A garage provides shelter from winter rain and snow, but changing temperatures and humidity make it the wrong space for storing certain items.
Welcome to Family Handyman‘s Guide to Winterization, where you’ll find expert advice on how to get your home in shape for the cold season — because frozen pipes and sky-high heating bills do not have to be an inevitability this winter.
Many people lack storage space in their homes, so they treat the garage as a catch-all for things they shouldn’t leave in the poorly ventilated and uninsulated space that most garages offer. The list of things you don’t store in the garage in the winter includes those that deteriorate in cold or dampness or pose a fire hazard, and even some surprising ones — like firewood — that you might assume belong in the garage.
As Minnesota home inspector Ruben Saltzman puts it: “When it comes to garages, think of them as unheated sheds. Anything that doesn’t handle freezing temps or big temperature swings well shouldn’t be stored there. A good rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t leave it outside in January, don’t leave it in your garage either.”
The garage is obviously a great place to store your car, garden tools and much more, but not everything. Here, cleaning, storage and home safety experts advise you about things you don’t store in the garage in the winter and offer some alternative storage solutions.
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Propane tanks and oily rags
“Propane tanks used for grills, camping stoves, or heaters should never be stored in an enclosed space like a garage because of the potential for gas leaks,” warns house cleaning expert Petya Holevich. “Propane is highly flammable and can ignite easily when exposed to heat or a spark. It’s crucial to store propane tanks outside in an upright position, away from any potential ignition sources.”
Oily rags are another item you don’t store in the garage in winter, or in any season, for that matter. When you leave them in a pile, they generate heat in much the same way a pile of compost does, and they can spontaneously ignite. Dispose of each rag separately after you’ve finished using it.
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Gasoline
When you store gasoline or diesel fuel in a sealed container, the container contracts in the cold and expands again when the temperature rises. This puts stress on plastic containers, which could rupture and allow fumes to escape, creating a fire hazard. You can avoid this issue by storing fuels in metal containers, but there’s another reason storing gasoline in your garage is a bad idea.
Gas absorbs moisture from the air, and unless you add a stabilizer, it goes stale. If you try to use stale gas to start your lawnmower in the spring, it will probably gum up the carburetor and could force an expensive repair. The solution? Empty all gas from your lawnmower and other gas-powered tools before you store them, and don’t store gas in containers. Plan on buying new gas when spring comes.
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Paint and solvents
You might already know this, but in case you don’t, paints don’t handle cold temperatures well. According to Salzman: “Paint, solvents, and cleaning supplies can separate, thicken, or become unstable in the cold.”
Water-based paint products are especially vulnerable because water freezes at a relatively warm temperature of 32 F. If you want water-based paints to be usable when spring comes and you don’t have a heated garage, store them in a warm environment, such as the basement or a closet inside the home.
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Cleaning chemicals
It’s all too tempting to leave partially used containers of cleaning chemicals in the garage and forget about them. I’m guilty of this myself.
Holevich warns that the fluctuating temperatures in the garage can cause cleaning chemicals and pesticides to degrade, leak, or even catch fire, posing a serious safety hazard. “Store them in a well-ventilated, cool, and dry area, preferably in a dedicated storage cabinet.”
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Electronic equipment
The delicate circuitry in electronic equipment doesn’t like extreme temperature fluctuations, and it really doesn’t like the moist conditions you find in a garage in the winter. “The garage is typically not a climate-controlled environment,” says Holevich, “which can lead to damage, corrosion, and decreased lifespan of electronic devices.”
It’s OK to store old electronic equipment in the garage if you’re planning to throw it away. But if you plan to use it again, keep it in a temperature-controlled area within your home.
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Batteries
“Batteries don’t tolerate freezing — you’ll drastically shorten their life,” warns Saltzman. Here, we aren’t just talking about spare AAA, AA, C- or D-cells that you need for various appliances in the house. We’re also talking about the batteries that power your tools.
When winter comes, remove the batteries from your tools and bring them indoors. At our house, we have a designated drawer for spare batteries, and it’s big enough to accommodate all the tool batteries as well as the smaller ones we need for appliances.
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Important documents
Paper documents like passports, birth certificates and valuable photographs deteriorate quickly in moist conditions. “The garage,” says Holevich, “is a space susceptible to temperature and humidity fluctuations, which isn’t the best place for long-term storage of such items.”
That’s one reason why they’re something you don’t store in the garage in the winter, and here’s another reason: Rodents. Rats and mice use paper for nests and have an uncanny ability to get to it, even if it’s in a sealed box. I have a box-full of half-eaten personal papers contaminated by mouse poop to prove it.
If documents are important to you, store them indoors in sealed containers.
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Delicate fabrics and leather goods
“Clothing and fabric items in general are materials that you shouldn’t store in a garage because of the possibility of pest damage and mold onset,” warns Holevich. Leather goods are particularly vulnerable to moisture and mold. They can lose their flexibility in conditions of fluctuating temperature and humidity, and mold may permanently discolor them.
Holevich recommends that you store such delicate items inside your home in a dry and well-ventilated space, such as a closet or wardrobe.
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Flexible hoses
Leaving garden hoses outdoors in the winter is a sure-fire way to ruin them, but storing them in the garage isn’t much better, according to plumber Jimmy Hiller. “Garden hoses are made of rubber or vinyl and metal — materials that hate unstable cold.” Moreover, he says that moisture in the garage can corrode the metal on the ends of the hoses.
And it isn’t just garden hoses: “The same principle applies to anything with hoses, including pressure washers and even things like portable air compressors.” If you want to prevent damage, store these items indoors or in some other space with a controlled environment.
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Children’s toys
Here, we’re talking primarily about plush and stuffed animals, like teddy bears. If given the chance, dust mites, other types of insects and mice will infest them very easily, warns Holevich.
If your kids are done with these toys, consider giving them away so that other kids can enjoy them. If you want to keep them — perhaps as keepsakes or for a new addition to the family — store them in a safe place somewhere in the house, not in the garage.
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Perishables and canned goods
It goes without saying that perishables won’t last long in the uncontrolled environment in a garage over the winter. This includes pet food and staples like rice, beans, dried fruit and nuts. Storing them in plastic bags or containers won’t help much, because rodents can easily chew through plastic.
According to storage expert David Hurless, canned goods should not be stored in the garage over the winter. “If your stored cans freeze, they can burst. This particularly sucks because you often will not catch this right away.” It is best to keep food items in the pantry during the winter.
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Firewood
The problem with storing firewood in the garage is that it attracts pests. “Insects and larvae in the wood don’t necessarily die off in freezing temperatures,” says security expert Jeff Ketelaars. “They’ll stay dormant, then wake up once they’re warmed indoors.” Not to mention that firewood stacks are favorite nesting places for rats and mice.
Best to stack your firewood outdoors at least 10 feet from the house, and be sure to brush it off before you take it inside.
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Wooden furniture
Wooden furniture doesn’t attract pests to the same degree as firewood, but it does attract some. Besides wood-loving insects, it provides a good place for mold and fungus to grow, and over the course of a wet winter, fungus can turn to wood rot. Add to that the fact that dampness and fluctuating temperature conditions in a garage can warp the wood.
It’s best to keep wooden furniture indoors, but if you must store it in the garage, cover it with a tarp or some other protective material to keep it dry.
FAQs
Is it safe to store a refrigerator in the garage in winter?
If you unplug the refrigerator and clean it thoroughly to kill all the mold, a refrigerator should be fine in the garage during the winter. Just be sure to give it an additional cleaning before you use it again.
If you want to plug in the refrigerator and use it during the winter, make sure it has a climate-control thermostat that prevents it from freezing up in the cold weather. Refrigerators with this feature are generally known as garage-ready refrigerators.
Is it safe to store food in the garage during the winter?
No. As mentioned above, perishables are magnets for rodents, even when stored in sealed containers. Canned goods are also vulnerable. They could burst when the contents freeze.
About the Experts
- Reuben Saltzman is a second-generation home inspector and the owner of Structure Tech Home Inspections, Minnesota’s top-rated inspection company
- Petya Holevich is an experienced house cleaning and laundry expert with over 5 years of dedicated time at Fantastic Services.
- Jimmy Hiller is the plumbing and HVAC expert, as well as the CEO and President, of Happy Hiller, a plumbing service that operates in Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and Florida.
- David Hurless is the Director of Operations for Stor-It, Idaho’s largest privately owned storage operator.
- Jeff Ketelaars is a seasoned security expert with over 35 years in the industry. He is the founder of Security Guards Only, a networking platform for security professionals.
