Your Guide to Spring Cleaning Your Home's Exterior

While we're all comfortably accustomed to the concept of spring cleaning, most of us view the effort as taking place solely indoors. It's time to reevaluate. After all, there are several good reasons to extend spring cleaning to the exterior of your home. It's not just about curb appeal—although it's well worth thinking about the first impression your house makes on arriving visitors. It's also about getting maximum enjoyment from your outdoor living areas. And, finally, don't forget that maintenance plays a major role in protecting the overall integrity of your home and prolonging the life of its myriad components. Ready to get started? Begin by incorporating the following tasks into your outdoor upkeep regimen.

By Donna Boyle Schwartz | Updated Aug 18, 2015 01:47 PM

Make an Action Plan

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How to Clean Your House

With winter having passed and spring taking steps to the fore, homeowners almost instinctively reach for the mop and dustpan. After months of hibernation, it only makes sense to refresh interior spaces. But don't forget—it's equally important to maintain the exterior! No mere glamour exercise, outdoor upkeep is important for health and safety, and for the proper functioning and longevity of some critical house components. Click through now for an action plan.

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Take a Walk

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Yard Clean Up

Walk around your property to survey its condition. Along the way, gather fallen branches and remove plantings that didn't survive. Move on to inspecting outdoor structures for damage and noting necessary repairs, such as loose fence boards or missing shed shingles. Test your outdoor plumbing and take stock of lawn and garden equipment.

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Clear Your Gutters

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Gutter Cleaning

Responsible homeowners clean the gutters twice each year—once in fall and again in early spring. It's a dreaded task, but a critically important one. Fortunately, the HYDE PivotPro Outdoor Cleaning Water Wand makes the chore a cinch; its head pivots 135 degrees so you can reach over the gutter edge to blast out accumulated leaves and debris.

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Renew Your Siding

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Cleaning Siding

After a long, harsh winter, your siding may emerge worse for wear. If your facade needs a facelift, reach for a hose wand like the HYDE PivotPro. At 46 inches in length, it will give you access to areas well beyond your easy reach. Plus, if needed, its stiff-bristle brush can be swiveled into place to provide extra punch.

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Wash Your Windows

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Washing Windows

Window cleaning may be the quintessential spring upkeep task. The trouble is that if you're washing only the interior side of the glass, you're leaving the project half done. This weekend, finish the job with HYDE PivotPro. Simply add soap to the tool's built-in mixing reservoir and set your soap-to-water ratio, then point and pivot the nozzle to control its cleansing spray.

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Prep Paved Surfaces

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Cleaning Concrete

Somewhere down there, under a grimy, salt-speckled haze, is the paved surface of your driveway, front walk, or backyard patio. Clean away the effects of winter, not only to restore the aesthetic appeal of these areas, but also to promote their longevity. HYDE PivotPro has a pivoting nozzle that will rinse off debris and clean the surface in one pass.

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Make Patio Furniture Sparkle

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Cleaning Patio Furniture

At your next backyard cookout, you certainly don't want to be surrounded by last season's dirt, grime, and mildew. Whether your patio furniture is made of metal, glass, wicker, or vinyl upholstery, the HYDE PivotPro can give it a deep clean. The built-in soap reservoir lets you mix cleansers into the water stream to blast away tough mildew, or you can simply wash away cobwebs with a gentle spray of plain water.

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Refresh Your Deck

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Cleaning a Deck

Before hosting your first barbecue of the season, give the deck a thorough cleaning. While the structure's many crevices may have presented a practical challenge in the past, the adjustable spray angle of the HYDE PivotPro lets you reach over, under, and around boards and railings, all without bending or stretching. To scrub where even hands can't fit, get the complete PivotPro kit; it comes with a spindle brush that can fit virtually anywhere!

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For More...

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For More...

For more about seasonal maintenance, consider:


15 Spring Home Maintenance Musts


12 Places You Never Clean—But Definitely Should


10 Ways to Wake Up Your Yard for Spring


This post has been brought to you by HYDE Tools. Its facts and opinions are those of BobVila.com.

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