Fall Cleaning Outdoor Checklist

Fall, like spring, can be considered a “transitional” season, wedged between summer and winter and taking people from one extreme to the next seasonally. Fall is the perfect time to get your house built from cottage house plans ready for the cold of winter. Since the weather is still pleasant, the breezes still warm and carrying out those outdoor tasks seem hardly like a chore. There are several outdoor tasks that should be performed each fall to get your home ready for the cold months of winter coming soon.

Before the water running through your hose gets freezing cold, hose down all your outdoor furniture and dry it off. If you have furniture covers, then cover all the pieces of furniture you plan to leave outdoors. If you store pieces indoors in a basement, garage or other storage space, then this is the time to bring them in. Don’t forget about storing pots and planters also. Do yourself a favor now and bring them in along with any hanging baskets. Remove all bedraggled plants and flowers before moving inside your cottage plans house.

Most homeowners have their summer toys, landscape equipment and gardening items invading all areas of their garage by the end of the summer. This is the perfect time to reorganize the garage and install bicycle brackets for hanging the bicycles overhead. Raking up any leaves that have fallen will keep your grass from dying over the winter. Then, weed and feed the lawn. The best time to do this is in the fall so that your grass will be thicker and greener in the spring. Then, give your lawn its final cutting. Cut it low and rake up the cuttings so that insects and bacteria don’t thrive throughout the winter months.

If you have a built-in sprinkler system, chances are you will have to call the company who installed it to winterize it for the colder months. If you don’t have a built-in sprinkler system, then make sure you have picked up any sprinklers and hoses that may still be lingering around the yard and unhook them from the outdoor faucets. Failing to do so can cause serious plumbing damage as the temperatures drop below freezing.

Now, that all the main outdoor clean-up has been done and the leaves have been cleared and hauled away, take a walk around the edge of your home plan and property and make sure to take the time to spot any cracks that need sealing or holes to fill in near your foundation or in your siding.