After the recent bad weather, you may have a some yard damage or debris. What do you do with all of it? Where does it go, and how to you begin cleaning up? These are all great questions and probably some you’re asking yourself right about now. Don’t get overwhelmed with the mess. Take it one step at a time and recover without the panic.
First, make sure it’s safe for you to be outside and cleaning. there may still be additional danger with falling limbs or live electrical wires. Once the coast is clear, start by picking up the manageable pieces. There may be trash, siding from your home, limbs or twigs, and more. Start with the pieces you can handle. Obviously you won’t be able to move a tree trunk but there may be a few relatively small pieces of tree that will be easy to move. Clear as much of that as you can.
Designate piles for the debris. Have one for limbs, leaves, and other natural debris. Place all trash in bags and off to the side. Have a third pile for anything you may need keep. Siding, yard decorations, anything that’t not trash. You’ll need to evaluate this stuff and see if it’s still usable and what you need to do with it. For example, if your siding is still usable, you can hand it over to someone who can fix it.
Once the yard is relatively clean, you can focus on the biggest problem, fallen trees. You may have gotten up some limbs and leaves but it’s likely that you have trunks or full trees down after a big storm. It may be necessary to break up, chop, or chainsaw the tree to more manageable bits. Whether you choose to use the wood as firewood for the winter, sell it off, or just get rid of it, it’ll be much easier in chunks.
You may have to replant a few bulbs or resoil some flowers but hopefully your garden is mostly in tact or fixable. Take the time to care for your plants during your cleanup efforts so you won’t have to worry about them in the dead of winter or go without beautiful blooms in the spring.
Finally, take the time to relax. It’s been a stressful few days and you probably haven’t gotten much sleep from worry. Once you know those you love are safe and you’ve made a dent in your cleaning, lay back and enjoy the feeling of safety from getting through a natural disaster.
