Outdoor rung may not have a great difference compared to indoor rugs or carpets as they are all for comfort and decoration. There are many places like patios, porches, breezeways, etc that you can put outdoor area rugs.

The most important criterions for a good outdoor area rug are its durability and stain resistance. As you are placing the rug outside, it is more prone to dirt, dust and damage from the weather.

How to choose an outdoor rug

The most important question to ask before buying an outdoor rug is where you are going to place it. The location that you are going to place and the usage of the outdoor rugs determines the main attribute of the rug for you. Whether it should be durable, comfortable or decorative depends on location a lot.

After determining the location and the main attribute that you need, you can then narrow down your choices by price, size, color and style.

There are different materials like bamboo, synthetic, cotton and even wool for outdoor rugs that you can choose for. Actually it is better not to choose wool for outdoor rugs as the wool can be discolored by the sunlight easily. If you do not want to hire the professional to wash your outdoor rugs, choose those rugs or materials that can be easily washed. Bamboo is a good one as it allows waters or liquids to evaporate away. But their colors and style may be more limited to the natural or Asian feel. Synthetic or cotton is also good but they are not as easy as bamboo ones for maintenance. But, there are certainly many more styles, colors and sizes that you can better decorate your outdoor areas.

How to clean an outdoor rug

To clean your outdoor rug, first read the direction of cleaning. If there is no specific requirement, you can use soap water to pray the whole rug. Use a soft bristle brush to scrub the rung. Then rinse with water thoroughly. Let the rug dry under the sun for both sides.

One point to note is to make sure the pad underneath (if any) can withstand the same cleaners and cleaning action. Otherwise, you may find the whole rug damaged. Also, always try to roll up the outdoor rugs when you know the weather is going to be bad in order to better protect and maintain your outdoor rugs. Like indoor rugs, you should spot clean the stains immediately for the outdoor rugs.

You can read more about carpet cleaning and carpet shampoo in other posts!

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Gutter is easily neglected to keep clean. Gutter is a very important part of the house which keeps the house clean by draining away waters from the roof. This prevents the house siding windows, doors and foundations from damaging by water. Since the gutter handles water runoff from such a large area, there are usually much dirt and easily dam up. You may find your gutter full of leaves and debris. This would prevent the rainwater from flowing freely. The water may overflow or even pull the gutter loose from the roof due to its weight.  The water that stays in the gutter may also rot the wood or rust the metal and make its usable life shortened.

So now you understand the importance of keeping the gutter clean let’s talk about how to do it. The traditional way is to rent a ladder and do the work yourself. First, you place the ladder securely against the gutter. I recommend you to get a ladder stabilizer for around $30 to help stabilize the ladder. This prevents it from breaking the gutter and more importantly, it prevents you from falling from the ladder.

Second, you can begin cleaning the gutter by scooping out the debris little by little with a narrow trowel. Make sure you work away from the drain outlet to prevent the debris from getting into the drainer. Scoop the dirt into a high quality heavy duty trash bag.

Third, flush the gutters with a water hose. Let water runs through every length of the gutter. Let the hose flush water towards the drainer. Make sure you scoop out all the debris, leaves and break loose the hardened dirt in the gutters before doing this step, otherwise you may get pretty messy, with dirt splattered all over yourself and house.

Lastly, if pipes are stuck and water doesn’t flow freely, you may try to flush the drainpipes with more water and hope that the water pressure drives out the clog. In case of a severe problem, you can try using a plumber’s auger to loosen the clog and get it out from the outlet.

As you can see, if you choose to clean the gutter this way, you need a lot of effort and a lot of different gutter cleaning tool. You may need to get one of the gutter cleaning kits which give you all the gutter cleaning tools you need in one set.

For me, I think that’s too much work. What I would do is to use one of the high tech gutter cleaning equipment. I like this Weed Eater gutter cleaning blower. You can get the whole set for a discounted price of $83.54. It’s a lot easier to just blow off the leaves and debris than climbing up and scooping them out. I would recommend doing this 2 to 3 times a year.

Just using blower doesn’t do the work completely, but it save you the money from calling for gutter cleaning service all the time. If you clean the gutter with blower like I do regularly, you would only need to hire gutter cleaning service once 2 – 3 years.

Gutter guard is also a good method to keep out leaves and debris from getting into your gutters. But make sure the one you get can be easily removed and cleaned.

Get more ideas about home and garden, check out Home and Garden Co

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