We select and review products independently. When you purchase through our links we may earn a commission. Learn more.
X

These 7 Novel Tools Will Make Short Work of Fall Yard Cleanup

A woman lying on a pile of leaves, with leaf scoops on her hands.
GARDEASE

Leaf cleanup in your yard and gutters doesn’t have to be such an arduous chore. These handy tools will make short work of the mess!

If you have trees that blanket your yard with leaves, you probably already have a rake or two. While these will certainly get the job done, there some tools out there that are a lot more efficient for yard and gutter cleanup.

Leaf Scoops Make Picking Up Leaves Fun

The GARDEASE ReLeaf Leaf Scoops make it easy to ditch the rake when it comes to picking up those piles of leaves. Your hand slides in for an easy grip, and you use the cool giant claws to move leaves from piles to bag in no time.

You’ll still need to rake or blow your leaves into piles, but it’s less fuss to remove them with these handy scoops.

Bendable Tarps Make Cleanup a Breeze

If bending and scooping doesn’t work for you, there’s an even easier way to get those piles of leaves off the ground and into trash bags. The bendable tarp from CSDust2 is perfect for dealing with leaf piles.

You just put it on the ground, blow or rake leaves onto it, fold and lift it, and then dump the leaves in the trash! Then, you only have to bend down once to pick it up. You can also bend it into a trash can and rake right into the spout.

Skip the Leaf Pickup with a Bag Butler

Even easier than a bendable tarp, you can rake those leaves right into the shoot of this trash bag holder for instant bagging. No longer will you have to mess with leaves falling back on the ground as you try to scoop them into bags. The Bag Butler also works with multiple trash bag sizes.

Ditch the Rake for a Lawn Sweeper

An Earthwise Lawn Sweeper on a lawn.
Earthwise

Skip raking the leaves altogether and invest in a lawn sweeper. This fancy gadget is even better than a leaf blower! It has an 80% pickup rate on the first walk-through, so you’ll capture just as many leaves in a few minutes as you would with a long rake job.

It also conveniently folds up, so you can hang it in the garage, and it won’t take up too much space.

Put Your Leaves to Good Use

If you want to compost your leaves for your garden or worm pit, now’s the time to get a leaf mulcher, like this one from Earthwise. You can even use it to fit more leaves in waste bags!

Pull Leaves Out of the Gutter

You might not have realized this handy accessory even existed: gutter tongs! You can attach them to a broom or extension pole to pick those leaves out of your gutters without stepping foot on a ladder.

Will these clean your gutters as well as you could on a ladder, inspecting every inch? No, there’ll definitely be a leaf or two left behind. However, that’s a fair trade-off to avoid the risk of falling and breaking something.

Gutter Sense Gutter Cleaning Tool

Stay off the ladder--use these instead!

Keep Leaves Out of Downspout

A green Wedge by Gutter Guard on a downspout.
Gutter Guard

Once you’ve got those leaves out of the gutters, you’ll want to prevent more from getting in there and clogging the downspout when it rains. The clever design of the Wedge by Gutter Guard keeps leaves out of downspouts by directing the wind to blow them up and out of the gutter.


Luckily, autumn leaves don’t fall for long before it’s time to get ready to shovel snow. And thankfully, the days of rakes and time-consuming yard work are long gone if you have these cool gadgets.

Yvonne Glasgow Yvonne Glasgow
Yvonne Glasgow is a professional writer with two decades of experience. She has written and edited for nutritionists, start-ups, dating companies, SEO firms, newspapers, board game companies, and more. Yvonne is a published poet and short story writer, and she is a life coach. Read Full Bio »
LifeSavvy is focused on one thing: making your life outside of work even better. Want to know more?