Mobile Home Living: Decorating Your Lot
Since your mobile home lot is very small you don’t want to overwhelm it with too much landscaping and outdoor decorations. If you have a deck a few plants will enhance the look of not only the deck but the entire lot. Check out the silk trees that can be left outdoors all year long. They can be wired to the decking boards to keep them steady during bad weather. You can also weight down potted plants by putting the pot in a larger one then filling with rocks. Add a couple of deck chairs for a welcoming look.
If you don’t have a big deck, or you only have steps, the trees will still work. Wire them to the steps to secure. Or, plant some small, colorful flowers along the front of the trailer. Don’t surround the entire perimeter of the trailer with flowers or the lot could look too crowded. Stick with plants that grow low to the ground and have lots of color. If you have the space you can outline the flower section with gardening timbers.
Walk around your mobile home and just analyze the problem spots. See how it may look to others. Are there cracks or breaks in any of the windows? Is the front door banged or marred? Are the handrailings painted or the deck stained and well-maintained? Make a list of things that could use improvement.
If the end of your mobile home faces the road, rather than the front side, flowers can be placed along that end as well as the front. If the hitch of the home shows as people drive by planting a small flower garden in that area, with tall reeds that cover the hitch, will look nice. Or plant shrubs that will hide the trailer hitch then bring them on around to the front of the house.
Window boxes can add beauty and color to a mobile home without requiring lots of maintenance. Consider placing a couple of the boxes on the front of the trailer only. Choose one color of flower and plant several of them in each pot. Remember to choose something that won’t grow tall.
Some things that take up little room, such as a flagpole, can really make a trailer stand out and look attractive. The great thing about flagpoles is you can change the look anytime. Put up an Easter flag in the spring, a Thanksgiving flag in the Autumn, or leave an American flag up all year round. Or, forego the flag and put a birdhouse on a pole. It takes little room and will give you hours of enjoyment.
All mobile homes have to have some sort of underpinning. In the old days that was silver metal, but now, they have underpinning which looks like bricks or even types that resemble slate rocks. The new underpinning is beautiful and will really make an improvement in the way your mobile home looks to others.
Many mobile home parks have mailboxes at the end of the road, where all residents collect their mail, but some have individual mailboxes outside. If you have an individual mailbox in front of your trailer plant some pretty flowers and greenery around the pole. Decorate the mailbox itself by purchasing a mailbox sticker or using rub-on appliques.
The kindest thing you can do for your mobile home lot is to keep it neat as a pin. Make sure the screen door is clean and the screen not torn. Think about hanging a nice wreath, for each season, on the front door. Place garbage cans out back in an orderly fashion, keep perimeters and sidewalks trimmed of tall grass, and implement a small shed to store mower, gas cans and other belongings.
Mobile homes and mobile home lots don’t have to fit the reputation of being dumpy. You can spruce up your own little space and maybe provide the incentive for someone else to do the same. Your home is your castle, even if it’s small, so keep it clean and beautiful.
