Various Sources have testified not only to the necessity of a clean lawn-space, but also to  to the excessive time and inconvenience that cleaning a yard currently requires. According to a national Survey conducted by Home Advisor, “63% of those responding said they live by or have lived close to a home that wasn't properly maintained by the owners. Another 21% admitted it was probably their own home that had their neighbors talking.” (2013) Presently, the prevalence of messy lawns has a negative effect on a majority of Americans. For those who neglect to properly care for their lawns, a lack of time is oftentimes cited as the main reason. 

According to IP Switch Home and Yard Service, a clean lawn is incredibly beneficial to maintain, simply because of the negative effects of a dirty yard. Messy and unkept lawns lead to stress and worry, take away the appeal of a home, and occasionally even depreciate the property value, depending on the severity. The prevalence of a dirty lawn also  encourages “the breeding of cockroaches, mouse, ants and snakes (2014).” These animals are not only nuisances to the homeowner, but may also serve as safety threats. Even with these threats, however, many home owners continue to neglect the upkeep of their homes. 

In cleaning yards themselves,  many individuals face the large that yard-work cleanup and lawn maintenance are oftentimes inconvenient. “My yard-work experience comes from my job - planting gardens in the community, cutting grass at various locations, trimming hedges, etc.,” says Ian, the Waldorf Home Depot Outdoors manager. “The time it takes to clean up afterwards depends entirely on the job and the size of the lawn, but it is usually around an hour. The ratio of work to clean-up is around “60-40%” (2014).” Another Home Depot Employee expressed her discontent with this ratio.“That’s … too long, because, when you’re done, you want to really be done (2014).” While cleaning herself, she stated that  “Some things that I use to assist me in the process are very standard - rakes, bags, and weed-killing sprays.  “

Clearly, there is a level of inefficiency that exists with these existing tools, on medium-sized yards, when using the “standard” mechanisms for cleaning. Sammy, another employee of Home Depot, solidifies this view. “My yard work experience primarily comes from work that I do at home, such as cutting the grass, but I also have a knowledge of general procedure thanks to my position at the store. Typically, after a day of work, I spend around 1 hour and 30 minutes cleaning up the mess left behind. That is pretty long, in my opinion, and could be shortened by increasing my technology level. I currently use old mower, and inefficient mechanisms to do work(2014).” The inefficiency due to outdated technology is a trend observed in all testimonials. 

The former owner of a Lawn-Service Company owner, Mark, was also able to testify about the issue of lawn cleanup. “In my company, we did a variety of jobs, such as tilling the yard, “airing” it, cutting, trimming, etc. We were an all-around lawn service organization. While working, however, we had to be exceptionally careful not to create a large mess. On some days, cleaning would take up just as much time as the job itself! This was much too long for normal purposes. This, however, was probably created by a lack of resources on the company part- we used things like weed bags, certain vehicles, and finally vacuums.”

Many professionals have experienced firsthand the inefficiency of lawn cleanup. In many cases, the inefficiencies are due to the limitations of the technology at hand - especially when considering smaller, home-sized lawns, where industrial machinery is unavailable.

 

In order to gauge the impact of this problem, and also to gain insight on how to approach the development of a solution, I conducted a survey of the residents of a suburban American community, Charles County, Maryland. The following questions were asked: 

 

As an individual with experience in the field of yard-work, what do you often find the most uncomfortable about working? Please circle your average comfort level on a scale from 1-10 (1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest comfort level).

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10 

How long does it usually take you to clean up the mess left behind after an average amount of work? Do you feel as though that is too much time?

o less than 30 minutes      o 30 minutes - 1 hour     o 1- 2 hours     o more than 2 hours

Would you take advantage of a system designed to minimize the mess made at the end of a job, even if it was slightly uncomfortable to maneuver with? Do you value speed or comfort more?

a.)   o Yes         o No    b.)   o Speed    o Comfort 

If a system was developed, would you prefer a system designed to minimize the initial mess made, or a system designed to clean the mess itself in a faster time? 

o Minimize the initial mess     o Clean the resulting mess 

 

 

Would you prefer for this newly developed system, no matter what it’s purpose is, to be an entirely new tool or mechanism, or simply an addition/attachment to the toolset that you already own and maintain? 

o New tool      o Addition 

 

 

Based on the data received by participants in the survey, it can be said that, while doing yard-work and related outdoor activities, a majority of people become slightly uncomfortable. In addition, this discomfort is sustained for an average of around 55 minutes, which is a relatively long time to be under stress. However, according to responses, a majority of the general population does not view this as an extremely long time, as they did not choose to label their clean-up time as “too long.”

Nevertheless, however, an overwhelming majority (89%) stated that they would gladly utilize a device that allowed them to be more efficient in the process of cleaning yard work. In addition, a large majority of people also stated that they would prefer a device that increases speed over a device that increases the comfort level of the user, opening numerous design possibilities. Both will be maintained, however, in the final design. Based on those same results, a majority of users also stated that they envisioned a device that could prevent messes before they are created, although a device such as that would be relatively limited in scope, and not necessarily incredibly versatile. The results showed no real preference between an entirely new device, and an attachment to existing devices.See Appendix for complete charts/graphs of the survey.

From these sources, three statements clearly become true: 1.) A clean yard is necessary, 2.)  Current technology prevents maximum efficiency during yard clean-up, and 3.) A majority of the people demand a solution to this problem. 

Based on these three statements, I was able to develop a problem statement. After the establishment of this statement, the development of the solution, the Yard Mess Eraser, was able to begin.