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Here’s what most people think “prepping the yard” means: move out or uncover the furniture, sweep the table, remove the cushions, and call it a day. Then, the first warm Saturday comes, the guests show up, and someone sits and looks up to find Halloween-like cobwebs. Yes! And speaking of October, there’s that patch of moss on the pavers that’s been building since the fall…and the list of patio opening day scares goes on. Most spring yard prep focuses on getting ready for the party, not on doing the important cleanup chores. So to kick off spring, here are five of those jobs—what to do, why it works, and exactly what to use.
1. Catch Air Nets before anything else
If you don’t want to hang out with spiders and fight cobwebs, do this job first. Before anything is placed on your patio or deck, the castle netting must be removed. Start high, work your way down, and prepare yourself emotionally for what (or who!) you might encounter. After a Canadian winter, the cob web situation in every yard is worse than expected. There are also egg sacs. That’s all that needs to be said about it.
This extendable mesh sweeper with extension pole adjusts from 5 to 20 feet, meaning sheds, rafters, fence posts, pergola corners and outdoor light fixtures can be cleaned, all without a ladder. It features a lightweight pole and dense straight bristles designed for outdoor cling netting. Start at the top, sweep down, and remove the hose when you’re done.
2. Move the furniture
Quick question: when was the last time the underside of a patio chair was cleaned? The joints where the legs meet the frame? Empty metal furniture tubes that collected moisture, debris, how about that weave and dirt from October to March?
The underside of outdoor furniture is where mold and mildew like to hang out. It’s where insects and pests nest, where layers of dirt build up over the course of the season, and where the evidence of every freeze and every rainstorm accumulates. And no one remembers to clean this up, which is exactly why it should be on the list.
Remove all the cushions, turn each piece and clean the underside properly. This electric rotary cleaner extends to 43 inches, so difficult corners can be reached without kneeling, bending or touching anything too uncomfortable. Use water and a generous dose of dish soap, and level up with a mold and mildew cleaner (I’ve got you covered in just a minute!). The rotating brush head gets into knots, crevices and weaves that a rag will never clean. It’s wireless, IPX7 waterproof and runs for 90 minutes on a single charge. It does the heavy lifting for you and all you have to do is rinse the furniture and let it dry in the sunlight.
3. Spray the mold and walk away
Every Canadian yard develops some version of this: black and green stains on concrete, mold on deck boards, algae crawling through decking. The usual approaches are to manually clean it with bleach (exhausting, not the safest choice), blast it with a pressure washer at the wrong PSI and etch the surface (expensive mistake), or just leave it and hope no one looks down. Neither of these are particularly good options.
There is a better approach, and it’s so easy it’s almost hard to believe.
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