Fall on the Kitsap Peninsula is short. One week you're mowing in a t-shirt, the next the needles are down, the gutters are full, and the yard is wet until spring. Everything on this list is easier to do dry, so start in September and work down.
Drainage first. Walk the property in the first real rain and look for where water sits or runs: low spots in the lawn, ditches and culverts full of leaves, downspouts dumping against the foundation, the base of a retaining wall. Clear ditches and culverts, extend downspouts, and note anything that needs a French drain or regrading before the ground goes soft.
Then the trees. Look up. Dead limbs, cracked branches, and anything hanging over the roof, the driveway, or the fence should come down before the first windstorm does it for you. This is also the best time to remove a tree you've been thinking about, because the ground is still firm enough for equipment.
Beds and lawn come next. Cut back perennials, pull spent annuals, weed the beds once more, and put down a fresh layer of bark to keep weeds out and roots warm. Give the lawn a last mow, rake the needles and leaves that smother grass, and if it's thin or mossy, aerate and overseed now while the soil is still warm.
Finally, the stuff. Brush piles, the old fence panels behind the shed, the broken patio furniture: haul it now, before it spends a winter getting heavier and wetter. If the list is longer than a weekend, that's exactly what our cleanup crew is for.