15 Ways to Keep Your Neighborhood Looking Its Best

• Contribute to the neighborhood's cleanliness by keeping your own home looking its best. Add plants, mow the lawn, maintain the sidewalks, and clear your storm drains.
• Help out around your neighborhood by picking up litter, picking up after your pets, and reporting graffiti. You might even start a community garden!
• Talk to your neighbors about organizing a clean-up effort to get more people involved.^[1]

Keeping Your Home Clean

Add plants. One way to beautify your home is to plant trees or flowers around your house to add to the landscape. You don’t need to go all-out with an ornate display. A bed of brightly-colored flowers, or some small bushes, can really enhance the natural beauty of your home. Aside from looking good, plants take in carbon dioxide from the air and expel oxygen, making for a more breathable atmosphere. Be sure to trim branches from bushes and trees if they begin to obstruct public walkways and paths.

Mow your lawn. Longer grass doesn’t look good on a lawn, so help out the neighborhood by keeping yours neat and trim. Use a lawnmower regularly to keep your grass from getting too long, and trim the sides with an edger. Good lawn work will also involve pulling out weeds and take care of ugly brown patches. Don’t ignore those parts of lawn care.

Maintain your sidewalks. In most towns, property owners are responsible for keeping the sidewalks clean and clear. Make sure you clean up any debris so people can walk easily in front of your home. During the winter, it is important to keep the sidewalk in front of your home clear of snow. Many municipalities, especially cities, will fine property owners who do not keep their sidewalks clean and clear. A little bit of effort on your part will not only help your neighborhood clean, but prevent you from having to pay a fine.

Keep your storm drains clear. The point of storm drains is to gather run-off from rainwater to prevent flooding and keep that water in local waterways. Make sure trash and other debris doesn’t get caught in the drain. You don’t want those items clogging the drain, preventing better flow, or flowing into local rivers and streams. Here are some other ways to keep them clean: When putting your trash and recycling out, make sure that the lids are on tightly and that they won't get knocked over. Don't blow or rake leaves and lawn clippings into the street. Avoid using salt or sand on your driveway. When the snow thaws, the sand and salt will slow into the storm drain and pollute the waterways. Avoid using fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides on your lawns. When it rains, these can flow into the storm drain too.

Helping Out Around Your Neighborhood

Pick up litter. Litter, trash that people drop all around the ground, is an eyesore. Worse, it can be harmful to children, animals, and the rest of the environment. If you see some trash on the ground around your neighborhood, don’t assume someone else will take care of it. Be proactive in taking care of where you live. Consider having a clean-up day where you and your friends go around your block and pick up trash. Pay attention to lawns, bushes, and gutters. This is where most trash tends to collect.

Pick up after your pets. If you have pets that go for walks, especially dogs, make sure you pick up their poop. Nobody wants to see it, smell it, or even accidentally step in it. Follow your pets with a plastic bag to clean up after them, and make sure you throw the bag away in a trash bin. Leaving your pets’ waste behind can lead to the spread of disease and promote the spread of flies.

Create a community garden. Just like plants can improve your home’s beauty, a common garden is a nice way for you and your neighbors to add some greenery. Gather some people in your area who would be interested and available in helping to take care of a common neighborhood garden. Figure out the kinds of plants you want there, and look for an open space where you’ll be able to grow things. Be sure to take care of the plants. Work as a community to take care of the garden; don't rely on just one or two people to keep it flourishing. Herb and vegetable gardens are a great way to give back to your community. This way, you can help your neighbors put food on their tables.

Adopt a highway. Roadways and other areas like them can sometimes get left behind in clean-up efforts. Help make sure that trash and other debris is picked up from along the side of the road with a highway adoption group. Your business, social group, or other organization will agree to clean up a stretch of road in exchange for having your name put on a sign identifying you as the ones who did the clean-up. Every state, county, and town government can have a particular set of rules for adoption and what it means. Make sure you check the process for applying and maintaining your highway. Some cities also allow you to adopt bus stops as well.

Report graffiti. Graffiti, painting on walls and other public places, is illegal in many locations, and an eyesore. If you notice this kind of artwork on a public building or structure, report it to the local authorities. If you see graffiti on a local business, or other private property, talk to the property owner about cleaning it up. You may even be able to do it yourself. If you see someone doing graffiti, do not confront them about it. Tell the property owner or a local authority.

Organizing a Clean-up Effort

Talk to your neighbors about a clean-up effort. Anything you do in your area will be a group effort, so you’ll need others to join in. When you get to know your neighbors, you’ll probably discover that you notice many of the same issues in your neighborhood. Agreeing on what you need to do is a good first step to starting a clean-up program. At this first stage, consider the roles some people will play in organizing, advertising, gathering supplies, and doing any of the things necessary to get the effort put together. Don’t be afraid to talk to pre-existing community groups. Service organizations like the Shiners or Boy and Girl Scouts will probably be interested in helping to keep the neighborhood looking nice. Anti-crime organizations like Neighborhood Watch will probably be willing to deal with the aftermath of crimes like graffiti.

Talk to your local government. Many towns and cities want to encourage citizen clean-up efforts. Not only can they help in getting the word out for your effort, but some will be willing to provide supplies, including brooms, rakes, shovels, gloves, and trash bags, as well as paint and paint supplies for dealing with graffiti, and even an industrial-sized dumpster for depositing trash. There is strength in numbers. Have several people contact your local government. You can also try putting together a poll.

Plan your event. You should want to have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish during your clean-up. Make sure you are properly equipped, and have a clear sense of how many people will be helping and what you intend to do. You don’t want to think too big, like cleaning up the entire town. Instead, focus on picking up trash in a contained area like an alley, weed removal and landscaping for an abandoned field, or painting over graffiti. You’ll want something you and your team can accomplish in a day or a few hours, to make sure you get the task done. Consider your location. Make sure that you will have a place for trash, and for people to park or arrive at the site easily. Be careful not to tie up traffic or cause trouble for other people in the area. Gather your supplies. Make sure you have the right materials necessary to do the clean-up properly. If you are cleaning up a location, for example, make sure you have rakes, brooms, and shovels, as well as trash bags to hold what you pick up. Consider if you need heavy equipment, and make sure someone there is trained and licensed to use it. In all cases, you should have a first-aid kit handy. If you are potentially going to deal with hazardous chemicals, you definitely need a plan for gathering those items and depositing them in the proper location. Make sure you are familiar with your town or city’s collection center, and are properly equipped for dealing with those items.

Publicize what you are doing. People won’t know they can help if you don’t tell them about the effort. Post flyers around your neighborhood, and post messages on social media to your network of friends, and see who wants to come and help. The more the merrier. If you do post flyers, remember to take them down after the clean-up. You don’t want them staying there until they fall off and become litter.

Perform the clean-up. This is where you do whatever needs to be done for your clean-up. Once you have planned your effort, show up and get to work. Make sure someone is able to supervise the effort, help people get where they need to go, and keep an eye on the progress you make. Avoid working alone, if possible. If there are young children or teens, make sure that they work in groups and have a trusted adult chaperoning them.

Wrap up your event. When you finish the project, make sure you pick up all your extra trash. You should leave the location cleaner than when you found it, and make sure everything is disposed of properly. Once you are finished, consider some way to thank everyone who took part. A small pizza or ice cream party, or even just hanging out a bar (if you’re all of age) afterward can be a fun way to celebrate your success. Think about your next event. Chances are your neighborhood will always have something else that you can do to help. Think about what worked or didn’t work about this clean-up effort, and find ways to improve for next time.