How to Store a Lawn Mower in the Garage

Your garage is already full, and the mower still needs somewhere to go. Figuring out how to store a lawn mower in the garage comes down to where it fits and how to stop it from rusting while it sits there.

This guide helps you answer both those questions, including preparation and cleaning. It also covers what to do when you find there's genuinely no room left.

Can You Store a Lawn Mower in the Garage?

Yes, and for most yards, storing a lawn mower in the garage is the best option, as long as the space stays dry and reasonably well-ventilated. What you need to watch out for depends on what your mower runs on.

Robot mowers don't stay in the garage at all. They live outside on a charging station and return to it on their own, so the only thing to work out is where the dock goes.

Electric and battery mowers are the easiest to keep inside. No fuel means no vapor, so damp is the only real concern. Keep it off bare concrete and bring the battery indoors.

Gas mowers are the one type that needs a little more caution.

If your garage has a gas water heater or furnace, keep the mower on the far side of the room from it. Gasoline vapor is heavier than air, so it doesn't drift up and disperse. It sinks and runs along the floor, which is exactly where a standing pilot light sits. Standard fire safety guidance says to keep fuel away from pilot lights and fuel-burning appliances, and a mower with a full tank counts. Pick the wall furthest from any gas appliance, and don't leave a full tank sitting there for weeks at a time.

Why robot mowers stay outside

There are two reasons a robot lawn mower isn't usually stored in the garage. The first is access. It runs on its own schedule, so it needs a clear, unobstructed path in and out whenever it's due to start mowing. Keeping it in the garage means the door has to stay open all day, which is inconvenient and leaves the garage open to anyone.

The second is navigation. Mowers that rely on satellite signals or buried boundary wires can lose the connection they need inside an enclosed, roofed concrete structure.

Winter is the exception. Since there's no grass to cut and the cold can damage the battery, the mower comes indoors.

Put the dock at the edge of the lawn, flush with the grass, so the mower can start and finish without you having to move anything. Most owners set the base station on flat ground at the lawn's border or on adjacent paving where drainage is good. It also needs to be within reach of an outdoor outlet.

Everything else about a garage works in your favor. It holds a steadier temperature than a shed, and it keeps UV off the plastic parts that go brittle after a summer outdoors.

What to Do Before the Mower Goes In

There are five key things to do first before the mower goes into the garage, working from the deck up to the battery.

1. Clean the deck. Wet clippings packed underneath hold moisture against the metal, and if the mower is going to stand upright against a wall, that caked layer sits there growing mold for weeks. Scrape it off while the clippings are still soft.
2. Let a gas engine cool for 30 to 60 minutes. Avoid putting a hot engine and fuel vapor together in an enclosed space. Leave it on the driveway while you deal with everything else, then roll it in.
3. Drain or stabilize the fuel, depending on how long it'll sit. Under four weeks, screwing the fuel cap on properly is usually enough. Longer than that, untreated gas breaks down and gums up the carburetor, so pour in a fuel stabilizer, a cheap additive that slows it down.
4. Disconnect the spark plug wire before you put your hands anywhere near the blade. It takes five seconds and means the engine can't start while you're underneath it.
5. On a battery-powered or robot mower, fully charge the battery, then take it out and bring it indoors. Store it somewhere dry and above 32°F.

Lawn Mower Storage Ideas That Give You Floor Space Back

Most garage lawn mower storage revolves around three methods. A corner on the floor, a wall mount, or a ceiling hoist. Which ones are open to you depends on your mower type, covered in the next section.

A dedicated corner with a mat

The simplest method, which works with almost every mower type. Pick a corner under a slanted wall, or a spot where the ceiling is too low for shelves. A rubber mat or a cheap drip tray underneath catches oil and grass clippings, saving you from scrubbing the concrete later.

Wall mounts and pegboard

Screwed into wall studs with hardware rated to support the weight, rather than plastic drywall anchors. If you want to hang a lawn mower in the garage, a wall is the safer bet than the ceiling for anything with fuel.

Ceiling hoists

A hoist gets the mower off the floor completely. It gets recommended a lot, but the advice usually misses out on two important things.

The first is weight. A gas push mower weighs 60 to 100 lbs, and most basic hoist kits are built for bikes, so check the kit's rating against how much your lawn mower weighs. A riding mower at 300 to 600 lbs is not a hoist job at all.

The second is fuel. A gas mower hanging overhead can leak, and whatever leaks lands on whatever is underneath. Never hang one above where a car parks.

Storing a Robot Mower, Push, and Riding Mowers

Each of these gets stored differently, from folding a handle down to sitting on its own dock outside. If you're still deciding which one suits your yard, our guide to lawn mower types covers that. The type you own decides which of the methods above you can actually use.

Robot lawn mowers

1. Leave it outside. It sits on its charging station and returns there when it's done, so it never touches your garage floor except during the winter season.
2. Keep the dock area clear and wipe the charging contacts now and then.
3. Add a cover over the dock if the spot gets heavy sun or rain.

Gas push mowers

1. Keep it flat. Stand it on its end, and fuel leaks past the cap and seals, allowing oil to work its way into the cylinder. Upright and wall storage are both out.
2. Put it in a corner on a mat. A rubber mat or drip tray underneath catches oil and clippings so you're not scrubbing concrete later.
3. Fold the handle anyway. It won't get you vertical, but it buys back a foot or so of depth.

Electric and battery push mowers

1. Fold the handle and stand it on end. Vertical lawn mower storage takes up about half as much floor space as the same mower lying flat, and it's the biggest single saving available to you.
2. Or put it on the wall. Lighter electric models mount into the studs with rated hardware.
3. Coil the cord loosely on a corded model. Tight coils crack the insulation at the bends.

Riding mowers

1. Give it room to drive in and out, plus a ramp if there's a lip at the garage door.
2. Expect to lose a parking spot. This is the type that takes up the most room, so bear that in mind before you plan anything else around it.
3. Cover it if the garage gets dusty or damp through the off-season.

What to Do When the Garage Is Already Full

Start with the walls and the ceiling before you do anything to the mower. The first two options below solve it for most garages.

Get everything else vertical first

Bikes go onto wall hooks or ceiling mounts, and seasonal gear goes into ceiling bins, which hold a lot of weight when screwed into the ceiling joists rather than just the drywall. Then there's wall shelving at the front of a short car's parking spot, where the depth usually goes unused anyway. Most garages end up with a mower-sized gap once the walls and ceiling are used properly.

Move the mower out of the garage instead

A deck box or an outdoor cabinet against the house takes a folded push mower. Raise it off the ground so water doesn't pool underneath, and keep it covered. Our guide on can a lawn mower get wet is worth reading first, since it covers what water does to a gas engine compared to an electric one, and why a quick shower and a night left out in the rain are two very different problems.

Working around an HOA

If a shed won't get approved, storage kept below the fence line usually will. A low deck box works, or an enclosure that looks like the screens people put around their garbage bins. Check what your HOA rules actually say about height and visibility, because a shed being turned down doesn't mean every option is off the table.

A robot mower skips the problem entirely

It docks outside, so the garage floor stays free without you having to do anything. For the dock itself, we make a robot lawn mower garage, a small roof that sits over the mower and its charging station to keep rain and sun off for even better protection.

Winter Storage and Why It Is Different

Winter prep depends on what your mower runs on. Gas mowers need the fuel handled, and anything with a battery needs that brought indoors.

Robot mowers

• Bring it indoors once the cold sets in. When daytime temperatures settle into the 40s°F, move the mower and its battery somewhere dry and frost-free. This is the one time of year it comes inside.
• Clean it before you put it away. Brush the clippings and mud off the body and wheels, then wipe the blade disc down with a damp cloth.
• Charge the battery fully before you power it down. A pack left sitting at a low charge through a cold winter can drop below the level it needs to recover. Our guide on how long lawn mower batteries last covers what shortens a pack's life and the storage conditions that extend it.

Gas mowers

1. Stabilize or drain the fuel. Untreated gas left in the mower over the off-season is the most common reason a mower won't start in spring.
2. Get it off bare concrete if your garage floor gets wet when the snow melts. A pallet or a mat is enough.

Electric and battery mowers

1. Take the battery out and bring it indoors. Charge it before you power down, and keep it somewhere dry and above freezing.
2. Check the cord on a corded model for nicks or cracked insulation, so you're not finding them in spring.

Timing matters as much as the prep. Our guide on when to stop mowing your lawn says to stop once the temperature no longer climbs above 50°F during the day, and to leave the grass at 2 to 2.5 inches on the last mow. It also covers situations where that temperature shifts depending on the grass you have.

Storing a mower outside through winter causes damage you'll see by spring. Moisture rusts the deck and blade, and a full season of UV weakens the plastic housings and wheels. A tarp is not a substitute for an enclosure because it traps condensation beneath it instead of letting it escape.

Check the blades before the mower goes into storage, and replace them if they're worn rather than leaving it until spring. Our guide on how often to replace mower blades helps you spot when yours need changing, and puts robot mower blades at every 6 to 8 weeks through the season.

Storage Mistakes That Damage a Mower

Most damage doesn't happen on the day you put the mower away. It builds up over the weeks after.

1. Stacking things on top of it. In a full garage, the mower tends to turn into an extra shelf. Weight on the handle bends the controls and pinches the cables running along it. Keep the top clear even if it costs you a bit of wall space.
2. Leaving clippings in the grass bag. They rot, attracting pests into your garage. Empty the bag and leave it open to dry out.
3. Storing it next to fertilizer or pool chemicals. The fumes corrode metal over time, so keep a few feet between them or move the chemicals to a sealed bin.
4. Winding a corded mower's cable up tight. Tight coils crack the insulation at the bends over a few months. Loop it loosely over a hook instead.
5. Parking it on a slope. Oil pools to one side and can work its way past the seals. Look for level ground when storing.

None of these take more than a few minutes to fix, and they'll save you cleaning up after a problem you could have avoided.

The Mower That Never Needs Garage Space

Robot mowers solve the space problem because they never enter the garage in the first place.

The A3 AWD Pro Series is built to live outside. It sits on its charging station and mows on the schedule you set in the app. It carries an IPX6 waterproof rating, so you can hose down the deck where it stands instead of wheeling it to a drain. It also has a rain sensor, so it returns to the charging station during inclement weather and resumes mowing when conditions dry out.

Setup is one drive around the boundary in the app. There are no wires to bury and no base station to find a spot for.

Storing a Lawn Mower in a Garage Without Losing the Space

Most garages have room for a mower once you've moved what you can onto the walls and up to the ceiling, and the type of mower decides how much floor you can get back. Electric mowers go up, and gas mowers stay down.

If you've measured up and there's truly no space left, it's worth considering robot lawn mowers. They stay outside on a charging station, which leaves the floor to the car and the bikes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I store my lawn mower in my garage?

Yes, and it's usually the best option you have. Keep it dry and ventilated, and keep a fuel-powered mower away from pilot lights or anything that sparks. Gasoline vapor sinks and travels along the floor, so the distance from gas appliances matters more than it might seem.

Where is the best place to store a lawn mower?

A garage, for most yards. It needs to be dry and off the ground, and a proper cover beats a tarp, because a tarp traps condensation against the metal instead of letting it escape.

How do you store a lawn mower without a shed?

A deck box or an outdoor cabinet against the house can store a folded push mower. Raise it off the ground and keep it covered. Pick something with a vented lid if you can, so moisture isn't sealed in with the mower.

Why is storing a lawn mower outside in winter a bad idea?

Because the damage builds up over months. Moisture rusts the deck and blade, and a full season of sun weakens the plastic parts. A few weeks under cover is fine. A whole winter uncovered usually shows up as a mower that won't start in spring.

Can you hang a lawn mower in the garage?

Yes, if it's a light electric mower. Use brackets rated for the weight, screwed into the wall studs. Don't hang a gas mower with fuel in it, and never hang anything above where a car parks.

Is it better to store a lawn mower with or without gas?

Without, for anything over about four weeks. For shorter gaps, screwing the fuel cap on properly is enough. Longer than that, add a stabilizer, because untreated fuel breaks down and gums up the carburetor.

Do robot lawn mowers need to be stored in the garage?

No. They stay on the charging station outside and return there when they're done, so they never take up garage floor floor space. A cover over the dock helps it last longer if the spot is very exposed.