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After a natural disaster hits like a hurricane or a tornado, the amount of clean-up will be overwhelming. These cleaning items will make life easier in the chaotic aftermath, saving you energy, time and money.

The amount of debris after a natural disaster will seem insurmountable. Everywhere you’ll look you will see trash, roofing, tiles, broken glass, palm fronds, branches, leaves, light fixtures and more. We found several license plates in our back yard, hundreds of pieces of terracotta tiles, dozens of fallen trees, plants and neighbors’ belongings.

You should carefully scan your property for any debris that could cause you, your family or pets bodily harm:

This includes:

Rusty nails, screws or other metal pieces

Sharp items that could easily lacerate such as shards of glass, broken tiles and ripped metal pieces

Black fiberglass roofing can easily cause irritation and small cuts if handled without protective gear

Sharp splintered branches and palm fronds will be extremely sharp and will easily cause slivers and deep lacerations.

Here are our must-have cleanup items that every household in hurricane country should have:

Work Boots (steel-toed or reinforced) and thick work gloves

Cleanup after a natural disaster is a dangerous task. You’ll need to protect yourself and family members from anything that could hurt you causing cuts, deep lacerations, and broken bones. Your first line of defense will be your situational awareness of your immediate surroundings. If there are large piles of leaves and palm fronds be aware that snakes or scorpions could use them as shelter. Your second line of protection will be a gardening shovel to move the debris ensuring no critters are lurking underfoot. Lastly, gloves that are thick, yet fitted work gloves and reinforced boots. Both boots and gloves will help protect the cleanup crew from potential bites, stings, cuts, and lacerations from broken and sharp debris.

Squeegees (handheld and floor) 

There are a host of clean up tasks after a hurricane.  All of them overwhelming but you’ll need to assess the most dangerous situation first.  If you have broken glass inside your home you’ll need to carefully and methodically clean that up first.  The next task should be drying out the home, patio, and property to prevent mosquito hatcheries from forming and preventing mosquito-borne illnesses such as Dengue Fever, Rocky Mountain Fever, Zika, etc.  Having several sized quality squeegees will come in handy and save you lots of time and effort.  We have a patio floor squeegee that saved us physically from have to chase water off our patio with a broom and a mop for several hours.  The right tools will save you time and energy, both valuable commodities in the aftermath of a hurricane.

Quality wheelbarrow

A wheelbarrow will save enormous amounts of energy must be conserved for security and repairs tasks. When you are dealing with dozens of fallen trees and large coconut or Washingtonian palm fronds, a wheelbarrow will be a great asset in your equipment collection. We were able to drag our fallen palms easily to remove most of the accumulated water, then piled several dozen palms on our wheelbarrow. If we had to drag a few palms piled up to the trash staging location we would have taken 3 – 4 trips. You simply will not have that kind of energy after a natural disaster. You can also use your wheelbarrow to transport smaller stumps of cut up trees such as ficus and palm trunks, just be sure not to load more than the manufacturer’s recommended weight capacity or your own lifting capabilities. Many wheelbarrows can handle several hundred pounds but that doesn’t mean you should push that around. Know your own physical strength limits, it would be better to take lighter trips than to exhaust yourself trying to carry too much weight. To save time, ensure that your wheelbarrow has the tires full of air and is ready to go when you need it. If you are purchasing a new or used one, should a well balanced and sturdy wheelbarrow.

Hand Truck or Dolly

There are a variety of hand trucks (also known as a dolly) available from hardware and lumber stores. A quality metal hand truck will help you to move large chunks of wood, furniture moving (to clean underneath it) as well as other moving tasks that require leverage. Be certain that the dolly you own is heavy duty so that it doesn’t break down when you need it the most. Hand or utility trucks come in both manual or electric versions depending on your preference and budget. Choose one that will suit your needs such as a standard or wagon version.

Buckets

Plenty of buckets, one will not do (if you have buckets with lids in the garage such as protein buckets or old paint cans, these are ideal for storing broken glass chards.  There will be a ton of broken glass after a hurricane or tornado. You can safely collect the broken glass in a bucket with a lid.  Clearly mark the bucket with a large label or thick felt permanent marker “broken glass” so that the garbage collectors know where to expect the broken glass is stored.  The last thing you want is for sanitation workers or anyone else getting injured.  Try to secured the broken sharp items in plastic tubs or buckets with lids.

Large push broom

If your home, patio or property has large open spaces you will be in need of a heavy-duty push broom. You will expend too much energy with a regular house broom. Look for a push broom that isn’t too heavy, has thick and lush bristles that are medium to firm. The standard size push broom is 24 inches. Push brooms are often used in commercial cleaning by landscapers, contractors, builders, and maintenance. A push broom will assist in clearing debris, dust, and dirt from large floors, outdoor patio, and driveways.

Shop vacuum dual wet/dry vacuum

After the power returns and your initial manual sweeping is completed, you’ll want to do a detailed cleaning with a shop vacuum. Check corners, floor seams, balcony and sliding glass doors for lodged debris and dirt. You may already have a shop vacuum up in your garage. Choose one that is portable, with a few extra vacuum attachments for a more detailed cleaning. There are some excellent vacuums filters that are reusable that can be emptied out and hosed down outside. Keep a couple of extra filters for your vacuum in storage during hurricane season. Look for a vacuum that collects fine cement dust, sawdust, and drywall dust.

Multi-use ladder

One of the hidden dangers lurking after a natural disaster are falling limbs from trees or falling palm fronds. After cleaning your home and patio area you’ll want to survey the rest of your property for other hazards. You will want to remove loose branches, large tree limbs and partially ripped palm fronds that are hanging precariously from trees. This year we had a Doctor friend treat a patient who was out walking her dog. A Washingtonian Palm frond came down from approximately 25 feet nearly slicing her entire ear completely off. Washingtonian palm fronds have extremely sharp, jagged teeth along the spine of each palm. An extendable multi-use heavy duty ladder will help you to safely remove tree limbs and palm fronds after a hurricane. Your ladder will also come in handy for cleaning high ceilings and repainting walls that have been stripped of paint due to hurricane winds.

You will have weeks, if not months of hurricane cleanup. You can make life easier with the right cleaning tools and equipment.