I am baffled by this picture as it came up when I searched for “leaf raking”. How is that raking leaves? There are two people and like 10 leaves on the ground. All of the leaves in the trees are green, so no leaves are falling. Are those really leaves? They look like cardboard spread around just for a cute picture. On to some fun thoughts.

It is that time of year when the colors are changing and the leaves are falling. There are several proposed theories out there, well maybe only in my mind, to make the work easier or to simply get the job done, so I would like to share a few and state about whom each theory might be appropriate.

Percent theory – since raking usually covers about 5 weeks from the second week of October through the second week of November, the theory is to rake the percent equal to the time completed through the season. Thus, the first week you only need to get about 20% of the leaves up, usually the most concentrated area. The second week 40% and so on, so that only in the last week do you need to get 100% of the leaves off of the grass. Works well for those who are a bit lazy and have a little bit of math or spacial sense, does not work well if you the sight of leaves on grass.

Halfsies theory – raking the front lawn one week and back lawn the next makes it simple and easy to remember. Works well for those who have to get all of the leaves at once, does not work well if you have more trees in the back than the front.

Kid power theory – make one leaf pile, play in it, then carry the leaves out. Works well with the child that says, “Dad, stop throwing leaves at me.” Does not work well with very young children who do continuous run-throughs as you end up with a greater spread of leaves than you started with.

Age theory – you rake the percentage of the leaves equal to 100 minus your age. My mom says that once she hit 80 that this meant more leaves would fall than she could rake so she could stop raking all together.

Leaf blower theory – get them all and works best when you do some of your neighbor’s leaves too, otherwise we don’t like you much.

Been raking leaves a long time, but I am open to other theories. Hope that you have a Happy Friday. Remember to subscribe on the Perspectives page.

I would love for you to share this post if you enjoyed it or have good thoughts from reading it. Leave a comment to share with me and thank you for your time here.