Long after the passing of a loved one, you may feel responsible for keeping their gravesite looking beautiful throughout the years. With permission from the cemetery, there are many things you can do post-burial to keep their final resting place looking personalized, elegant, and well-cared for. Make it a tradition to visit your late loved one’s headstone and take these tips for beautifying your loved one’s gravesite to heart so that you can make it sparkle year after year.
Give the Monument a Thorough Cleaning
If you regularly visit the headstone and clean it, you’ll maintain its fresh and pristine appearance. Stones don’t need too much work to stay spotless, even if they’re granite. Start cleaning the headstone early to prevent it from collecting stains over the years. All you need is a bucket of water, gentle dish soap, and a sponge.
Avoid cleaning a marble, slate, or sandstone grave more than every seven years. Frequent cleaning can damage the stone and cause cracks. Also, avoid cleaning headstones during the colder months. Water that seeps into small recesses in the stone can freeze and break it further.
Attach Trinkets, Notes, or Flowers to the Grave
A grave marker with a small trinket that matches your loved one’s interests will stand out from the others. Find something meaningful to both yourself and the deceased and attach it to the top of the headstone—if allowed—with clear silicone adhesive. If you don’t want flowers to blow away in the wind, consider buying a wire basket or flower holder that attaches to the headstone and holds the flowers in place.
Notes may be more difficult to place at the gravesite, but not impossible. Consider adding a small box to the monument’s base for notes from friends, family, or even cemetery visitors. It should be made of a weatherproof material, not cardboard, that you can attach to the grave with adhesive. Your family can make a tradition out of reading the notes once a year.
Add Your Loved One’s Picture to Their Headstone
Sometimes, the most impactful way to make your loved one’s grave stand out in a cemetery is by adding their photo to it. You may not have been able to add the picture to the monument during its creation, but it’s not too late to consider decorating it with a ceramic photo that captures their image forever. No matter how old or recent the headstone is, adding a picture to keep their memory alive is an excellent tip for beautifying your loved one’s gravesite.
Weatherproof picture frames for headstones from MemorialPics are the same high-quality ceramic photos that funeral homes and monument creators use for their products. However, you can attach them on your own. You’ll save money by installing them yourself with their adhesive backings and some silicon adhesive, and you won’t need to worry about them falling off or breaking.