The moment I realized I was wrong about cleaning my gutters every fall

I grew up watching my dad haul out the ladder every October to scoop leaves out of the gutters. So for 15 years I did the same thing. Last spring after a big rainstorm I had water pooling next to the foundation. A neighbor said maybe I should clean them after spring too. That's when it hit me all the leaves come down in fall but the acorns and twigs show up in spring. Now I do it twice a year and it's been dry since. Anyone else get stuck in a habit without thinking about whether it still makes sense?

2 comments

2 Comments

stellas561d ago

@dylan_rodriguez I get the ladder risk thing for sure, but I think this is part of a bigger pattern where we all just copy what our parents did without ever stopping to ask why. My mom used to store her holiday decorations in the garage attic and I did the same for years until a mouse ruined a box of ornaments. Then I realized she only did it because she had no basement, and I had a whole basement sitting empty. Same thing with gutters - we just assume fall is the one time because that's what we saw, but spring debris is a real thing too. It's like we inherit these routines and never double check if they still fit our actual life.

dylan_rodriguez1d ago

Hear you out but I disagree... doing it twice a year just doubles the risk of me falling off a ladder for something that never caused me a problem.