Don’t Let Your Home Get Taken Over by Falling Leaves

Autumn in South Central Pennsylvania is beautiful. The leaves in vivid shades of red, yellow orange and brown are gorgeous to look at. However, when they make their way from trees to yards, fall leaves tend to lose some of their charm.

While it’s difficult to escape the leaves, there are still ways to make sure they don’t overtake homeowners’ yards, driveways, walkways and porches. Homeowners should follow these easy tips for making their houses leaf-free havens this fall.

Welcome Guests and Leaves

Family and houseguests will be the biggest culprits for tracking leaves into homes this fall. It’s an unavoidable fact that leaves stick to shoes, but make sure they stay at the entryway with a good doormat.

Purchase a doormat that has fibers or loops to track leaves and debris. Also find a mat that’s wide enough that guests cannot step over it but must put their feet on it to get inside the home. And the more the merrier with mats: put one outside the door and one directly inside an entryway to catch double the debris.

Guard Your Gutters

Cleaning the rain gutters is never a fun job. Autumn makes that job even less fun as leaves fill up gutters even faster than usual. Ignoring the accumulation could lead to blocked spouts and a big mess when water turns to ice.

Consider installing gutter guards to prevent leaf buildup in rain gutters; aluminum screens will block leaves and other debris from settling into rain gutters. Gutter covers, which go over top of existing rain gutters, are another option to keep debris away – either can be installed by a professional or a handy DIYer with a tall ladder.

Get Leaves Out of the Garage

If there is an accumulation of leaves on the garage floor, chances are it’s only a matter of time before they start to get tracked into the house.

Use doormats on either side of the door leading into the home to keep the problem contained, or nip the problem in the bud. However, if a garage doubles as tool storage, break out an air compressor. The makeshift leaf blower will clean up a garage floor in no time flat.

Photo: Lauren Finkel Photography