16 Items to Avoid Storing in Your Garage During the Summer

Adam Bender | Apr 15, 2021

For many homeowners, the garage is much more than just a place to park the car. It’s an enormous storage space – probably bigger than any other room in your house. While it’s certainly the ideal place to store tools, lawn care products, and sports equipment, there are many items that you absolutely should not keep in your custom garage – especially during the summer or if you live in a hot and humid climate like Arizona.

You may be shocked to learn that a lot of the stuff you probably have in your garage right now doesn’t belong there. Here’s a rundown of some of those items:

Hazardous Materials
Food and Beverages
Items That Attract Pests
Valuable Possessions
Paper Products
Electronics

Keep reading to learn more about which items you should find a new home for if you currently keep them in your garage.

Hazardous Materials

You would be surprised to learn how many people store spare propane tanks or containers of gasoline in the garage. This is incredibly dangerous! You are putting your life and that of your loved ones in danger if you are storing hazardous materials inside your garage, especially during the summer.

Propane: tanks should only be stored outside or in a well-ventilated area. Never keep them in a garage or enclosed space because the valve can leak, which poses a risk of asphyxiation. Plus, they’re also a huge fire hazard.

Gasoline: is yet another highly flammable material that should never be stored in any area, close to or connected to your house, including your garage. If you must keep extra fuel on hand, such as to run your lawnmower or power a generator, make sure that it is safely stored in a proper container and in a well-ventilated area away from the house.

Paint: is another common household product that you should not store in your garage. The extreme heat can alter the paint’s formula, causing it to separate. If this happens, you will never be able to match colors when doing touch-up work, which is probably why you are holding onto old paint in the first place. It’s certainly okay to keep paint in the garage for a day or two when you’re in the middle of a painting project, but long-term storage should always be indoors.

The Family Handyman warns that you should never store rags covered in oil, gasoline, or other toxic substances in your garage because you run the risk of spontaneous combustion. Yup! It’s for real. “Spontaneous combustion is a chemical reaction” that happens when certain items, such as oily rags, are not stored properly and they get too hot, resulting in a fire. It’s best to let your rags dry out in the open air and then store them safely inside an enclosed metal container.

Food and Beverages

The garage is not a safe space to store food items, including canned food and other shelf-staple products. According to BobVila.com, these types of food should be kept in a “cool and dry location” – that’s the complete opposite of a hot and humid garage. Cans and metal lids can easily rust, possibly tainting the food inside. Additionally, food can spoil if the temperature is above 85 degrees – that’s practically the year-round norm for Arizona where temperatures can easily top 100 degrees during the summer months. For the same reasons, you should also avoid storing wine in your garage.

Just like people food, you should not store your pet’s food in your garage either. It’s an open invitation, for pests and rodents can eat through the paper or cardboard containers. If you need to keep pet food outside, it’s best to invest in a large plastic storage container with a tight-fitting lid.

This is a good place to point out that storing an extra refrigerator in your garage is not the best idea, even though a lot of people do it. While it may seem logical to stock up on drinks and frozen food items, storing them in a garage refrigerator is counterintuitive because it is simply not energy efficient. BobVila.com notes that refrigerators are designed to work best “between 65 and 78 degrees.” That’s in line with your indoor air temperature. An outdoor refrigerator has to work extra hard, resulting in higher power bills, especially in areas like Arizona where the temperatures often reach triple digits.

Items That Attract Pests

If your garage is attached to your house, you will want to make sure that you are not storing any items that could attract pests. Fabric is high on that list.

Remember to store all seasonal clothing or bedding in a temperature-controlled environment, ideally in a well-ventilated bin to allow for optimum airflow. Sleeping bags should also be stored inside your house to keep them clean and in one piece because rodents like to chew on their stuffing. Mattresses are another item you do not want to store in that area. Not only can bugs get inside the mattress, but its fabric covering can absorb common garage smells such as car exhaust fuel. Nobody wants to sleep breathing in that scent.

Valuable Items

Your garage is not climate controlled and for this reason, you should never store valuable items inside it. This includes precious family photos as well as important documents such as birth certificates, wills, tax documents, and even passports. All of these items run the risk of being ruined if stored outside of your home.

The heat and humidity in your garage can cause photos to fade or stick together. It’s best to store them in a cool, dry, and dark spot such as a closet or under your bed. This holds true for fragile, older photos, such as those from your grandparents’ wedding, as well as newer digital prints.

Family heirlooms, including furniture pieces, are another category of items you will want to protect. Again, you want to make sure these items are kept in a safe, climate-controlled environment to protect them for future generations. This is especially true with wooden furniture, which can easily warp due to changes in heat and humidity. The finish can also be damaged.

If you are saving baby clothes or your child’s favorite stuffed animals for prosperity, or to pass them down to younger siblings or relatives, do not store them in your garage. Insects and dust mites, and even mice, will often try to claim these for themselves before you can spread the love.

Paper Products

From baby’s ABC books to college textbooks, many people like to hold onto old books. There is nothing wrong with that, but you do not want to store them in your garage. The excessive heat and humidity can cause the bindings of books and magazines to become damaged.

Bugs are another big reason to keep paper products out of your garage. Silverfish thrive in dark, damp spaces like garages and love to feast on the glue used to bind books and magazines.

Electronics

It should come as no surprise that the high heat and humidity in your garage will destroy electronics such as computers, game consoles, printers, and more. Not only can it fry the motherboard, but if stored outside in the garage then itty-bitty bugs can easily get inside your electronics and damage the components. It’s always best to keep electronics inside or take them to a hazardous waste and electronics disposal site if you want to get rid of them. Electronics should never be thrown out with the regular trash.

Conclusion

If you’ve been using your garage as a giant storage shed, think again. Especially during the hot summer months, the heat and humidity in your garage can do a number on your stuff. That doesn’t even take into account the risk you take of having pests, including insects and rodents, invade your property. Safety should be another concern. Avoid storing hazardous or flammable materials at all costs and always keep your food in your climate-controlled kitchen.