Egg Spring Cleaning?

I've had some things going on that have prevented me from using my 2 BGEs for a year or more, and now I'm able to do so again, but they were moldy inside.  So I did a 600 degree burn in the Large to clean it, but the Medium wouldn't go over 400.  The next day, I cleaned them both out, and decided I'd be thorough and I took out the firebox and fire ring, and WOW!!!  No wonder my Medium wouldn't go over 400 degrees: there was a HUGE amount of ash between the firebox and the wall of the egg, so there was much less air circulation coming in to feed the fire.  I have no doubt I'll easily get the temp to 600 next time to complete the cleaning process.  I'd done that once before, but it was years ago, and I just hadn't been thinking about it.

So just in case any of you are like me, and haven't done a thorough cleaning in a long time, maybe learn from my mistake, and once in a while, take out the ceramic inserts from the Egg and get all of the ash and cinders out of it.  I wish I'd taken some pictures, but when it occurred to me, I'd already cleaned most of it out, and my hands were filthy.  I think I'll try to make this a "Spring cleaning" thing every year from now on.

Theo