As spring rolls around, getting your house in order goes beyond spring cleaning. It's time to shift your focus outdoors — primarily to your landscaping and outdoor entertaining areas — so you can enjoy more time outside in the coming months. Here's a rundown of must-do home and yard maintenance tasks, along with some tools to make them easier.
Prices and availability are subject to change.
Related: The Biggest Spring Cleaning Mistakes People Make Every Year
No matter how tidy you left them in the fall, flower beds should be included in your spring cleanup. Winter weather brings in more leaves and debris that, if left there, can cause mold to grow around the roots of your plants. Luckily there are handy tools to make the job easier and spare your back from too much bending over.
Related: 22 Tips to Keep Gardening Dirt Cheap
$21 from Amazon
While these might look comical, they are actually very useful tools that every gardener should consider. They pick up far more sticks, leaves, and random debris than you can gather with your bare hands, saving you time and energy. You can also use them to move or spread around mulch.
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$40 from Amazon
Weeds are another thing to look for as you clean out your flower beds. Those pesky little things begin popping up right about now, and it’s best to nip them in the bud (pun intended) before they take root and spread. Grandpa’s Weeder has a 45-inch handle and four-claw design, so you can pull out weeds from the roots without bending over.
$14 from Ace Hardware
Don’t fight with yard waste bags anymore. Instead, make quick work of debris from your flower beds with a pop-up reusable garden bag. It stands on its own, so you don't have to fight to keep the bag open while you fill it. Convenient handles make it a cinch to drag out to the curb or into the woods to dispose of leaves. It folds up for easy storage when not in use.
Although you may have fertilized your lawn in the fall, you need to do so again in the spring. Fall and spring fertilization provide different nutrients your grass needs for the different seasons. Fall fertilization delivers extra nitrogen for the long winter, so that grass comes back green and strong in the spring. Spring fertilization provides food to strengthen the roots and begin the growing season. It also kills pesky weeds.
$32 from Home Depot
If you live in the northern states, consider Scotts Turf Builder Triple Action for your yard. This formula kills dandelions, clover, and other weeds common to the region while stopping crabgrass from invading. It also feeds your lawn, helping it grow green and lush as the season progresses.
$28 from Home Depot
For those in the South, there's Scotts Turf Builder Southern Triple Action. This formula prevents fire ants, kills weeds local to the region, and feeds your lawn. It also helps build up your grass to withstand a hot summer.
$12 from Home Depot
It’s not just your grass that wakes up hungry after winter. Your trees and shrubs do too. Help them to thrive with a fertilizer like Espoma Organic Plant-tone. Used for trees, shrubs, flowers, and even vegetables, its beneficial microbes allow for long-lasting, slow-release feeding that will last the growing season. And this formula is easy to use — no mixing is required. Just spread it over your soil, and you’re good to go.
Once your beds and garden are cleared of debris and weeds, they are ready for plants. For your flower beds, be sure to pick shade or sun annuals based on what type of light the beds get throughout the day. You can start a vegetable garden from seed or skip that part and go straight for already established plants. No matter what you’re planting, we found handy products to minimize your efforts.
Related: How to Grow Plants and Vegetables From Kitchen Scraps
$14 from Amazon
Not looking forward to planting bulbs this year? A garden auger drill bit will dig the holes for you. With this kit, you get two sizes of augers that attach to a drill (18-volt or greater recommended). It's a cinch to plant flower beds, dig holes for garden stakes, and even mix up potting soil.
$34 from Amazon
If you’ve never had a complete garden kit before, investing in one like the Yissvic Garden Tool Set on Amazon makes tending to your yard so much easier. These durable and sharp tools come in a storage case to make it easy to tote them from one area of your yard to another and save you searching for what you need.
Spring cleanup should include touching up your trim every year and paying special attention to your front door. It takes a beating over the winter months, especially if it’s not covered. Spring touch-ups prevent moisture from breaking the seal and causing the paint to chip and wood to rot, while also freshening up the look.
$47 from Amazon
Instead of painting your trim and front door by hand, shave hours off your effort with a paint sprayer. Do note: You can’t use just any paint sprayer. You need one specifically suitable for outdoor use, as outdoor paint is thicker than indoor paint. The Scuddles Paint Sprayer comes with five different size nozzles, some for thicker outdoor paints and some for thinner indoor paints, so you don’t have to worry about clogging.
While you are touching up paint, now is also an excellent time to dust off those address numbers so they can be seen from the street. The numbers on your home may need replacing, while the numbers on your curb can be repainted with spray paint and a stencil.
$11 from Amazon
A simple stencil kit makes quick work of repainting those curb numbers for a crisp, clean look. With this kit, you get two of each number, 4 inches tall, in a soft serif font (you can get different fonts at other prices). The stencils are plastic and can be reused year after year.
After months of snow, salt, and slush, everything outside is sure to be a little dingy. Get that sparkle and shine back with a good clean. A pressure washer can make quick work of caked-on dirt and grime. Use it on your siding, deck, cement, patio furniture, and more.
$156 from Amazon
The Sun Joe SPX3000 can take on light, medium, and filthy jobs with five different spray tips and two different detergent tanks for whatever you need to clean. Affordable and easy to use, this is a tool you'll appreciate having in your rotation to shave time off your spring cleanup.
Cleaning your outdoor furniture every spring can be quite a chore, but well worth it to save money buying new every year. A recommended to-do list:
$17 from Amazon
Eliminate hard scrubbing that can tire you out and damage fabric with Star Brite Mildew Stain Remover. This powerful cleaner can cut through grease and grime and remove mold and mildew stains on contact without harming fabrics. It can be used on acrylic fabrics, vinyl upholstery, wood, fiberglass, drywall, concrete, tile, grout, gutters, siding, and roofs — basically everything you would need to clean on the outside of your home.
Fling open the windows and let that fresh air in. Spring means no more storm windows. But you’ll want to check your screens and make sure they’re in good working order so they don’t let unwanted bugs and critters inside. You can pay someone to repair your screens or save some money by doing it yourself.
$19 from Amazon
While the task might seem daunting, fixing or replacing broken screens yourself is not hard. All you need is a repair kit like this one available on Amazon. All tools are included, along with the replacement screen. Even customers who claim they have zero DIY skills rave about how easy it is.
Did you know that your ceiling fans should spin in a different direction in the spring and summer than they do in the fall and winter? A clockwise rotation in cold weather creates an updraft and circulates warm air. Your ceiling fans should rotate counterclockwise in warm weather to create a downdraft and cool you off. This can help keep air conditioning costs to a minimum.
$130 from Amazon
A ladder isn’t a cheap purchase (it's certainly not something you want to skimp on), but having one can save you so much in handyman costs. Little Giant ladders get rave reviews and are versatile enough to handle most odd jobs around the house, like switching the direction of your ceiling fans each season. This 6-foot step ladder is rated for up to 300 pounds.
Warmer weather brings higher humidity, making ventilation crucial. The exhaust fans in your bathrooms also can be a fire hazard if they are allowed to accumulate dust. It is recommended that they be cleaned every six months, and spring cleaning is a perfect time to tackle this job.
$20 from Amazon
With this handy little tool, you can thoroughly clean your exhaust fans. First, remove the fan cover and wipe it off. Use a vacuum hose attachment to clean what you can inside the fan. Then blast away dust from the motor with compressed air, and put it all back together.
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