What you do to clean up your lawn in the fall depends on a few factors.
- Do you have a large or small yard?
- Do you have many or a few trees?
- Do you have kids that like to help?
- Does your city provide curb side leaf pickup?
There are a variety of techniques to clean the yard. In Kent, where I like, we have trees that keep their leaves until Spring in some cases.
That means we are picking up leaves throughout the Fall, Winter (if warmer) and Spring. Because of this I like to pick them up in batches and not try to do the entire lawn at once.
30 Years ago you saw people raking and bagging the leaves. Now the manual way to get it done is to rake leaves onto a tarp and drag the tarp to the front of the house and dump them along the curb and they will get cleaned up by your city in many cases.
Other options include leaf blowers. Electric leaf blowers are inexpensive, but will only work well for modest amounts of leaves that are dry. A gas leaf blower will be able to handle more leaves and damp leaves much better. Make sure you wear ear plugs to protect your hearing.
Another option is simply to mow the leaves if they are few and scattered. Mulching them into the yard with your lawnmower set low is good if there are not too many.
Lastly, hire a company to come and clean your yard. If you are older or too busy, having a landscape company come and use blowers to clean your yard well will save you the hassle and difficulty.
Remember, just like shoveling snow, raking leaves is not an activity your body is most likely used to and it can be dangerous if you push too hard or try to do too much. You will likely be sore for days and you could hurt your back or suffer other injuries, so make a smart choice to remove your leaves and cleaning your yard.