Which Outdoor Maintenance Task Do You Dread The Most? - House Digest Survey
As a homeowner, it's important to constantly maintain your property to ensure it's always looking its best. Although maintaining your home is imperative to the health of its structure, many of the daily tasks we commit to can be tedious and downright exhausting. This can be especially true when it comes to preserving the exterior of your residence. And if you live in a four-season state, these maintenance tasks annoyingly change every couple of months. According to Choice Home Warranty, exterior tasks include roof repair, cleaning your front door, repairing rotted wood, and much more.
House Digest selected six outdoor maintenance tasks from what seemed like an endless list and conducted a survey asking participants which one they dread the most. The options include washing windows, cleaning gutters, touching up paint, refinishing the deck, mowing the lawn, and raking leaves. We'll reveal which option received the most votes, why they're the most dreaded, and ways to ease the irritation of these tasks.
Cleaning out the gutters
Out of 612 respondents, 27.78% (170 people) chose cleaning the gutters as the outdoor maintenance they dread the most, according to our survey. In fact, this task is hated so much that another survey found that 38% of people never clean them out, according to Yahoo Finance. However, never cleaning your gutters can lead to several negative impacts. For example, leaves and other gunk can block your downspout, leading to leakage, per Clean Break Home Services. This can also create the perfect environment for mold growth, which may later find its way into your home.
Luckily, this isn't a daily task and only needs to be done one to two times a year during the spring and fall. If you live somewhere with plenty of rainfall, your gutters will probably need to be cleaned more often. We understand it can be gross and tiresome to remove all the debris by hand, so Mr. Handyman suggests using a leaf blower. You can either walk along your roof as you blow everything out or use an extension kit that allows you to do the same, but from safely on the ground.
Window washing
Coming in second is window washing, with 24.18% of respondents (148 people) choosing this as the most dreaded outdoor maintenance task. According to My Window Washing, this is a task you shouldn't ignore because if grime is left to build up, it can actually scratch the glass. Many homeowners avoid this task because it can be time-consuming, and it doesn't seem as important as other maintenance requirements, per Nick's Window Cleaning. But there are ways to make this task easier.
According to Chemistry Cachet, a quick way to clean your windows is by creating a solution made up of half a cup of water, half a cup of white distilled vinegar, and a quarter cup of dish soap. Fill a spray bottle with it and spray all your windows, use a sponge to rub away the grime, and watch it all wash away as you spray the solution off with a hose.
The following are the rest of the options from most to least amount of votes: moving the lawn with 103 votes (16.83%), refinishing the deck with 66 votes (10.78%), touching up paint with 64 votes (10.46%), and raking leaves with 61 votes (9.97%).