Air Conditioning Maintenance

I've been learning a bit about how to maintain my central air conditioner (A/C) lately. In particular, my neighbor noticed that my outdoor compressor fan wasn't blowing as strongly as it should have. Last night, unscrewed the top and found a pile of leaves, dirt, etc. at the bottom, mainly concentrated in the area where he noted the weakness. I had brought my wet/dry vac with me so I turned it on and sucked-out as much of the crap as I could. I'll soon be back for a second round to give it a more complete cleaning. One thing I found difficult was the fact that the fan was attached to the top metal piece that I removed to gain access to the inside. Also, much of the unit was held together by this top cover. So, I had to use one hand to hold up the cover while I used my second hand to stick the vacuum tube down. Definitely would have been nice to have a second person to help.