Lawn & garden

Cleaning up your front and back yards is a good place to start getting your outdoors ready for spring and summer. Choose a sunny day and enjoy spending time outside. Remove leaves and dead plants from garden beds as well as broken branches from greenery. Early spring is a great time to prune plants and trees and give shrubbery a haircut. De-thatch your lawn with a good raking and apply spring fertilizer. When temperatures are warm enough, seed your lawn if needed.

Power wash

In short, power wash everything. Hard surfaces can become muddy and grimy over the winter, especially near ground level. Surfaces in shady areas can also have a layer of algae, mould or even moss from last summer. Use a power washer to blast away all this grime and make your surfaces look new again. Don’t forget to power wash sidewalks, fences, decking, outdoor furniture, siding, brickwork and your front steps. Annual power washing is a great way to maintain the outdoor areas of your house.

Windows

Clean windows not only make the outside of your house sparkle, they make an incredible difference when looking out from the inside of your home. Many modern window designs allow you to clean the outside of windows from inside your house. If you don’t have this feature, use a ladder to get to second story windows. For extremely high windows, use a sponge mop on an extension pole. Direct sunshine will dry soap too quickly so clean windows on a cloudy day and use a squeegee to prevent streaks.

Gutters

Winter storms blow leaves and debris into rain gutters which makes clogging a real possibility.. When spring rain begins, you want your gutters to be clear and ready to handle large amounts of water. Wear gloves and scrape out as much debris and gunk as possible. Also make sure your downspouts are unclogged. Use a hose with a spray nozzle to rinse out any remaining debris in the gutters and downspout. Check to make sure your downspouts are directing water away from the foundation.