The backyard is your weekend sanctuary where you can entertain friends, relax with the family or play ball with the kids. But your yard, both front and back, can be a parking place for bikes, gardening tools, toys, and even things with a legit reason for hanging around such as recycling bins. Anything not put away or stored in a safe place can make your property look cluttered. Use these great tips to declutter your property. Having space to work when you clean the gutters or make repairs to siding will help make home maintenance in the fall that much easier.
Declutter all at once.
Planning to tackle the front yard one weekend, then the area around the garden shed the following weekend, and the backyard when you’ve got some time to spare during the week is probably not going to happen. Pick a weekend and declutter all at once. Make it a family project or get volunteers – assign teams to specific sections.
Create a plan.
Take some to envision what you want your outdoor living space to look like. Seeing it in your mind’s eye will help you create a plan that outlines what need to be done in each section.
Don’t forget to factor in follow-through tasks – for example, if trimming hedges and rooting out weeds is on the to-do list, disposing of the branches and weeds should be too. Include a timeline for each task to keep everyone on schedule. Prioritize areas by the amount of work needed to complete the project.
Have a designated sorting area.
The first task on each team’s to-do list is clearing their section of toys, bikes, patio furniture (older than five summers), gardening tools, equipment, and anything else that currently doesn’t have a permanent home.
Have everyone bring items to the designated sorting area where things can be divided into the following piles: keep, in need of repair, sell/give away, and recycle or throw away if necessary.
Anything that can’t be dealt with right away should be stored someplace until it can be repaired, sold, or taken to the thrift store/recycling centre. At the end of your de-cluttering weekend, you will want to see the results of all of your hard work – having stuff still lying around will defeat the purpose.
Have a place to put things.
It’s easy to add storage to a deck or a patio by investing in dual-purpose patio furniture such as storage benches that will also provide additional seating. Need a condiment station near the barbecue? Skip the table and select a portable cabinet with lockable wheels instead.
If the bikes are being left in the yard or on the driveway because there’s no place to put them, consider mounting them on a garage wall or hanging them from the garage ceiling. There is a wide variety of bike storage products, so you’re sure to find something that will work for you and your family.
Consider buying or building a storage shed. It can be the ideal solution for a yard that is cluttered with lawn care equipment. Having somewhere to store everything you require to keep your garden healthy and the lawn looking good will allow you to relax more in your backyard. If you already have a shed but it’s filled with old paint cans, broken pieces of equipment, and discarded toys, perhaps this would be a great place to start de-cluttering.
Hide recycling and garbage bins.
A bunch of random bins for recycling and trash can quickly make a yard look cluttered. Hide bins by putting them behind a lattice with climbing vines. A group of container gardens including small shrubs, tall natural grasses or a combination of flowering plants and grasses creates the ideal screen for a potential eyesore. Portable outdoor screens provide a convenient way to make your recycling station disappear.
