A cleaning calendar for Brevard County homes that follows the local wet season, the humid peak of August, the September rains and the dry, mild months of winter.
Spring cleaning is a northern habit. On the Space Coast the year turns on rain, not on snow and thaw, and the National Weather Service office in Melbourne tracks exactly when it turns. This calendar follows those dates, the local climate normals and the storm record, so each job lands in the month it does the most good.
NWS Melbourne gives a median start of May 28 for the wet season and October 17 for the dry season. Normal annual rain at the airport is 50.79 inches, and 27.90 of those inches fall between June and September. The rest of the year is comparatively dry: from November through April the city averages about four days a month with a tenth of an inch of rain or more.
Humidity tracks the rain. The average dew point is about 54 degrees in January and about 74 in July and August. Freezing nights are rare, fewer than two a year, so there is no winter grit or salt to plan around. What there is instead is a long, sticky summer and a hurricane season that overlaps the wettest months.
These are the driest and least humid months of the Melbourne year, which makes them the best time for jobs that need things to dry: washing curtains and shower liners, cleaning out closets that smelled musty in August, and wiping down the lanai furniture. A deep clean in November clears out what the wet season left behind.
Brevard has a large part time population. About 7 percent of county homes are held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use, and in Cocoa Beach that share is about a quarter. Homes that sat closed through the summer need a deep clean before the owners return, with fans, vents and blinds first.
Turtle nesting season on the Space Coast beaches runs from March 1 to October 31, and the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge south of Melbourne Beach protects one of the most significant loggerhead nesting areas in the world. For beachside homes that means a long season of beach walks and sand coming back through the door, so an entry mat inside and out earns its place from March.
Late May is the second deep clean window. Getting grout, shower glass, window tracks and air conditioning vents clean before the median May 28 start of the wet season means the house goes into the humid months from a clean baseline. It is also the time to check that the bathroom exhaust fans actually pull air.
July averages about 10 rain days at the airport, and the dew point sits near 74 degrees. Nothing dries quickly. Bathrooms, laundry areas and the floor just inside the back door need the most attention, and a bi-weekly or weekly Recurring House Clean keeps up better than an occasional big clean.
Melbourne also averages about 63 days a year at 90 degrees or hotter, most of them in these months, so the air conditioning runs hard. Vacuum return grilles and replace the filter on schedule, because a clogged filter puts more dust back into the rooms.
September is Melbourne's wettest month, with a normal 7.63 inches. It is also the heart of hurricane season. Irma dropped 11.84 inches at the Melbourne airport over four days in September 2017, and Matthew knocked out power to about 75 percent of Brevard customers in October 2016.
Before a storm, the useful cleaning jobs are small: clear the lanai and patio so nothing becomes a projectile, empty the trash, and run the dishwasher and laundry while there is power. After a storm, once the home is dry and power is back, a deep clean deals with tracked mud and dust. The storm season guide covers both in detail. By the median October 17 start of the dry season, the year is ready to begin again.
The questions Melbourne homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
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