Most of the moving advice written for Naples is about arriving. The other half of the year gets almost no attention, and it is the half that catches people out. Sometime in April or May the season winds down, and the house has to be left on its own for six or eight months.
Closing up a seasonal home is not the same job as packing for a move. You are not emptying the place. You are deciding what should not sit in a closed-up Florida house through the summer, what needs to travel with you, and what can simply stay put. Get those three piles right and you come back in the fall to a house that looks the way you left it.
Walk the house before you decide anything
Start with a slow walk through every room, including the lanai and the garage, with a notepad. You are looking for three things: items that are genuinely valuable to you, items made of materials that do not enjoy heat and humidity, and items you will want in your hands up north.
Wood furniture, upholstered pieces, leather, artwork, instruments, wine, photographs, paper files and anything electronic all belong on the list for a second look. Everything else is probably fine where it sits.
Do this walk a few weeks before you fly out, not the night before. Written down, the decisions get made calmly instead of in a rush.
What usually goes into warehouse storage
A closed-up house in Southwest Florida does not stay at the temperature you left it. Even with the air conditioning set to a holding temperature, the house runs warmer and the air carries more moisture than most household materials like.
The items usually worth moving out for the season are:
- Artwork and anything framed. Paper and canvas react to moisture in the air, and mounts can loosen.
- Wine. Heat is the part people worry about, but the swing between warm and cool matters just as much.
- Antiques and solid wood pieces. Joints and veneers move with the humidity.
- Upholstered furniture and leather. Fabric, padding and hide all hold moisture out of the air, and a closed house gives them months to do it.
- Instruments. Anything with wood, strings or felt reacts to both heat and moisture.
- Papers, books and photographs. These are the quiet ones. Pages curl and photos stick together, and nobody notices until October.
- Electronics you are leaving behind. Screens and drives do better out of a hot room.
You do not have to send a houseful. Sending six or eight pieces and a few boxes, and leaving the rest of the furniture in place, is a perfectly normal shape for a seasonal plan. For what to do with those items before anything leaves, we walk through it in our guide on preparing belongings for climate-controlled storage.
How storage with us actually works, in plain words
This is worth being clear about, because the word storage means two very different things and the difference matters for a seasonal plan.
We have one warehouse. It is 30,000 square feet, it is climate controlled, and it sits at 3500 Shearwater Street in Naples. Our crew comes to the house, pads and wraps what is leaving, inventories it, loads it and brings it back to the warehouse, where our own staff looks after it until you want it again.
There are no units, no keys, no gate codes and no access hours, and you do not drive over to the warehouse. It is not a self-storage building with your name on a roll-up door. Your things are held by the same people who packed them, in a building that is staffed and temperature controlled, and they come back out when you tell us you are ready. For a seasonal absence that is the whole point: nobody has to go and check on anything.
What travels with you
Separate this pile early, because it is the one that causes the scramble. Medication, documents, jewelry, laptops, chargers, the paperwork for the house and anything you need in the first week up north should go with you in a bag you carry, not in a box that leaves on a truck.
Then there is the middle category: things you want up north for the summer but do not want to carry on a plane. Golf clubs, a few boxes of clothes, a bicycle, a piece of furniture meant for the other house. That is a small shipment rather than a suitcase. Decide on it before you book anything else, because it changes the shape of the rest of the plan.
If a shipment is heading out of state, the sequence is different from a local pickup. We have written up what happens on a long-distance move from pickup to delivery so you can see how the timing works before you commit to dates.
Getting the house itself ready to sit
Once you know what is leaving, the house is a short list:
- Empty the refrigerator and decide whether it stays running.
- Run the dishwasher and washing machine empty, then leave their doors ajar so they dry out.
- Clear the pantry of anything that attracts pests, and take the rubbish out on your way to the airport.
- Set the air conditioning to a holding temperature rather than switching it off, and have someone check on it while you are away.
- Shut off the water supply if that is what your building recommends for the summer.
- Close blinds and shutters on the sun-facing windows.
- Bring in or secure everything on the lanai, including cushions and anything light enough to move in a storm.
- Leave a key and a working phone number with whoever is keeping an eye on the place.
That last point about the lanai is not only about tidiness. You are leaving at the front end of storm season, so the house should be left in a state it could sit through weather without anybody rushing over. Our piece on moving during hurricane season in Naples covers how that season shapes scheduling if your dates are flexible.
If this is the last season
Sometimes the spring departure is not a departure at all, it is a sale. The house is going on the market, or it has already sold, and the furniture needs to be somewhere other than Naples.
That is a different job, and it is worth saying out loud on the first call. Instead of a handful of sensitive items going to the warehouse for the summer, you are looking at a full household that needs to be packed, inventoried and either held or shipped. Held is often the right answer first, because the dates on the two ends rarely line up. Your things can sit at the warehouse and go out when the other end is ready.
When to book, and why earlier is easier
Spring is the busy end of the Naples calendar. Everybody who arrived in the autumn is leaving within a few weeks of each other, and if you live in a building there is a second layer of scheduling on top of ours.
Condominium and gated communities often limit which days and hours a truck can be on the property, require the service elevator to be booked, and have their own requirements for the moving company before anyone is allowed in. Ask your association what they need as soon as you know roughly when you are flying out, and get the answer in writing so there is no debate on the morning.
Tell us as early as you can and we will work to the window your building gives us. Our office is open Monday to Friday, 8 to 4, and moves and deliveries run Monday through Saturday, 8 to 4. If your plan is only a few items, that is still a job we schedule properly rather than squeeze in, and you can read how we handle small moving jobs in Naples.
Coming back in the fall
The good part about doing the departure properly is that the return is short. You give us a date, we pull your things from the warehouse, bring them back to the house and put them where they belong, including reassembling anything that came apart on the way out.
Ask for the delivery a few days before you actually want to use the house rather than the same afternoon you land. Unwrapping and putting rooms back together takes a little time, and it is nicer done without a suitcase standing in the hall. For the arrival end in more detail, our snowbird moving tips for Naples look at the coming-south side of the year.
Common questions
Can I store just a few things rather than a whole house?
Yes. A short list of sensitive pieces and a few boxes is a job we schedule like any other. The crew and the truck are scoped to the job, so a small load is handled as a small load.
How long can my things stay in the warehouse?
A seasonal absence of six to eight months is a straightforward hold, and longer is fine too. Tell us roughly how long you expect to be away and we plan around it.
Can some things go to storage and others go north in the same week?
Yes, and it is easier if you say so at the start. The two parts get planned together rather than booked as two unrelated jobs.
Two piles, and a quiet summer
Closing up a Naples home comes down to the walk through the house and the two piles it produces: what should not sit here through the summer, and what is going with you. Everything else stays where it is. Once those are settled, the booking is simple.
If you would like help working out which pile is which, tell us what is in the house and when you are flying out, and we will put a plan and a date together. Call us on (239) 231-7050. We look after Naples, Marco Island, Bonita Springs, Estero, Golden Gate, Pelican Bay, Pine Ridge, Vineyards and Lely Resort.
