Spring Prep Tips for Your Home and Yard

Time for some spring cleaning

The first and most important place to start is with spring cleaning! Many people put this off because spring cleaning is a big project that can seem daunting. And, if attempted in one fell swoop, it can indeed overwhelm. So, to make the process easier, faster, and more satisfying, tackle one room at a time. Breaking down a big project into smaller tasks speeds up your efforts and brings a wonderful burst of satisfaction when each task is completed. Before you know it, your home will be sparkling clean once more.

In addition, it is important to organize your space and deal with clutter. We recommend setting up four different boxes. One box can be for belongings you want to put away for the winter. Another box can be for the possessions you want to keep and store. A third box can be used to collect those items you want to give away, sell, or donate to charity. The final box is for all of the items you are going to throw into the trash. The benefit to you is two-fold: your home will look and feel a lot cleaner, and you will find that your thinking is clearer because of the open space.

There are additional chores to tackle after a long winter. For example, you’ll want to give a little TLC to your exterior windows, the patio, and the grill. You should also make sure you store your winter items, from bedding to clothing. Pull out all of your spring items so your home has a fresh and revitalizing feel.

Brighten up your home with a pastel color palette

With spring comes longer days and warmer temperatures that naturally inspire you to bring some of the cheerfulness and joy seen outdoors into your indoors. A great way to do this is by adding more pastels to your home’s color palette. There are lots of different ways you can do this. For example, you can create a beautiful accent wall. Beautiful colors for this time of year include lemon, mint green, lilac, and baby blue. Of course, cushions, rugs, and artwork also work incredibly well to brighten things up, welcome the warm weather, and herald the arrival of spring.

Outdoor Clean-Up

Once the snow melts, focus some of your energy on bigger outside tasks. This is a great time to check your roof for missing shingles, make sure your irrigation system is working properly, repair damaged screens, level stepping stones, clean out your gutters, fix your fence, deck or shed.

Gutter Clean Out

Gutters are the first line of defense against costly water damage, so make sure to get in there and clean out any debris with the powerful jet setting of your hose. While you’re up there, check for cracks in the gutter seams and scrape out old caulking before drying the area thoroughly. Add new sealing to keep water from getting behind the gutters and rotting out siding.

Wash Windows

Cleaning windows is an ideal cloudy-day activity. Start by taking the window screens out and soaking them. Use a garden hose to fill a child’s wading pool then scrub them with a soft brush on a flat surface. To prevent damage, rinse screens using the fine mist setting off a cleaning nozzle. Next, move to the glass windows and use a window-cleaner before rinsing. Be sure to dry windows right after with an absorbent towel to prevent streaking.

For a Greener Lawn

Caring for your lawn is also important during the early spring months. Now is the time to give your yard a good rake or aerate to loosen matted grass clippings and remove thatch. During the winter months, many types of debris can fall onto your lawn. So, grab a garden rake and start clearing up all of the dead grass, broken tree limbs, and other debris so that the only thing left is grass. At this point, you’ll be able to fully see what condition your lawn is in, and can begin to plant grass seed in any bare patches.

Another simple yet effective step that makes an immediate impression, is to neaten the edges of your lawn. Get rid of any uneven lines and create borders that are clean-cut. You can use edging shears or an edging iron to do this. It is a job that is incredibly satisfying yet won’t take a lot of time either, so it is a win-win.
Finally, your lawn is going to need a bit of nourishment so that it grows effectively during the coming months. The use of good lawn fertilizer throughout the spring ensures healthy growth while reducing the appearance and spread of moss and weeds.

Helpful Tips for Growing Season

Just before your spring bulbs start to pop up, or before adding any new plants and flowers, you will want to clean the plant debris from your garden beds to encourage new growth. Start by removing broken branches from tree limbs and shrubs, matted leaves, weeds, perennial foliage from last year, and any annuals you didn’t remove in the fall.

Break out your hand and tree pruners to clean up trees and shrubs, and other plants; trimming just enough to encourage healthy branch growth.

This is the perfect time to add about an inch of compost to the soil of your flower and garden beds. Check your local home improvement store for new mulch if the old mulch has been there longer than a couple of years.

Plant Some Beautiful Flowers So Your Garden Thrives

Another task that you will want to carry out at this time of year is planting some flowers, tall plants, or flowering shrubs so that you can get your garden in a beautiful condition. To do this, you are going to need to have an understanding of which flowers and plants should be planted during this time of year. Some of the best spring flowers include forget-me-nots, tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, crocuses, snowdrops, and primrose.

Make sure the air quality in your home is perfect for spring

Aside from the tips that we have mentioned so far, it is vital to replace the air filters in your home roughly every three months. Therefore, this is an important task to include on your maintenance checklist for spring. In some homes, it makes sense to replace air filters even more regularly depending on the environment, i.e. if you have family members with allergies or you have pets in the house.

It is also important to make sure you get your air conditioning unit serviced for the months ahead. The last thing you want is for your A/C system to let you down once it’s hot outside! So, we highly recommend having your A/C unit serviced now. It will save you a lot of money and hassle in the long run.

Final Words On Preparing Your Home and Yard for Spring

So there you have it; a few helpful tips about getting your home and yard ready for the spring. We hope that the tips mentioned above will help you get your lawn and home ready to welcome spring! Indeed, spring is such a beautiful season, and after the past few years we have had, it will certainly be nice to spend time again with family and friends in our gardens and homes.