I have a corner lot with several large trees, which makes fall a not so desirable time to work outside. My yard is not large enough to warrant a riding mower, so that idea is out. Here is what I've tried:
Leaf rake, leaf chute, and lawn bags. Nope, nope, nope.
Leaf blower/vac, leaf chute, lawn bags. I got a pretty powerful Husqvarna handheld that blows and mulches. The blower works great, so does the vac. Several issues with this approach:
Large lot, the handheld gets a bit heavy after a while. Not a huge deal, but if I'm looking for a new solution, it's something worth mentioning. It's akin to holding a 10lb weight in one's hand for an hour or so. If any solution suggested requires a blower I will probably pursue a backpack blower, and forego the vacuum if necessary or look into a separate vac.
The bag the blower came with was entirely too small, and after I blow all the leaves into a huge pile before I vac( it just seems intuitive to do that) I can't get a good vac rhythm going before it's time to empty the bag. I've seen the huge aftermarket leaf bags, so that's worth a try, but a benefit of the small bag is less lower back strain from repetitive bending over, which goes away if you have a single large bag, as I'd always be bending over digging leaves out of the larger chute to put in the smaller paper lawn bags.
What I have researched recently:
Leaf Tarp/Net. The idea is to blow the leaves onto a tarp or net and haul them off somewhere. Unfortunately my local doesn't do curbside sucking, and I don't have a truck to haul them off somewhere. If there was a cheap enough net I'd be glad to set it out with the trash, as bagging them sort of sucks right now.
SuperNet. This guy might be onto something.
Ideally I'm looking for a reasonably priced approach that will save me time, right now it takes at least 1/2 - A full day to get the first batch of leaves up, and there's always a second back that takes slightly less time. I realize no solution will encompass everything, but knowing what others do will at least get the idea wheel turning.