Is Your House Ready for Summer Outdoor Entertaining?

Australians love to entertain outdoors in the summertime. After a long cold winter, your home might need a little TLC before you’re ready to receive guests. Here are some tips and tricks to ensure that your home is ready for summer parties outdoors.

Hooray, summer is here!

With Covid-19 restrictions finally being relaxed in many areas across the country, this summer is the perfect time to get back into outdoor entertaining.

It’s probably been a while since you have been able to host the pool parties and barbeques of seasons past, so you might be a little rusty.

It’s time to prepare your backyard and garden for a great summer of outdoor parties, indulgent relaxation and family fun!

With that in mind, let’s explore a few things you can do to quickly ensure that your house is ready for lots of summer entertaining.

Clean up your backyard

A clean, maintained and uncluttered space is essential to being able to enjoy easy outdoor entertaining.

Take a walk around your backyard to consider your yard as an entertaining space.

Is there damaged furniture or toys that need to be cleared away?

Does your garden need some love?

Is your lawn suddenly growing faster as the weather warms up?

Did you accumulate a pile of garden waste over winter?

Choose a day to get the whole family together for a garden working bee, and share the clean up!

Throw away any broken pots, old toys, empty packaging or other debris that’s floated over the fence to make your yard as clean and welcoming as possible.

Need a bit of help to get your garden spruced up and ready for guests? Get in touch with Jim’s Mowing for some expert assistance.

Clean your windows

Don’t discount the appeal that glossy, sparkling clean windows can add to your home. After all, grimy windows can undoubtedly detract from an otherwise spotless outdoor entertaining area.

Dust away the cobwebs and polish off the splatter and streaks that the winter rain has left to leave your windows fit for summer fun.

Or better still leave this time consuming, labour intensive work to the professionals and get in touch with your local Jim’s Cleaning experts.

Assess your ornaments

It’s easy to become blind to broken garden lights and pots, so make an effort to see your garden and outdoor entertaining area through fresh eyes.

It’s a good idea to bring all your ornaments together in one place so you can assess them for damage (and to see whether you still like them!) before returning them to their garden space.

This is also an excellent time to ensure any outdoor lights and electrical installations are in good working order.

Test your garden lights, fountains or pond filters, give them a clean and replace or repair any items that are not working.

Light up your outdoor entertaining areas

Don’t let sunset mark the end of your outdoor entertaining time and force you inside.

If you have been thinking of installing a system of outdoor lights to make summer entertaining easier, get in now before summer comes.

Unless you are a licensed electrician, it’s best to leave these jobs to a professional as the work involves some tricky wiring.

You also want to make sure that the electrical work is weather-proof to avoid any accidents.

Talk with a local lighting specialist such as Jim’s Electrical about your plans so that you can plan and budget the project together.

Get your pool into pool party shape

When it’s hot outside and you are lucky enough to have a swimming pool in your backyard, everybody wants to hang out at your place.

This means that you’ll need to get your swimming pool into shape before the warm weather settles in.

Some things you might think about include getting a professional pool cleaning service such as Jim’s Pool Care to conduct a big clean up after so many months of disuse. Pool care professionals will also be able to check that your pool pump is still working and make any repairs, if necessary.

It may also be worth considering installing a pool cover or blanket to keep your pool cleaner for longer and to stop evaporation on days when you don’t use it.

It’s also crucial that you assess the swimming pool area for anything that might make it unsafe.

Check that the pool fencing and gate are functioning as they are designed to do and that there are no large plant pots, chairs or other furniture items positioned near the pool fence that might allow a child unsupervised access to the pool area.

Get in touch with Jim’s Fencing if you would like a pool safety inspection or if your pool fencing needs repairs or replacement.

Fire preparedness

You might not live in a bushfire-prone area, but that doesn’t make your backyard proof of fire danger.

When you spend a lot of time entertaining in summer in Australia, the chances are high that there will be a barbeque involved.

Barbeques can cause a fire hazard even when you’re keeping a close eye, so make sure you’re always prepared for the worst.

Remove any dead twigs and branches (otherwise known as kindling) away from the spark zone and make sure an adult (one without a beer in hand) is always around to keep kids away from the heat and watch that nothing catches fire on the grill.

Fire hazards come in many forms. For example, those leaves drying out and accumulating on your roof are a hazard should any sparks land nearby, so summer is an excellent time to call someone over to clean out your gutters.

And if you have a fire pit in your backyard, now is also a good time to make sure the area surrounding the pit is clear of flammable garden materials.

Tackle the touch-ups

Some jobs are unappealing in the middle of a cold, rainy winter. But now that the summer entertaining season is around the corner, you had better move fast!

Does your deck need to be reoiled?

Could your outdoor furniture do with a fresh coat of paint?

Do you need to wash outdoor furniture cushions?

Add some colour

If your backyard is looking a bit drab, there are a few things you can do to inexpensively bring some colour.

Update your outdoor furniture with some colourful throw cushions, plant hardy ornamental plants like lavender and paper daisies in your garden beds or bring some colourful glazed pots into your entertaining space.

Look into creative seating options

There’s nothing worse than scrounging for seating at the last minute, so plan ahead by thinking creatively about seating.

Give your guests some easy relaxed options for when the patio furniture by considering having extra furniture on standby such as hammocks, swing seats, bean bags or outdoor floor cushions.

Keep your guests cool

There is no doubt that Australian summers can be hot and sweaty. Rather than let the heat deter you from having friends over, think about investing in keeping everyone cool and happy. You could install a shade sail, covered canopy or simply purchase an outdoor umbrella for your outdoor entertaining area.

Once your backyard looks beautiful, you can relax and enjoy entertaining your friends and family in an inviting outdoor space.

Contact Jim’s Group to enquire about our pool care, mowing, window cleaning or electrical services today on 13 15 46 and speak to one of our friendly team members today about how we can help you get ready for a fun summer of outdoor entertaining.

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