I feel like there are three priorities when taking down Christmas lights:

1. Don’t fall off the ladder or the roof.

2. Somehow keep them from becoming a giant knot in the box.

3. Keep all the decorations from getting broken.

This may seem like a manageable list, but a lot of the time this chore can turn into a nightmare. Either something goes wrong this year, or you get the box out next year and realize that something went wrong in storage and now you need to re-buy perfectly good decorations because they won’t light up anymore. So here are some simple, manageable tips from your friendly neighborhood exterior cleaners who routinely remove and store lights for hundreds of houses a year.

For exterior home maintenance, having a go-to company to partner with is a must for anyone who owns property: homeowners, business owners, landlords, property managers, etc. The average homeowner can’t be expected to constantly monitor the state of their gutters or climb up to their roof seasonally to check for moss or signs of leaks. People don’t have the time or knowledge to be tracking the spread of organic stains crawling up their siding. Windows always look clean until the sun comes out and shines on every greasy mark and speck of dust - bleh! You probably don’t know exactly how long its been since your dryer vent was last cleaned, or when your window screens were last brushed. And there’s no shame in that! You just need a partner in your exterior home maintenance to take on the burden of knowing what your house needs when. Imagine having a trusted person who can come and clean your gutters out just before they start getting all clogged up, who can evaluate whether your troughs are sloped correctly, and who can peek at your roof while up on the ladder to let you know when you might need moss removal. Imagine having an open and straightforward conversation about what moss treatment is and how it helps protect from leaks. Imagine being treated like a neighbor and not like a cash cow. That is what an exterior home maintenance partner can do for you.

Have you ever done the thing where you attack your greasy, dusty windows with a paper towel and a bottle of windex, and then they look all streaky afterwards and seem to almost immediately go back to being dirty again? Maybe you’ve bought into one of those “tips and tricks”, like using newspaper to clean windows, or buying super fancy cleaning liquids to try to get a streak-free finish. Or maybe you just let your windows be dirty because you can’t reach them. It can be surprisingly tricky to get your windows to really be fully clean inside and out, so here are some dos and don’ts for getting crystal clear windows to let in all the winter sunshine you can get!

Installing Christmas lights is such a weird thing to expect regular, untrained people to do. I can’t think of a single other house job that involves climbing multiple stories up on a ladder, handling electrical equipment, and ensuring aesthetic precision all at the same time with no instructions or certifications required. Christmas lighting is its own beast. Now if your goal for your Christmas lights is to spend five minutes throwing some grocery store light strands up on your lowest eaves and calling that good, then you don’t need to consider professional Christmas lighting installation. But if you are frustrated with the process of hanging your own lights, or disappointed in the way your lights look each year, or if you are concerned about yourself or your spouse scrambling about on the roof this season, then here is all the information you need to make a decision about changing your lighting game plan this year!

There’s something to love about every season in the PNW, but personally my favorite time around Tacoma is fall. I love the cooler temps and the drizzle. Crunching through leaves becomes my life’s work. Our beaches and parks get less crowded, but stay just as beautiful. I could live in September and October all year round.

But from a home maintenance perspective, our fall conditions are far from ideal, and a lot of it comes down to the rain. Here are some things to consider for your house as we prepare for our famous rainy days…

Lots of people let their gutters fill up with leaves, moss, dirt, and debris until they are fully stopped up for literally years. Lots of people don’t even realize that their gutters are clogged up, or know how often they might need to be checked on. No fear, though, and no shame! We’ve got your back with everything you need to know about why it matters to clean your gutters and how to know when they need some attention.

Moss is everywhere. It grows on all kinds of surfaces, and it seems to pop up overnight sometimes. How are you supposed to keep this gunk off of your driveway, pavers, porch, decking, siding, roof, and other exterior surfaces? The last thing you want is for your house to slowly descend into swamp-thing territory, but what are you supposed to do?

The good news is that moss does have a distinct life cycle, and if you hack its growth patterns you can get rid of it more easily and be ready for it when it tries to come back.

There are actually several things that cause exterior surfaces to become discolored, and they all impact certain areas more than others. The big causes of hardscape staining are: mold/fungus, tannins, pollution, moss, and plain ol’ dirt. Let’s take a look at each of these factors so that you can get an idea for what might be causing the discoloration on your own surfaces.

Soft washing and pressure washing are similar methods of removing gunk, moss, staining, and debris from exterior surfaces, but there are important distinctions between these two methods.