Spring has sprung, and it’s time to roll up your sleeves. This is the perfect opportunity to tidy, organise and declutter your garden. Because decluttering isn’t limited to the interior of your house!
Regardless whether you’re a Marie Kondo-convert or minimalist declutterer, you simply can’t deny the life-changing magic of tidying up. A clutter-free home results in a clutter-free life, where keys are easy to find, toys are always put away, and the household is more manageable on a day-to-day basis.
Ditto for the backyard. A garage can become a cornucopia of tools, both useful and broken, and a garden can get overrun with worn-down pots. Balls, bikes and all manner of toys are often left strewn across the lawn. None of which makes for a garden of peace and serenity.
Not to worry. Professional organiser Jo Carmichael, founder of All Sorted Out, has some excellent advice on how to create calm in your outdoor space with some simple decluttering tricks.
1. Organise your pots
“Collect all broken pots and pots with dead plants in them,” suggests Jo. “Sort the salvageable plants from the truly deceased and group them together in one place; display your best pots as a group – then discard the rubbishy ones.”
If you’ve now got plants without a home, the best way to integrate them back into the garden is by adding them to the remaining pots, placing them in an alternative spot in the garden. Or, invest in new pots!
2. Clean up toys and organise storage
Got kids or a dog? “Collect all the toys and balls from the garden and keep them together in one place, such as in baskets or appropriately-sized boxes,” says Jo. Cull any good-quality toys or sports equipment that you can donate.
Just as ‘a tidy house means a tidy mind’, so does a tidy garden.
A garden is meant to be a place of serenity, so creating areas of storage that can keep the backyard structured is an ideal way to keep the peace. “It will instantly make a garden look more restful,” says Jo.
3. Tidy up garden debris with the right tools
The shed is often full of garden tools you can use for decluttering purposes. Yes, you’ll need to repot a few plants with a shovel or use a lawn rake to tidy up garden debris, but there’s a lot of useful gear in there. Here’s a list of garden shed tools you can use for tidying:
Leaf blower
Raking dead leaves can be tiresome, especially in the autumn months. A leaf blower does all the work for you, in half the time!
High-pressure hose
The best way to elevate your outdoor space? Give it a good rinse. A high-pressure hose will help make your pavers, deck or stepping stones sparkling again.
Gardening shears
Pruning back your bigger bushes and hedges with gardening shears or hedge trimmers will keep your plants healthy. Give the whole garden a haircut to keep it looking neat.
4. Spring clean and prune screeners
“Get around to creating a privacy screen with plants, as it can do wonders for a garden and is an easy transformation,” offers Jo. Indeed, screening and hedging plants create a private space for you to unwind in, and are more aesthetic than a giant fence.
Great choices of hedging and screening plants to grow in Australia include magnolias, lilly pilly, buxus and bottlebush. If you already have screeners in place, now is the time to give them a trim.
5. Rearrange your plants thoughtfully
Finally, Jo reminds us to, “relocate any plants that are arranged haphazardly in the garden and give them purpose, such as putting two of the same plant by the front door, or grouped into feature displays.”
Many gardeners often want it all, but an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ backyard often looks unruly and overcrowded. Choose useful plants for a vegie patch or herb garden that will actually be used at dinnertime.
As for general greenery, pick a couple of focal plants, with lots of colour and texture, along with easy-to-maintain shrubs, hedges and ground covers.
Other quick tips to tidy up and declutter garden
- Just let go. Let dead plants, broken tools, and salvaged ornaments that were never refurbished go on to their next life and either donate or discard them thoughtfully.
- Embrace a ‘less is more’ approach and allow your garden to feel a little empty before filling it with fresh plants, pots or garden furniture.
- Try the 1-3-5 decluttering rule: tackle one large, three medium and five small tidying-up tasks a day.
- Decide how many tools you really need, and dispose of double-ups, broken tools or unused items.
- Consider the 5-year decluttering rule: if you haven’t used a garden tool, for example, in the last five years, chuck or donate it.
You might also like:
The spring-cleaning hacks you didn’t know you needed
10 items you can declutter while the kettle boils
5 ways to tidy up your garden in winter
Charlie’s must-do spring gardening jobs
How to help your garden survive a heatwave
