Here’s a Homeowner’s Hack for Raking Leaves in a Jif

Ah, Fall.  The time when the seasons change, the leaves turn all those wonderful shades of orange, red and yellow… and then they whither and die and fall to the ground, making a huge mess that you know have to clean up.  Regardless of whether or not you’re a yard half empty or a yard half full kind of homeowner, the fact remains, those leaves aren’t going to rake themselves.

Whether you use a rake or a leaf blower to collect leaves and lawn debris, once you have everything in a pile, are you planning to pick up armfuls and walk it to the bin?  Or maybe make several trips with a wheelbarrow?

Here’s a homeowner’s hack that’ll get that job done in record time.  Use a tarp – with DIY handles.  It is the simplest and easiest way for you to easily transport all of your raked/blown leaves to your trash or composting bin.

Simply get a 4-by-8-foot tarp, fold it in half, and then roll it up and staple wooden dowels on the ends.

Then lay the tarp right in front of your pile of leaves and rake (or blow) everything right on it.

When the tarp is folded, it can hold a surprisingly large amount of leaves, grass clippings and twigs.

And with the handles, you can pick it right up.

Without the dowels, the tarp is really flippy-floppy and all the leaves would fall out.

Put the handles together and then just easily dump the leaves right into the garbage can or composting bin.

Voila!  Your hours-long chore is over in minutes.  Now go watch the game!


Photo Credit:  Petri jauhiainen / Shutterstock.com