Work outside in, then top down. Clear the lanai, balcony and yard of anything that can fly or hold water; vacuum the window and slider tracks so their weep holes can still drain; empty and dry the refrigerator; run every load of laundry and the dishwasher while the power is on; and lift everything off the floor.
Every checklist you can find covers water, batteries, documents and shutters, and those lists are fine. This is the other half — the one nobody writes: what to clean, dry and empty beforehand, which is what decides how much work is waiting when the power comes back. The season opens June 1 and runs through November, so this is not a day of chores. It is a six-month rhythm.
Why prepping is mostly cleaning
A prepped house is a shut house, and here a shut house in June is a house with the A/C off. That is the whole problem in one sentence. Whatever goes in wet stays wet; whatever sits on the floor gets wet if water comes under a door; whatever is in the refrigerator when the power goes stops being food and starts being a smell. None of it is dramatic. It is simply the work you will be doing in two weeks if you do not do it now.
The 72 hours, in order
An ordinary house is one long afternoon if you go in this order and do not double back. The order matters more than the list: the tracks come before the drains because clearing them is what makes the drains matter, and the refrigerator goes early because it has a deadline you do not control.
- Outside, before anything else. Cushions first — they are what stays soaked for a week — then the light furniture, the mat, the umbrella, the potted plants, the grill cover, the wind chimes. Anything that flies, anything that holds water. It is the only step that stops being possible once the wind arrives.
- Vacuum the tracks. Slider and window tracks in this city live packed with sand, leaf litter and dryer lint. A packed track is a dam: the little weep slots at the outside edge stop draining, the channel fills, and the water leaves the only way left — inward, across your floor. Vacuum with the crevice tool, wipe the channel, then pour a cup of water in and watch it leave.
- Clear what drains, from the ground. Downspout outlets, the yard drain, the pool-deck drain, the balcony scupper, the grate at the bottom of the driveway. Sweep out what you can reach standing on the ground and leave the roof to somebody with the right equipment. Water that cannot leave finds the door threshold instead.
- Empty and dry the refrigerator. Eat down what is open, clear the produce drawers, wipe the shelves and the door gasket. Then push the freezer contents into one block and fill the gaps with frozen bottles of water — a packed freezer holds its cold far longer than a half-empty one. A refrigerator you cleaned on Thursday is not the one you have to open on Monday.
- Run every load while the power is on. Laundry through the dryer and folded, dishwasher run and emptied, sink clear, trash and recycling out to the curb before pickup stops. Dry towels and dry sheets are supplies. A sink of dishes on day one is a different kind of week entirely.
- Get it off the floor. Roll up the area rugs, lift the garage boxes onto a shelf or a pallet, empty the bottom of the closet, move papers and power strips up one level. An inch of water under a door ruins whatever it touches — and a rolled rug that stayed dry is a rug you still own.
- Scrub the tub, then fill it. If you are filling the tub for flushing water, scrub it first: that water is only as clean as the tub you put it in, and it is going to sit there for days. Same for the coolers — wash them out before the ice goes in, not after.
“Whatever is wet on Friday and still wet on Tuesday becomes next month’s problem. Prepping a house is mostly deciding what gets to be wet.”
The lanai is where the work is
In south Miami-Dade the screened lanai is not an extra; it is half the house. Emptying one takes longer than anyone budgets, especially with plants. While you are out there, check the mesh and the spline as you go — a panel the wind has already loosened will blow out — and sweep the leaf litter out of the track at the base dry, because that is precisely what clogs the drainage later. The full method, including the standing warning about pressure washers, is in how to clean green algae off lanai screens.
One note on our own scope, so nobody plans around an assumption: “Patio or balcony cleaning” and “Sliding-door track cleaning” are add-ons you select and are priced separately — one small outdoor area, and each sliding-door track vacuumed and detailed. They are not inside a standard clean, and clearing a lanai ahead of a storm is not a service we publish at all. That day is yours, which is why this article tells you how rather than selling you out of it.
The refrigerator is a timing problem
Most people clean the refrigerator afterward, which is the worst possible moment: no power, no A/C, and the smell already set. Do it before, with the door open and the water running — it is the procedure in cleaning your refrigerator, faster and with one fewer drawer to refill. If you would rather we did it, appliance interiors are priced separately and published: empty refrigerator $65, refrigerator with food $85. But that is a visit you book calmly, not in the 48 hours when the whole county wants the same thing.
In a building, the rules come first
In a tower, half your prep is not up to you. Before June, ask the management office three things and write the answers down: whether balconies must be cleared and with how much notice, what the building requires of a vendor working in your unit — many associations want an insured company with a certificate on file before a crew passes the lobby — and how the service elevator and loading dock work when the whole building moves on the same day. None of that gets settled on storm day.
And a note of context rather than marketing: much of the south end of the county — Cutler Bay, for one — was rebuilt after Hurricane Andrew, in modern open-plan houses with a screened patio off the back. We opened in 2026, so we are not going to tell you what we saw in ’92. What we can do is publish the procedure.
What happens to a visit you already have booked
Almost nobody publishes this part, so here it is in our Terms’ own words: you cancel or reschedule free up to 24 hours before your appointment, and inside 24 hours a $25 cancellation fee applies. In the other direction: we may need to reschedule for weather, safety, or staffing reasons — we will tell you as soon as we know, and you never pay a fee for a reschedule we initiate. Visits are scheduled by arrival window — morning, midday, or afternoon — with reminders 24h and 2h before, which is about when it becomes clear whether a day is going to happen.
Afterward: what is cleaning, and what is not
What is left when the power returns is fine dust and sand: it came in through the same tracks and vents you cleaned, in a house that was shut with the A/C off for days. That is precisely why the deep cleaning page lists the seasonal reset — “Spring + fall — Miami pollen, hurricane dust” — as one of its reasons to book. That is the 42-item checklist, verified by photo, on a 4–6 hour visit with a 2-person team, starting at $375.
And here is the boundary, said plainly: standing water, soaked drywall, or anything that stayed wet for days is not a cleaning job. That is restoration, and often an insurance claim, and calling a cleaning company first only costs you a day. Our Terms put it this way: we reserve the right to refuse or stop service where conditions are unsafe for our team — such as mold, infestation, biohazards, or abusive behavior. Once the house is dry and what is left is dust, that is our half.
Quick answers
What should I do with lanai and patio furniture before a storm?
Cushions in first, then the furniture, into the house or the garage rather than the pool. Wipe the frames on the way in — the salt film and pollen on them is what stains the tile they get stacked on. A piece too heavy to move is also too heavy to be your priority; secure what flies.
Do I need to clean my gutters before hurricane season?
Before the season, yes — May, while it is still dry enough to be a chore rather than a job. Clogged gutters and downspouts send roof water down the wall instead of away from it. Clear what you can reach from the ground and hire out the rest; nothing about this post is worth a ladder in a wind.
Should I clean before the storm or after it?
Both, and they are different jobs. Before is clearing and drying, against a deadline. After is grit: fine sand works in through the same tracks and vents you cleaned, in a house shut with the A/C off for days. The before is yours; the after is what a seasonal reset is for.
Will my cleaning be cancelled if a storm is coming?
You can cancel or reschedule free up to 24 hours before your appointment; inside 24 hours a $25 cancellation fee applies. And our Terms say it the other way too: we may need to reschedule for weather, safety, or staffing reasons — we will tell you as soon as we know, and you never pay a fee for a reschedule we initiate.
The short version
Outside in: lanai and balcony, tracks, drains, refrigerator, laundry and dishes, everything up off the floor, and the tub scrubbed before it is filled. What you do beforehand is what you are not doing later in the heat with no power. And once a year, in May, it is worth doing the whole thing properly before the season opens.
This guide is part of the JAS operating playbook — written for the half of the checklist we do not sell, which is usually the half that matters.