Preparing your Florida home before leaving for the summer

Prepare a Florida home for the summer by removing everything the humid months can turn into a problem — food, standing moisture, and dirt — and by keeping the air conditioned while you are gone. In practice: empty and clean the refrigerator, deep clean the kitchen and baths, leave the AC running with humidity in mind, and set up remote access before you lock the door.

Why closing a South Florida house is its own project

A house in Michigan sits out the winter cold and dry. A house in Miami-Dade sits out the summer at the warmest, wettest point of the year — the wet season and hurricane season both run through the exact months seasonal residents are away. Closed rooms with no one opening doors drift toward the sticky end of the range on their own; the EPA guidance is to keep indoor humidity below 60 percent, ideally 30 to 50, and we explain what that band means for a Miami home in our indoor humidity guide. Everything on a departure checklist serves one of two goals: give damp air less to work with, and make sure nothing organic is left behind to spoil in it.

That second goal is why the departure clean matters more here than in most of the country. A crumb drawer or a greasy stovetop is a minor cosmetic issue in a dry climate. In a sealed South Florida house in July, it is an invitation.

The departure checklist

• Kitchen: empty the refrigerator of everything perishable, then clean it; run and empty the dishwasher and leave its door cracked open; take out all trash, including the cans’ liners; wipe down the stovetop, counters, and the inside of the microwave so no food residue stays behind.
• Moisture points: run bathroom exhaust fans after final showers; leave interior doors and closet doors open so conditioned air circulates; consider moisture absorbers in closets; fix any dripping fixture before you go rather than after five months of dripping.
• Air: leave the AC on — a sealed, unconditioned house in a Miami summer is how you come back to a musty house or worse. If your system has a humidity setting or a dehumidification mode, this is what it is for.
• Textiles: wash all linens and towels before storing them; nothing damp goes into a closed closet, including beach towels and the shower curtain.
• Final pass: water shut-off and water-heater settings as your plumber or association advises; blinds closed against five months of sun; a walk-through with the trash out, the fridge clean, and every drain run one last time.
• Access and contacts: leave a door code or key arrangement with someone local you trust, and make sure your building or association knows who is authorized — if a storm comes through, someone needs to be able to get in. For what that after-storm visit involves, see cleaning up after a hurricane.

Make the last clean a deep one

The guidance our deep-cleaning page publishes is that most Miami homes benefit from a deep clean two to three times a year — and for a house lived in part of the year, that usually means one on arrival and one before you close it up again. The logic of the departure one is simple: whatever soil you lock in is what five humid months get to work on, and nobody is there to notice.

Our deep clean starts at $349, runs 4–6 hours with a 2-person team, and covers 42 checklist items verified by photo. The add-ons that matter most for a departure are the refrigerator — $49 empty, $69 with food still in it — and the inside of the oven at $49, because those are the two appliances you least want marinating until November. Time it for your last day or two in residence: floors dry, kitchen sealed clean, and you lock the door on a house that is ready to sit.

In the homes we close up around Miami, Kendall, and Cutler Bay, the difference at re-entry is not subtle. A house that was deep cleaned before departure opens to still air; a house that wasn’t opens to what the humidity found.

Set up the return before you go

Two bookings, not one. The departure clean is the first; the pre-arrival clean next fall is the second, and it is far easier to arrange in May than from 1,200 miles away in October. On eligible completed visits you receive a CleanCheck report with verified checklist items and customer-safe photos, so both the visit you weren’t present for at departure and the one before you land are documented — you can see the house’s condition without being in the state. How the pre-arrival visit works, including access codes and timing it the day before you land, is covered in should you hire a cleaning service before returning?

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