Leaves — mow them, don't fight them
Annual · typically November
Why it matters
Here's the part the bag-every-leaf tradition gets wrong: your lawn doesn't need rescuing from leaves. A mower set to mulch turns a leaf layer into dime-sized pieces that disappear into the turf by spring — university turf programs have tested this for decades; it feeds the lawn.
The house is what needs rescuing. Leaves that stack against siding hold a wet poultice against the bottom edge of your walls through every fall rain.
What skipping it costs
$200–$3,000
Leaves on the open lawn are close to harmless — mowed into confetti, they're free fertilizer. Leaves matted against the house are a different story: they hold moisture against siding, pack window wells into drains-turned-planters, and load gutters right before winter. The neglect bill isn't the lawn — it's the rot line at the bottom of your siding and the ice-dammed gutter in January.
Two ways to get it done
Do it yourself
You'll need: Mower (mulching setting if it has one), Rake for the edges, Tarp.
- Mow the open lawn with leaves on it. Mulching setting, slightly slow pass. If the layer is deep, two passes crosswise. Done — no bags.
- Hand-clear the house line: the strip against the foundation, under decks and stairs, and every window well. This is the part that matters; a tarp drag beats a hundred rake trips.
- Check the drains: gutters get their own card, but eyeball downspout exits and any yard drains — one wet leaf mat can blind a drain for the winter.
- Big drops, one big session. Most yards have one heavy week. Watch your trees and do this list right after it, not four times on a calendar.
Hire it out
$150–$400National fair range — local labor moves this number.
A fall cleanup visit runs $150–$400 for a typical suburban lot — more with big oaks or a wooded line. Pay per visit matched to your trees' actual drop, and make the house line, window wells, and vents an explicit part of the scope; plenty of crews blow the open lawn spotless and leave the six inches that actually mattered.
Ask the tech
- Per visit or per season — and how many visits does the season price actually assume?
- Do you clear window wells, basement stairwells, and against the foundation, or just the open lawn?
Red flags you're being upsold
- A 'full fall cleanup contract' priced at four visits when your trees drop in one big week. Pay for the visits your actual trees require.
- Blowing the leaves into the street, the storm drain, or the neighbor's fence line and calling it done. Storm-drain leaves come back as street flooding — some towns fine for it.
- Upselling 'deep-root fall fertilization' onto a leaf visit. Different job, different question, usually unnecessary.
The call
Mulch-mow the lawn, hand-clear the six inches that touch the house, and stop bagging weekends away. The house line is the job; the lawn mostly takes care of itself.