Cleaning the exterior of your home can make it look like a brand new house. Here’s everything you need to know about how to clean the outside of a house.
Want to know how important curb appeal is when you’re selling a home?
The National Association of Realtors surveyed its members back in 2017 and found that 99 percent of them listed the appearance of the outside of a house as one of the most important factors when selling it.
You don’t have to be selling your home to want to improve the way it looks, either. If you’re unhappy with the current condition of the exterior of your house, that’s reason enough to make improvements to it so that it looks its best moving forward.
In addition to cleaning up the inside of your house this spring, consider doing some spring cleaning outside as well. Check out some tips for making the outside of a house look like new below.
Remove Leaves, Sticks, and Other Debris
Do you still have a bunch of leaves, sticks, and other debris hanging around in your yard from back in the fall? Getting rid of them should be your first order of business.
Bust out a rake and make piles of debris all over your yard before picking them up and putting them into trash bags. Even if you don’t do anything else to the outside of your home, doing this alone will make it look a whole lot cleaner.
At the same time, if you don’t do this and spend all your time focused on other things, your property is still going to look like a mess when you’re finished. Make it a point to eliminate debris from your yard at the beginning.
Replace Old Mulch
If you’ve had the same mulch in the flowerbeds surrounding your home for a few years now, it’s likely lost all its luster. Mulch can start to fade and look old over time when it’s exposed to the sun, rain, and other elements day in and day out.
When this happens, it’s important to remove the old mulch from flowerbeds and replace it with fresh mulch. Otherwise, the flowers and plants you have in your flowerbeds won’t always get access to the nutrients they need.
The old mulch will also drag your curb appeal way down. Putting new mulch into place will brighten your yard back up in a matter of just hours.
Plant Flowers, Bushes, and Small Trees
Are the flowers, bushes, and trees that you have planted in your home’s flowerbeds in good shape? Then you don’t need to worry about planting more.
But if most of the flowers, bushes, and trees are dying, do something about it. Rip out any old plants and replace them with new ones.
While you’re focused on your landscaping, you should also trim any larger trees in your yard so that they’re not hanging over your home or blocking your views.
Powerwash Siding
Once you’re finished working on your yard, it’ll be time to focus on cleaning up your actual home.
Begin by bringing in a powerwashing company to clean your home’s siding. They can blast away dirt, dust, mold, mildew, and whatever else has gathered on your siding over the course of the winter.
There are some homeowners who will attempt to powerwash their houses themselves. You’re welcome to try it if you want. But it’s a long, tedious job that might not get done right without help from the pros.
This page from LaborPanes will break down the process and show you how often you should powerwash your home to keep it looking amazing.
Paint Front Door
What is it about your house that makes it stand out from all the other homes on your block?
If you’re having a tough time answering that question, it’s because your home lacks a definitive wow factor. The wow factor of a home is the thing that makes people take notice of it.
There are lots of ways to add a wow factor to your home. But the easiest way to get it done is by buying a can of paint and painting your front door.
For years, most homeowners favored brown front doors. But today, they’re going with bolder colors like:
- Deep plum
- Brilliant blue
- Lime green
- Grass green
- Apple red
You won’t have any trouble setting your home apart when you pick the right paint color for your front door. It’ll make a much stronger statement than whatever color your front door is now.
Wash Windows
Most homeowners wash the interior of their windows once every few weeks. But they don’t always get around to washing the exterior of them.
Part of that is because washing the exterior of windows is a lot of work. You have to climb up on a ladder or work your way behind bushes to get to some of them.
If you don’t have the time to do that, the same company that you hire to powerwash your siding can often take care of washing your windows, too. But you can also commit to doing it on your own one window at a time over the course of a few weekends in the spring.
Make Roof Repairs
If your home’s roof has seen better days, consider replacing it. You’ll be blown away by how much more beautiful your home looks with a new roof on it.
Replacing a roof can be an expensive home improvement project, though. On average, it costs homeowners about $7,500.
So rather than ripping it off and putting a new roof on your home, you can also think about making the necessary repairs to it instead. You can replace missing shingles, wipe away stains, and even remove moss and mildew from your roof with help from a roofing company.
Outside of making your home look better, this home improvement project will also extend the life of your roof.
Resurface Driveway
Are there cracks running up and down the entire length of your driveway? They can make your driveway look unsightly and allow water to work its way down into it and do damage.
The best way to eliminate this problem is by having your driveway resurfaced. During the resurfacing process, all the cracks in your driveway will be filled. And when the process is over, it’ll look like you put down a brand-new driveway.
You might be so used to looking at your driveway that you don’t even see the cracks in it anymore. But everyone that drives by your house does, and they’re not impressed with your home as a result of it.
Scrub Down Deck
Does your family enjoy spending a ton of time out on your deck in the spring and summer? Scrub it down before it starts getting warm outside so that you can make the most of it this year.
If your deck is on the newer side, you can get away with using a deck cleaner, a brush, and your garden hose to clean it off. But if it has a lot of dirt deep down inside of it, you may need to powerwash it.
You may also need to stain your deck to bring it back to life. Staining a deck is a project that could take up an entire weekend. But it’ll be well worth it in the end when your deck is like new.
Put Up New Mailbox and House Numbers
As long as you’ve worked through all the other jobs on this list, your house should look like a million bucks at this point. You’ll be proud of its appearance again and happy to show it off to the world.
But, why not put the cherry on top with a couple finishing touches that’ll make a big difference?
First, invest in a new mailbox for your home. Whether you have a mailbox that hangs on your home or one that sits out by the street, a new mailbox will serve as one of the new focal points of your home.
Once your mailbox is installed, think about putting up new house numbers as well. You can find house numbers that will fit the style of your home and be easy to read from out near the street.
These are two small, simple touches in the grand scheme of things. But we can pretty much guarantee that they’ll be two of the first things people notice when they look at your home this spring.
Why You Should Clean the Outside of a House This Spring
The outside of a house is the first thing people see when they visit a home. No matter how great the inside of the house looks, it’s the outside that’s going to set the tone for visitors.
Keep that in mind while you’re cleaning the outside of your house throughout the spring. You’ll be able to make a great first impression on people when you take the time to do exterior house cleaning.
Do you want to learn how you can make the inside of your house look as good as the outside of it? Read our blog to get some tips on pulling off the perfect spring clean.
