You’re walking up the path, enjoying your garden, when you look up. Your gutters are looking a little worse for wear. They’ve been clogged, and the water has poured over the sides, leading to algae growth and stripes from constant drips. While the rest of your home looks great, those grotty gutters are weighing on your mind every time you come home. What can you do to clean them? These natural gutter cleaners will help you achieve better looking gutters in an environmentally-friendly way.

An Ounce of Prevention

If you want clean gutters, the first item on the agenda is an ounce of prevention. If you make sure that your gutters aren’t clogged and leaking, you won’t need to clean them as often. Clean your gutters during the seasons when they typically get clogged, such as fall and spring. If you’re tired of cleaning, avoid it altogether by adding gutter covers to your gutters. These covers prevent debris from entering the gutter and move water smoothly into the gutter instead of having a backlog of water that pours out of the gutters.

Hand Tools and Water Start the Gutter Cleaning Job

A little bit of water can go a long way. If your gutters are full of leaves and debris, use a scoop such as a trowel and strong gloves to remove the debris. You may find that bits of leaf stick to the inside of the gutters because they’ve been there for a while. Pour water or use a hose to run water down the gutters. Not only will this reveal if you have any problems with leaks, it will loosen persistent gutter debris without any cleaning solutions at all.

Follow Up With Vinegar

If you have gutter debris that just won’t budge, make a cleaning solution using 1 cup of vinegar for every 3 gallons of water. Cap your gutters, pour the cleaner in, and let them soak. After an hour, use a hose and soft brush to gently scrub more debris from your gutters, then allow the water to move out of the gutters again.

Use Baking Products to Transform Your Gutters

What’s in your cupboards can also migrate to the garden, allowing you to have shiny gutters without using toxic products. One secret ingredient in the recipe for clean gutters is cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is slightly acidic and works well when you turn it into a paste. If you’ve blasted your gutters with water and have scrubbed them thoroughly, use cream of tartar to scrub and finish your gutters.

While baking or washing sodas are an excellent nontoxic cleaning choice for other areas of the home, avoid using them for your gutters since they can damage aluminum gutters over time.

When you’re looking for gutter cleaners, Harry Helmet can help. We specialize in home solutions that make your life easier. With our gutter covers and gutter heating products, we prevent your gutters from getting clogged, reducing your need to clean. Contact us today to learn more about gutter guards.

Written by Del Thebaud