As Autumn passes, it’s easy to notice your gutters accumulating more debris and leaves. You will want to clean them out before winter hits and snow weighs them down. Safety is the most important thing to think about when going over your options of how to clean your gutters. Now, what if you don’t have access to a ladder? What if you do, and it’s unsafe (especially with high roofs) to use? What if you do, but you just don’t want to climb the ladder? Lucky for you, there are other options.

DIY - Let’s start out with a DIY trick. This trick from Spilling Coffee shows you how to make a gutter vacuum using a vacuum (shop vac, leaf vac, or chipper vac), aluminum duct elbows, and a hose (possible extension tubing). For assembly, this DIYer puts the elbows together and tapes them to the vacuum. Once the vacuum is turned on, it sucks up everything in your gutters! Pretty smart, huh?

Cultivator - There is a tool you can use called the cultivator. It has a long, wooden handle and sturdy steel tines. This sort of tool is used to till soil and break up minerals and can extend to be the certain height that you need. You would point it at your gutter and work the grooved end along the length of your gutter. It may get a little messy because the gunk and debris will fall around your house, but it is definitely an option with a single story home.

Water - Using a hose and spigot outside, a controlled stream of water can help wash away debris that are on the smaller side. Depending on where you live, there is a gadget called the Gutter Flusher that may be the best option for cleaning and maintaining your gutters. It essentially rinses away all the dirt and grime. At the end of your hose, connect a stiff, hollow pole with a spout pointed directly at the gutter and this blast of water will surely blow the debris away. You may get wet, so be prepared for this. Also, the debris will fall around your house, so your only real manual labor will be to tidy up outside.

Rotary Gutter Cleaning System - Similar to the Gutter Flusher, this system has a rotary brush that will be sure to get into all the nooks and crannies of your gutters. This fancy system even comes with a mountable bracket that holds a digital camera. It connects to a hose and a hard, hollow pole, but has a different top.

Install a Leaf Guard - There are different debris and leaf guard protectors out there but installing this will ultimately save you the manual labor and messy clean up. Once installed, the guards allow you to eliminate the cleaning option altogether. So, this works great for any story of a home. It is a mesh-like barrier that sits over your gutters. The rain will be able to go through the guard and flow down the gutter while leaves and debris will either fall off the gutters or be blocked by the protector installed over your gutters.