A month by month plan for Northville, Novi and Plymouth homes, built from federal climate normals for Detroit Metro Airport and the local leaf, yard waste and festival calendar.
Southeast Michigan has four real seasons, and each one dirties a house in its own way. The calendar below uses the 1991 to 2020 federal climate normals for Detroit Metro Airport, the nearest long weather record to Northville, along with local city calendars, to suggest what to clean and when.
Use it as a checklist. Not every month needs a big project, but a few well timed ones keep the house from sliding between seasons.
These three months bring most of the year's snow. The normals show 8.9 inches in December, 14.0 in January and 12.5 in February, out of about 45 inches a year. On about 42 days a year the high never climbs above freezing, so snow and slush stay on driveways and sidewalks, and road salt stays on everything that touches them.
Inside, the job is containment. Keep a boot tray and two mats at each door, damp mop entry floors often to lift salt film, and wipe the lower edge of the door and nearby baseboards, where splashes dry into white streaks. Closed windows and running furnaces also mean dust settles faster on shelves and electronics, so dust high surfaces more often than in summer.
Late January brings the Plymouth Ice Festival downtown, held since 1982, and a weekend out in the cold usually ends with wet coats and boots piled by the door. Plan a floor clean for the Monday after.
Snow tapers off in March, but the thaw is often the dirtiest stretch of the year. Melting snow uncovers a winter of road grit, and yards turn to mud before grass returns. The ground averages about 47 days a year with an inch or more of snow cover, and once that cover is gone, everything under it walks indoors.
This is the right time for a One-Time Deep Clean. Wash baseboards near every door, scrub grout that has absorbed salt, wipe window tracks, and clean the blinds and ceiling fans that collected furnace dust all winter. Wash or replace entry mats that have held salt for months.
In Milford, the village yard waste season begins in early April, which is a useful cue to start outdoor cleanup without dragging it into the house.
May is the wettest month at Detroit Metro, with about 3.7 inches of precipitation, and the area averages about 74 days a year with a tenth of an inch or more. Wet lawns, garden beds and muddy paws make entry floors the priority again, this time with mud instead of salt.
Check window sills and tracks after storms, and wipe the outside of sliding doors where rain splashes dirt. Spring is also a good time to wash shower curtains and bath mats, since bathrooms start to dry more slowly as the air warms up.
The normal July high is about 84 degrees, and the area averages 13 days a year at 90 or hotter. The mean dew point in July and August is about 61 degrees, far higher than the 19 degrees of a January day, so bathrooms and basements stay damp longer. Run exhaust fans after showers, keep shower glass and grout on a steady schedule, and wipe up condensation around air conditioning vents.
Summer is also outdoor season. Kensington Metropark covers 4,481 acres around Kent Lake near Milford, Maybury State Park covers 944 acres in Northville Township, and Northville's Downs River Park runs along the Rouge River. Sand, grass and sunscreen come home on shoes, towels and car seats, and a quick sweep of entries between visits helps.
September brings Northville's Heritage Festival, a celebration of the town's Victorian roots. It is a natural time to give an older house a careful dusting of trim, spindles and window aprons before the heating season starts.
October and November are leaf months. The city of Northville collects leaves raked into the street along the curb each fall, Plymouth assigns each household a pickup week for loose leaves at the curb, and Novi's yard waste pickup ends in mid December. All that raking pushes leaf bits and grit into entries, rugs and window tracks.
Once the yard work is done and before the first real snow, book a second deep clean or add focus to a recurring visit. Clean window tracks one more time, wash entry mats, and set out boot trays before salt season begins again.
The questions Northville homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Northville and surrounding areas with background-checked cleaners and is insured up to $1 million. Re-clean guarantee: if we missed something, tell us by the end of the next day and we come back to fix it. Beyond Clean. TotalCare.
