Every season there’s a little somethin’ somethin’ we need to do around our homes to get it ready for the upcoming months. In the fall we rake leaves and put away our summer essentials. In the winter we close up the house and tell everybody to shut the door, we don’t live in a barn and you're letting all the heat out. In spring, we get to cleaning. In the summer, well, we open our windows and dust off our patio furniture, fire up our grills and rev up the lawn mowers.
Summer Hacks For Your Home & GardenThis handy list of hacks for helping you care for your home and garden in summer is a useful guide for some of the more typical things that we tend to encounter each summer season. Let me know what you find most helpful!
PORCH & PATIO: ![]()
⚫Got a dirty grill? Make a paste of equal parts baking soda and water. Apply paste to your (cold) grill using a wire brush. Wipe clean, and dry with a cloth.
⚫Use colored toothpicks in your steaks to identify rare, medium and well done steaks. Want to impress your guests? Use the frilly kind! ⚫Use cooking spray on your grill before cooking (and dear God, before you light that fire). After, when the grill is cool to the touch, scrub the grill with a wire brush. The spray should allow any residue to come off easily. ⚫Sprinkle about a 1” layer of kitty litter around the bottom of your grill to prevent any embers from igniting. I can't guarantee your cat won't dookie in it, but it is a good way to prevent a lawn fire. ![]()
⚫Hate the ear-bleeding noise your patio chairs make as they scrape across the concrete? Cut a 2” slit in 4 tennis balls and put one ball on the bottom of each chair leg. Voila, noise eliminated. This also works to prevent the legs of a chair from falling through deck slats as well.
⚫Have dirt build up on your outdoor plastic furniture? To clean it, sprinkle baking soda on a damp sponge, wipe clean and let dry. Afterward, spray Armour All on it and wipe clean with a dry cloth. The Armour All gives it a nice shine and will prevent dirt from sticking to it.
PICNICS:
YOUR LANDSCAPE: ![]()
⚫Here’s a fun one if you have squirrels eating your birdseed: Grease the pole to the birdhouse with shortening, cooking oil or petroleum jelly. Or you can secure a slinky to the bottom of the feeder and let it hang down the pole. A squirrel is no match for slinkies and oil.
⚫Got trash pandas? Sprinkle a few tablespoons of epsom salt and/or black pepper around your garden and trash cans. Apparently raccoons don’t like to season their garbage before they eat it.
AROUND THE HOUSE: ![]()
⚫For ants that are an issue inside the house, draw a thick line of chalk around windows and doors outside your home. Apparently they know not to cross the line. You can do the same with baby powder (which I hear also works well for keeping birds from pooping on things, since they don’t like the feel of the powder on their little bird feet).
⚫To keep ants out of your pets’ food bowls, sprink a little ground cinnamon around them. Much like chalk, ants don’t like cinnamon.
SPORTS:
Do you have any life hacks, tips, tricks, ideas or suggestions that you use in the summer? I'd love to know--let me know in the comments below!
13 Comments
Daneen Rogers
6/18/2017 07:01:46 pm
And the bargain brand so cheap! So even if it does somehow fail, you're only out about $2!
Reply
6/20/2017 08:29:18 pm
These are such great tips! I honestly have not even thought of most of them. Thanks for sharing
Reply
7/13/2017 03:53:32 pm
I love these hacks!! I will try the lemon on the stained containers! I hate when the plastic stains but I don't want to throw them out!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |