SUMMER BACK PORCH RESET | Clean, Declutter & Decorate With Me

This back patio is one of my favorite parts about our house, but it doesn't always look like this. Let's rewind, shall we? We all know we love a freshly madeover space, a space that's perfect and clean and pristine. However, the thing that we don't talk about much is maintaining that space. So over the past few weeks, I have kind of let our back patio go. We've been really busy with school and work and just all the things, but it is time to reset the back porch. So come along with me as we reset the space. We're going to give it a really good deep clean. I don't know about y'all, but I have these dead bugs that just keep landing on my floor and the patio every single night and I desperately need to get rid of them. So come with me and we'll get this back patio back in order while we chat about things that we can do to maintain our outdoor spaces. So this is the current state of our back patio. It's looking a little rough. The bugs are out. I is like the corner of death. Oh my gosh. I don't even know, but the space just really needs some love. These flowers, I need to hang them up and they need to be kind of cut back. I think they're looking a little sad. Maybe we'll add some fertilizer since we've had so much rain lately and the whole space just kind of needs a little bit of a refresh. So let's get to it. So the first thing I like to do is I like to start over here and I'm going to take all of the furniture and I'm going to scoot it over here by the couch. I try to work on each side of the slab since we have a slab right down the middle. I feel like it just kind of makes it a little bit easier. And the thing I clean with, if I'm not trying to do like a super deep clean Dawn dish soap, this works just fine. I don't find that you need bleach every single time. However, like once or twice a year, I will use a 30 second cleaner just to really get rid of the grime. But for the most part, I find that this Dawn soap works just fine. And just a little bit of sweat equity with the broom and the hose, and we will get it nice and fresh and clean in no time. So over here, I have just thrown all of the cushions to these chairs. I got these from Walmart last year. We're very happy with this purchase still. And I like to just throw them all over there because I'm going to clean all of this. I'm going to spray it down, get rid of any spiders or anything. And I'm going to do the same thing with this one. So I'm going to move this chair in just a second. But this is what I, this is why I always move my stuff. Look at all of this just debris and like these bugs. Y'all, I don't know what it is about these bugs here in Alabama, but they're so gross. I'm going to spray all of this down and we're going to get it nice and cleaned up. Hey y'all, if you're new here and you enjoy videos like this and home decor, DIY and homemaking videos, I would love to have you hit that subscribe button and join the family. And I'm very much so of the opinion that if you can't take care of what you have and what you were given, you will never get more. So I like to take care of my stuff. Oh, you see that? That lizard? Excuse me, sir. I'm just cleaning up our habitat. Oh my gosh, she's going to get me. I recently sprayed Scotchgard all over a bag and it's all over the floor out here. So it's very slick. So I definitely need to clean it up. Just good old squirt of Dawn. It is so slick y'all. Now that that is a little bit better, I'm going to move the chairs back. I'm just going to give them a really quick scrub with the leftover soap on the broom. I don't want to add too much soap to it. They just need a little bit of a cleaning, you know, it's it's easy. This is something that will make such a big difference. You know, it takes an hour of your time one day, maybe every other month, but it makes your space so much more usable. So I think it's a win win. And this set from Walmart was such a great deal. So, you know, a smarter thing might have been to use a leaf blower and like blow everything off beforehand, but I don't work like that. I think I'm going to implement like a 10 minute tidy every week of the space that way. I don't have to get out here as much as summer because honestly, this really is not the most fun thing in the world to do. I do enjoy the outcome of it, but this is definitely not my favorite thing. And I don't want to have to do this that often over the summer, especially. So I am going to be start brainstorming some ideas. So some things you can do to kind of combat having to come out here and do a big deep clean this often is just maintaining by sweeping or using a leaf blower and just blowing everything off, bring in any stained pillows and treat them accordingly. I have found that I can just throw most of my outdoor throw pillows straight into the washing machine. Like these, for example, I have washed these so many times. I got these at Target last year and they need a little bit of TLC. So I just throw them in with a tiny little detergent and then some oxy clean, just like the regular oxy clean powder. And they come out looking brand new. And I kind of do that probably twice a year or just whenever, like if a bird, sometimes we have birds in here because they like to nest in my hanging baskets. So sometimes we'll have a bird issues, but for the most part, like they stay fairly clean unless someone, you know, spills something on it. So I highly recommend doing that. And just like getting out here and kind of just weekly taking care of it. I have totally slacks. So I need to put that on my calendar of things to do over the summer, just so I don't have to get out here as often and do this because it does take quite a bit of time. But again, I do think that some seasonal resets are necessary just to maintain the look of your home. And so you kind of have to treat your outdoor space, kind of like a room inside your house. You know, every so often you're gonna have to vacuum it, mop it, clean it, wipe the surfaces down, refresh bedding or linens or anything. So it's one of those things, you know, and definitely make sure you get out here and water your plants because mine are suffering. We're going to work on it. We're going to get our stuff back. We're going to get our life back in order this month. So I'm going to now work on the rest of the sides. I have a little bit more of a strip right here, kind of where I had the tripod set up. So I'm just going to clean that and then we'll work on moving all of the stuff that's over there. And I'm going to take like all the pillows down to the deck because I don't think it's going to rain today. That's another thing is like you have to check the weather so often, especially where we live. I mean, we're, we're here in South Alabama, right on the Gulf coast. So we do get summer storms a lot. And I feel like a lot of people definitely get summer storms. My grandparents live in Colorado and I remember just watching a storm rolling over the mountain in Colorado Springs. So, you know, I guess that's just part of, it's just part of summer. So anyways, we're going to get it back together. It's going to be so nice by the end of this afternoon and we'll be able to enjoy the space so much more. Okay. So now I'm going to take all of the cushions down to the deck where they can stay dry and we'll move over to the couch. I'm really excited to get this couch nice and clean and everything out of this rug. So let's go do that. Let's just say that tomorrow morning, I am definitely enjoying my coffee out here on the back porch. And I hope you guys feel inspired to do the same thing to your spaces and be able to enjoy them more than you usually do. So I made this. I saw something similar on Pinterest and it's just a terracotta pot covered in like seashells and grout, except it's melting. I don't know what to do about it. So I don't know if I need to use like mortar or something, but I think I have to wash this all off and redo it, which is kind of sad because I thought it was gonna be a really cute idea, but it's not working out. Pull this out of the way. Here, I don't really want to take the rug up, but I am going to clean it and spray it down. So it might take a little while to dry, but I think it'll be okay. I'll set the fan on it. And it's so hot that it's drying pretty quickly anyway. It might just be me, but there's nothing better than watching back spaces getting cleaned. I just love watching that transformation happen. Okay, so while the back porch is drying, let's chat about potted flowers. So something that feels very like something that you don't want to do is deadheading your flowers. When you deadhead flowers, it helps the plant direct its energy into growing new growth instead of trying to repair what's damaged or broken. So it's just something good to do. And with a lot of different flowers, if you deadhead them, they will bloom more proficiently. So it's just something I like to do. This plant, however, is not looking the best. I don't really know what happened to it, but hopefully it can recover with some good fertilization. This is probably the roughest plant I have. I don't know if it had just gotten like under the roof line whenever I set it out, because sometimes I'll put the plants out to get water from the rain. Just giving it a good haircut. You know, like when you get your hair trimmed at the These definitely look a lot better than the other one. Oh, well, there are birds like calling like crazy. And I think there's a bird nest over here. I'm like my Peggy Martin's because they are not happy with me. They're like standing on the poles of the lights, just like fighting. So I don't know. But I'm going to add back my little terracotta swan that I found at Marshall's. And I got these little ivy plants at Walmart. Actually, I never saw them at Lowe's. Apparently, ivy can be very toxic to other plants. So you don't want to plant it with others. And it can also be very invasive. So you don't want to do that either. But I thought in this little container, it looked really pretty. And I like the color, like the color difference of like the terracotta and the green from ivy. So that was really pretty. And I'm going to do a one last thing in the next couple of minutes. I'm going to fertilize all of these plants. I usually use an empty milk jug. And kind of by the time we've used up two milk jugs, I know I'm ready to fertilize. You want to do it about every week during the growing season for outdoor plants. So I need to give all my plants a little drink. But I'm only going to mix it into an old wine bottle for right now, just because I don't have an empty milk jug at the moment. So we're going to do that. But we're just going to fertilize these plants up here. And I'm going to turn the fans on high and just like let everything get nice and dry before we bring anything back. And hopefully later this afternoon, we can put all the cushions back and the space will be complete and beautiful and clean. My fertilizer kind of mixed up. I kind of need to give it a little shake. I just use this Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster flower food. I know some people don't like Miracle-Gro. I don't know how I necessarily feel about it. I've heard some things. But overall, I think it works for flowers. You know, we're not eating any of this. So we're going to use it for flowers. And I have absolutely noticed such a difference in my plants with it. So I'm just going to add this to them. This one over here is looking so, so, so sad. Hopefully we can revitalize her. It's how you know you're getting a good cleaning session is when your hair is going crazy. So I am going to let everything dry for a little bit and we will be back out very soon. Okay, so I just put all of the cushions back. Nothing really needed that much of a deep clean right now. So I'm going to let the cushions be. But again, if you ever do need to deep clean your cushions, just throw them in the washing machine. Or there is a cushion outdoor fabric spray that I saw online. I'll leave a picture of it right here. I don't know how well it works. I am interested in trying it out, especially for our back deck chairs, because I don't really bring this in as often as I should. It's just, it's a lot. And I'd love to have like a deck box down there eventually. But for now, you know, and just like what the kids whenever we eat out there, it's inevitable that somebody is going to spill something on the chair. So I do want to try that out. And when I do, I will definitely let you guys know. But that is just a really easy way you can quickly wash your throw pillows and your outdoor cushions. Or if you need to pressure wash them, I had done that too. But whenever I put everything back, my little fern back here kind of dropped some leaves. So I'm just going to use my leaf blower and I'm going to blow all these leaves off and make sure everything is nice and put together that way the back porch can really just feel completely reset. And then I'm going to light the candle. I made these DIY wine bottle recycled lemon grass essential oil candles. They smell amazing. I really like them and they help deter the mosquitoes. So I'm gonna light that. And then I think after dinner, my husband and I are just going to enjoy an evening out here. So so I'm excited to just sit back here and enjoy the fruits of my labor of what I spent this afternoon doing and the back porch looks so much better. It feels so much better and I cannot wait to actually use it later tonight and this week just while we're enjoying the beautiful weather. This has been one of my favorite purchases. We bought it at Costco last year but I know they have them everywhere. This significantly reduces how hot it is on the back porch and it's a little bit of privacy which we can always use more of. Thank you for hanging out with me today and resetting my back porch. I hope you guys enjoyed this video and that these tips and tricks kind of gave you some inspiration to go and take care of the spaces you have. I truly believe that we are not given more if we cannot take care of what we currently have and I think it is the biggest testament to who you are in your core if you take care of the things that you have when you have them. Because you have to remember this was the dream. This was what you prayed for one day and it would be so silly not to be thankful and to take care of what you do have. But I hope this inspires you to go take care of your home and your things and I hope that you guys enjoyed today's video and I will chat very soon. Bye y'all.