Welcome to July. It’s the dog days of summer. Now that the heat has arrived, we are all looking for ways to stay cool. We definitely don’t want to be outside working on home projects. Well, what if I told you there was a fun and easy job you could do that would keep you cool while you continue being good stewards over the blessings God has given you? This job will make your house the envy of the neighborhood and will win you the love and respect of your spouse for taking the initiative and doing it yourself. What is this job? It is housecleaning your home’s exterior.
I can here you now… “I thought you said this was fun and easy. Housecleaning the exterior sound’s like hard work.” Trust me, it is a lot easier than it sounds. All you need is one simple tool…a powerwasher.
I understand that not everybody has a powerwasher. However, they are not that expensive to buy. If you can’t afford to buy one, I recommend either borrowing one or renting one for the day. With the help of a powerwasher, you can have your home sparkling from top to bottom in a few hours. If you can’t get a hold of a powerwasher, a good hose will do the trick, you may just need to scrub a little with a sponge and then rinse with the hose again. Plus, since you are working with water, you won’t mind the summer heat as you continue taking care of the home God has given you. So how do you houseclean your exterior?
1. The first thing to do is spray down your eves and awnings. Simply point the power washer at them and let it rip. After the eves, move down the wall and wash your siding. If you have a brick home, I don’t recommend using the powerwasher on the brick because it may loosen the mortar.
2. After you powerwash the eves and siding, turn your attention to the windows, shutters, and doors. Simply hose them down. If you aren’t using a powerwasher, take a soapy sponge and wipe the shutters and doors down and rinse again to remove the soap. After the doors and shutters are done, do the same to your garage door and basement door. Also, if you have any lawn furniture outside, you can wash them down with the powerwasher as well.
You have just washed your entire house. I guarantee it will look a thousand times better. However, we aren’t done yet. We still have to power wash the sidewalks around the house.
3. In order to clean a sidewalk, all you do is hose down the sidewalk just like you did the house. This removes the dirt, grime, and anything else that has attached itself to the walkway. The sidewalk is the first thing people see when they come to your house, so it is important to make it look as good as possible so they feel welcome.
There is one more thing that we need to do in order to completely clean our exterior. In step 2, we power washed the windows. However, we just can’t leave them a streaky mess. So grab a roll of paper towels, and let’s wash the windows.
4. All you have to do to is squirt window cleaner (we use a vinegar and water mixture) onto the window. Then wipe down the window with a paper towel. Grab another paper towel to totally remove any streaks. Now you have not only finished housecleaning the exterior of your home, but, by washing the windows, you have won the love and respect of the woman of the house.