Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors

Cleaning & Organization

Tips For Cleaning Up Your Exterior

July 9, 2013
My sweet parents are in town for a few days helping us clean up a few things outside.  They are landscaping gurus and work horses and the amount of yard work we got done yesterday is more than we've done in probably two years.  Our exterior checklist has changed drastically. We went from prepping for an outdoor movie party, to prepping to list our house, to now just cleaning things up for the new owners.
A main project was weeding and trimming, of course.  In our front yard, the side looked like this at the beginning of the day:
And here's a shot in the opposite direction with a pose courtesy of Greta:
Throughout the few hours (and zero dollars) it took my mom and I to get this area under control, I learned quite a few good tips from her like:
1.  Trim back.  After we pulled out the weeds, trimming the actual plants back so that we could see the cement curbing really helped things look neat and kept.
2.  Trim up.  In the top photo, you can see the unruly, red-leafed bushes.  After I trimmed back all the wild branches, she showed me how trimming up the bottoms a bit would help the bush breathe.  Aesthetically, it helped create different shapes, too!
3.  If you have an empty spot, it can be filled with a rock.  Really!  When we were going to list the house, we had a small budget for plants to fill in blank spaces, but now that we're in clean up only mode, we weren't really looking to put more money into too many things.  There are random boulders in piles tucked all around our yard (I honestly never noticed them) and my mom strategically placed them around the garden beds to fill in black spots and it looked so nice!  You can see one in the bottom left of the after photo below:
After we were all done weeding, we hosed off the curbing which put the finishing clean touch on the front beds.
The last time we worked in the backyard, we removed the sod to install our garden beds--which is definitely one of our biggest regrets now that we're moving. Why, oh why did we have to remove that sod!?
We are going to keep the raised garden beds (although currently empty) with the house, so we needed to make the space above look better. That included removing all the sod we removed (hard!), and cleaning up the dead weeds along the perimeter of the house.
My dad and I dug out all of the weeds and my mom and Greta lined up these rocks they found around the yard (I really had no idea we had this many rocks around the house!) to the newly cleaned out garden bed.
We lined the garden beds back in the cleared out space and it looked a lot better.
The last thing that needed our attention was the light on the patio that we love, but was too low.  Originally, we were going to rearrange some siding--but have decided to take this fixture with us to our new house and just replace it.
We picked up this $24 exterior light at HD which is still an upgrade from the original fixture and doesn't require any siding adjustment.  We'll take it!
Our to-do list is wrapping up and we are headed to Idaho in a few days to house hunt there. It's pretty amazing how quickly life changes, huh.
filed under: 
— Hide Comments
+ ShowComments
What do you think?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Good post. Gives lot of insights into façade cleaning, especially of weeding and trimming of yards, which needs to be done systematically. The new family would be happy with all the efforts you guys have done to beautify the house, outdoors in particular.

  2. The pictures are nice! Everyone seems to be enjoying cleaning the exteriors. The post reminds me of gevelreiniging (facade cleaning) in Antwerpen that we did last year. It was fun to see my 2 year old son with all his gaze hooked on to the people who for him were hanging in the air and cleaning the facades. I am glad that you had a helping hand to do the exteriors and managed the job very well!

  3. Congrats for finding the new home owners for your house. You have shared great tips for cleaning and I liked the idea of raised garden beds idea by which helps to make your space look better and tidy as well. Thanks for making this post so useful and helpful to your readers.

  4. Congrats on finding a buyer. The housing market is crazy/active right now, especially in Columbus, OH, where we just bought a house. Houses are selling the day they're listed (meaning an offer is accepted not that they can close that fast). Good news for the economy, but we had to be lightning fast to get our house. Worth it, though, with interest rates finally starting to climb again.

  5. Congrats on the sale! We just had the same discovery of using rocks to fill in empty space, I love how it looks...and of course it helps when they're free!

  6. Greta lined up all those rocks???!!! What a great little helper she is!
    Congrats on selling your house so quickly and obviously no major hassles so far!! :) Can't wait
    for the post all about it!!

  7. DANG! Echoing the other comments--did your house sell already?! That's incredible, and the yard looks so tidy! Let me know if you guys want a break from house hunting, we'd love to BBQ and hang out while you're here :)

  8. Wow did you sell your house already? Congrats!! I'm also about to become an Idaho-an... coming from the (liberal, expensive) east coast it's going to be way different, I'm excited and nervous!

  9. Honest question for you/Chris/whoever does your weed wacking - is it a pain with those concrete curbs or does that make it easier? Our beds aren't edged with anything currently and we are realizing that it makes things quite complicated when it is time to edge them and deal with the grass, weeds, etc.

    Thanks and looks great guys! Way to get Greta in on the fun!

Next Post

What We're

Loving

Right Now

What We're

Loving

Right Now

Looking for our favorite things? A place to shop our home room by room, or just catch up on what Julia's wearing / loving right now? Browse the CLJ shop
Shop All

Love Stories

Love Where You Live

In an industry that often feels designed to make you discontent, we want this to be place you come for inspiration, ideas, and encouragement to make the space you're already in feel like home.
Read All Posts
let's break this thing up

BROWSE BY CATEGORY

01

Portfolio

Befores, afters, mood boards, plans, failures, wins. We’ve done a lot of projects, and they’re all here.
read more
02

Projects

We have a long-standing relationship with DIY, and love rolling our sleeves up and making it happen.
read more
03

Design

Even when you don’t want to rip down a wall, you can make that space in your home better. Right now.
read more
hello world!

looking for inspiration?

The Marcum family dressed as characters from the classic edition of Clue: The Game.
Entertaining

Our Halloween Family Costumes 2024: I'll Give You One Clue

It was Professor Plum, with the knife, in the Conservatory. Happy Halloween from Clue characters: 1986 edition! Shop Costume Inspiration Over the years, we've dressed as everything from dolls and monsters to Peter Pan, E.T. characters, and The Wizard of Oz. But in the last several years, one of our kids has usually chosen our costumes. If you look back, you […]
Wayfair Holiday Christmas collage round up
Decor

The Best Holiday Finds at Wayfair

This post is sponsored by Wayfair We bought this gorgeous, extremely realistic tree from Wayfair in 2019. It may be my best Christmas find ever because it has moved across the country with us, and it's the first thing we decorate every year (and that last thing we put away when the season is over). […]
product lines

Meet the New Chris Loves Julia x Loloi Pillows for Fall 2024

With the Chris Loves Julia x Loloi Rugs launch this season, we just had to add some new pillows too! For this collection, like all of our lines, we designed the pillows colorwise and pattern-wise to all work together. But there are some fun surprises too (including new floor pillows and a brand-new ruffle pillow […]
Outdoor dining table scene in front of ivy brick wall with a beautiful beige geometric outdoor rug
product lines

The Chris Loves Julia x Loloi Rugs Fall 2024 Collection

I can't believe this is our fourth year working with Loloi! For this season's rugs, we are bringing in new styles that haven’t been seen before, which is really fun. It's also exciting to be able to expand popular collections like the Jules rug, which offers beautiful vintage-style rug patterns at an affordable price. For […]
Learn With Us
Want to do what we do? Get the tools, mentorship, and training to be a Good Influencer professionally.
Learn More
Looking for Something?

SEARCH THE BLOG

We've been doing this since 2009 and we've posted a whopping 24145+ blog posts and counting. You might need a little help searching, huh?

Can We Send You Our Love Letter?

Another way for us to stay in touch! Joining our weekly newsletter gives you access to exclusive content, never-before-seen photos, your questions answered, and our favorite DIYs. Sign up below!

hello world!
Follow Along on Instagram
Welcome to our online community where we've posted home, DIY, style, renovations, and family since '09. Renovating our #cljmoderncottage in Idaho and headed for new adventures in Raleigh, NC. #cljfam #cljtransformations
© 2024 Chris Loves Julia, LLC
PRIVACY POLICYTERMS & CONDITIONSAFFILIATE DISCLAIMERSITE CREDITCOMMUNITY GUIDELINES