that there is still plenty of time left to enjoy.

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