The cold weather is here and the autumn leaves are dropping and covering lawns across the country. Of all the fall lawn and garden chores, raking up and collecting leaves is one of the least popular. There are plenty of tools and hardware contraptions to help you clean up leaves from special rakes to leaf blowers of every sort. Here are some affordable things you can do to make your leaf raking a little easier:

Rake at the correct time: A lot of people spend just about every weekend raking their leaves. Yet several days of blustery weather just brings more leaves for the next weekend. You should just about always wait for dry day to pick-up your leaves because they will be less heavy and easier to work with. Obviously, less breezy days are better because you won’t be overwhelmed with more leaves moving around as you try to pick up the leaves that have already fallen.

Think about mulching your leaves: Some leaves can be used as a sort of home made mulch to keep your plants warm through the cold winter months. You may want to consider mulching your leaves if you do not have too many to deal with. You might want to use a chipper vac to chop your leaves into tiny pieces that can be used as mulch.

Use the correct tools: Gas leaf blowers are popular, but they are loud and dirty. Some people use leaf blowers more than they should. Leaf blowers are broad blowing tools that can sometimes spread more leaves around your yard. For tight spots don’t use a leaf blower, instead use a medium-sized leaf rake to pull the leaves out into the open where you have more space. You can also get clever and use a mower to vacuum up leaves.

With a little planning the task of raking leaves from your lawn could be a lot less time consuming than you think. Almost no one enjoys raking up leaves every autumn but most people enjoy the shade provided by their trees during the summer months.

Searching for more ways to spruce up your home for the holiday season? Check out our hundreds of diy repair articles with lots of details.