Keeping your home looking all neat and tidy on the inside is simple enough for a busy person to do. All it takes is a weekly session with the vacuum and a bottle of spray, plus an occasional lick of paint when your décor begins to look tired. However, the tasks involved in keeping an outdoor space looking neat and tidy are very different. From cleaning out the gutters to repaving the driveway, outdoor presentation tasks are time-consuming and fiddly in nature. Luckily, there are some handy steps you can take to keep your home looking gorgeous when neighbors, visitors and passers-by come up close. Here are some options available.
Decorate your windows
On the face of it, the humble window is a small part of the overall façade of a property. However, the window areas are actually some of the zones that people look to first when they approach your property – so they should be well-maintained. Keeping them clean is the first thing to do: glass can easily attract dirt and stains from outside and inside, so washing regularly with hot soapy water on both sides is important. If you’re worried about streak marks, then using a little bit of vinegar or rubbing alcohol might help.
However, there are other aspects to consider. The color of the frames around your windows isn’t set in stone: if you’d like to make a more bold presentation, for example, then you could consider switching your frames to black. If you find that heavy drapes are making your home look frumpy or old-fashioned from the outside, then an alternative to curtains could be useful. Why not consider a smart shutter, for example?
Gardening and paving
Most American single-family homes have some sort of outdoor space at the front. Whether it’s the typical white picket fence or it’s a much larger garden with a carport and a driveway, there are lots of configurations. However, what matters most is how neatly it’s kept: there’s nothing less appealing to visitors, pedestrians and even potential buyers than an overgrown garden.
If you’ve let your gardening get out of hand and you now have a forest over your window, it may be a wise move to hire in a gardener who can get it back in shape. However, if your problem is simply a few plants that are getting a little too big, then a trusty pair of shears and a few YouTube tutorials will be all you need. It’s also a good idea to regularly pull out those pesky weeds that often shoot up in the cracks between paving stones. If you want to go for a radical overhaul of your paving stone system altogether, meanwhile, then why not consider going for a driveway made out of gravel? It often means less maintenance, so it’s ideal for those who want simple housekeeping.
Consider a gate
Gates have gone out of fashion to some degree in recent years, and many homeowners perceive them to be a little too high-end for a simple family home, but there are lots of benefits to gates – especially in terms of exterior appearance. First of all, they add a little prestige to a property: a place with a gate is perfect for projecting a sense that your home is your own.
For a homeowner on the hunt for ways to keep the front of a home looking shipshape, there are plenty of options on the table. Gates can add that sense of grandeur, for example, while an overhaul of a garden, a driveway or even a set of windows isn’t out of reach. Whether you’re planning to put your home on the market sometime soon and want to appeal to buyers or you’re simply keen to keep your place looking nice in the context of the wider neighborhood, it’s time to carry out an honest audit of your home’s exterior and identify what needs to be done in order to keep things looking great.
