Open the average garage and you’ll find a room built for a car holding everything but the car. Bikes nobody rides. Bins of holiday lights. Half a can of paint from a bathroom you redid years ago. And humming away in the corner, the old fridge.
The garage is the house’s junk drawer. It’s where stuff goes to be forgotten. Trouble is, a lot of garages aren’t heated or cooled the way the rest of your home is, and plenty of what we toss out there can’t handle the heat, the cold or the damp.
Some of it costs you money every single month. Some of it is spoiling while you’re not looking. And one item on this list shouldn’t be out there at all, for safety reasons.
You don’t have to take my word for any of it. Government agencies have spelled out most of this in plain print. Here are six things to move out of your garage this weekend, starting with the one that’s running up your power bill right now.
1. The spare fridge in the corner
Energy Star, the federal energy-efficiency program, figures that a second refrigerator in a garage or basement could be wasting $80 a year.
Now run the math. Keep that fridge plugged in for 10 years and you could spend about $800 to keep a few cases of soda and a bag of ice cold. That’s a weekend getaway or a new set of tires.
And if your spare is a hand-me-down from your last kitchen remodel, it’s probably worse. Energy Star says an old refrigerator burns roughly 35% more energy than a new Energy Star model.
If you truly need a second fridge, the program says replacing an old one with an efficient model could save you more than $220 over the new one’s 12-year life. If you don’t need it, the cheapest fridge is the one you unplug.
What to do instead: Plug your model’s details into Energy Star’s Flip Your Fridge calculator to see what it’s costing you. Then empty it, unplug it and get rid of it.
Before you haul it off, check the program’s Rebate Finder. In some areas, rebates may help cover the cost of recycling an old fridge.
That old fridge isn’t the only appliance draining your wallet around the clock. Here’s how to find the rest: “Energy Vampires Cost You up to $200 a Year. Here’s How to Kill Them.”
2. Canned food
The garage looks like the perfect overflow pantry. There are shelves, there’s room, and cans are tough. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food safety agency specifically names a damp garage as a place you should never keep canned goods, along with anywhere that sees extreme heat or cold.
The USDA says canned food does best below 85 degrees, and temperatures topping 100 degrees do it harm. Now picture your garage on an August afternoon with the door shut.
Dampness brings its own problem: rust. The USDA says to throw out cans that are heavily rusted or deeply dented. Every can you toss is money you already spent.
Even under good conditions, the clock is ticking. The agency puts high-acid foods like canned tomatoes, fruit and pickles at 12 to 18 months. Low-acid foods like canned meat, most soups and vegetables such as corn, carrots and beans last two to five years.
What to do instead: Keep canned goods in a cool, dry kitchen cabinet or an indoor closet. Put new cans behind old ones so you eat the oldest first.
3. Propane cylinders
This one isn’t about money. It’s about not blowing anything up.
The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is blunt: Never store a propane cylinder inside your home or in an enclosed space. It lists the garage by name, alongside basements, sheds and tents.
That includes the spare tank for the grill and the little camping canisters rolling around on a shelf. Out of sight in a closed garage is exactly where they don’t belong.
What to do instead: Keep cylinders outdoors. The department also advises clearing flammable materials from a 10-foot zone around your tank and grill, and keeping tanks painted a light, reflective color so the propane stays cooler.
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4. Family photos and important papers
The box of old photos is the one thing in your garage you can’t replace at any price.
The Library of Congress says photos last longest when they’re kept cool, fairly dry and stable: 70 degrees or less and 30% to 50% relative humidity. It calls humidity the biggest single factor in preserving most prints, and it warns against storing them in attics and basements.
The library doesn’t mention garages by name. It doesn’t need to. An unheated, uncooled garage is exposed to the same kind of heat, cold and humidity swings that make attics and basements a problem.
Paper is no tougher. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission tells people to keep valuable documents out of uncontrolled spaces like attics, basements and sheds, and it says heat and humidity encourage mold, insects, warping and curling.
What to do instead: Move photos, birth certificates, deeds and the like into a closet inside your living space. Scan anything irreplaceable so a leak or a mouse can’t take it from you for good.
5. Leftover latex paint
Most of us keep the leftover paint in case of touch-ups. Then winter comes, and in much of the country, the garage can kill it.
Douglas County, Wisconsin, says latex paint can keep for 10 years, but once it has frozen, it may no longer be usable. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says swap shops there only want leftover latex that hasn’t been frozen or otherwise stored badly.
So the gallon you saved to cover a scuff could be worthless by spring. And good luck matching that color five years from now.
What to do instead: Store paint indoors where it won’t freeze, like a utility closet or a heated basement. Iowa’s DNR suggests tightening the lid and turning the can upside down to seal it.
If you’re done with it, the agency notes latex isn’t hazardous waste and can be dried out with cat litter, but check your local rules before you toss it.
6. Pet food and birdseed
A 40-pound bag of kibble sitting on the garage floor isn’t storage. It’s an invitation.
The District of Columbia’s rodent-control guidance tells residents to store pet food and birdseed in containers that critters can’t get into. It doesn’t single out garages, but that’s where a lot of us park the big bags, often in nothing sturdier than the sack they came in.
Leave a steady meal out in the open and you shouldn’t be surprised when something moves in to eat it.
What to do instead: Pour pet food and birdseed into metal or heavy plastic bins with tight lids or bring them inside.
If you’re already seeing signs of visitors, here’s how to seal them out.
The bottom line
Your garage was built for a car — not for food, keepsakes or fuel. Treat it like a climate-controlled storeroom and you’ll pay for it, in spoiled food, ruined paint, lost photos or a higher electric bill.
The fix costs nothing but a Saturday. Unplug the spare fridge, bring the cans, photos and paint inside, move the propane outdoors and seal up the pet food.
And if clearing out the garage leaves you wondering where all that overflow should go, don’t make the opposite mistake. Before you rent a place for it, read “A 10×10 Storage Unit Costs $965 a Year. 6 Signs It’s Time to Empty Yours.”
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