Most importantly, you want to make sure that the base of your ladder is on solid, level ground and not on any ice, snow, grease or mud. The rule of thumb for where to place your ladder: for every four feet high that the ladder is going to go up, the base of the ladder should be one foot away from the house. So, for a typical one-story house, the top of your ladder will be about 10 above the ground and the base of the ladder will be about 2.5 feet from the house. This means that you need a ladder that is between 10 and 11 feet long.

Make sure that you always face the ladder when moving up or down and never carry anything in your hand while climbing. You will probably need a garbage bag and gloves to clean your gutters so you should carry these things in your pocket or wear the gloves when climbing up and down. I find it works best to attach the garbage bag to a rope and then tie the rope to my belt loop while I climb. Then when I get to the top I can raise the bag up and down. Experts will tell you that you must always maintain three points of contact when on a ladder. That means that either two feet and one hand or two hands and one foot must be touching the ladder at any given moment. Therefore, once you get the garbage bag up to the top, use the rope to tie it to the ladder so you can hang on with one hand and clean out debris with the other.

There is one other safety concern that I can think of. I recommend that you wear gloves when cleaning out your gutters because you will be exposed to molds from the wet leaves and debris in your gutters. That moist environment is the perfect place to grow mold and bacteria. Most people will be fine if they wear the gloves and may only suffer the occasional sneeze. However, there are people with severe mold allergies that might suffer worse side effects. If you are one of those people then I recommend that you let another family member clean your gutters and downspouts or hire a gutter cleaning service.

When you climb up the ladder and can reach your gutters the next step is to remove the debris causing your blockages. To do this you will need a pair of gloves. I suppose the gloves are not mandatory, but I do not know many people who want to handle moldy leaves without protection. I usually just proceed by scooping out the mess with my hands, but some people prefer to use a gutter cleaning tool such as a gutter scoop to do this job. If you want a tool, you can purchase a small trowel or even gutter scoops of various sizes at your local Lowes or Home Depot. Just make sure that the size of the gutter scoop matches the size of your gutters. Once you remove the refuse from the gutters, you can throw it on the ground or into a garbage bag. If you chose to throw it on the ground, you will only have to go around and collect it in a garbage bag later so I recommend disposing of the debris as you go. If you do the same, make sure you attach the garbage bag to the ladder so that you have both hands free to continue working.

You will have to move the ladder from section to section so that you can clean out all the debris. The alternative is to use long handle gutter cleaning tools. A gutter cleaning wand allows you to clean sections of your gutter that are out of your normal reach. An alternative to doing this part of your cleaning by hand is to purchase a gutter cleaning robot. iRobot makes a gutter cleaning machine they call the iRobot Looj. This contraption sits inside your gutter and propels itself along while it blasts away leaves and debris. You will only have to move the ladder once from the starting point to the end. Of course, gutter cleaning robots do not clean the vertical part of your gutter system or the downspouts, but they convenient for the rest of your gutter cleaning.

After you make sure you have all of the large pieces of mess out of the gutters you will need to make sure the downspouts are clean. The easiest way to do this is to put a garden hose into the opening. The running water will force any debris down the spout and out the bottom where you can collect it into a garbage bag. Next, some people like to use a leaf blower or leaf vacuum to clear out any smaller pieces that you did not get out by hand. I find handling a large piece of equipment like that on ladder too hard so I usually skip this step. The final step is to rinse the entire gutter system with your garden hose.

As you can see, you probably have everything you need to clean your gutters within easy reach. To summarize, you must have a ladder, gloves, garbage bags, and a hose to clean your gutters. Optional pieces of equipment include a small trowel or gutter scoop and a leaf blower.