The four-step workflow
- Read the objective list before touching a tool. Every job's open objectives are listed above the map; the August 19 patch also added a show/hide toggle for Objective Hints (see the hints guide).
- Clean by category, not by room. The game's official loop is mower → pressure washer → vacuum. Clearing growth first reveals dirt and litter that would otherwise take hidden passes — the same reason the Missing Dirt guide starts with vegetation.
- Finish with a perimeter pass. Walk the outer edge in one direction, then sweep inward in strips, checking fences, trim and planted edges. The Stuck-at-99% checklist follows the same behavior.
- Replay, do not over-scrub. When a map's star count runs short, leave — re-running a level replaces wall-staring time. Star totals and the counters (trash trash 500, plants 1000, wash 350) accumulate across sessions.
What not to waste time on
- Washing surfaces that belong to a different objective category — switch by material first.
- Gro mely re-working areas the objectives no longer list.
- Compulsive perfection on objects the result screen has not asked about: result progress, not visual polish, closes jobs.