Earn Money Renting Out Garden Equipment: Mowers, Trimmers and Pressure Washers

Open the shed, the garage or the basement and take a quick inventory: there's almost certainly a lawn mower, maybe a string trimmer, perhaps a pressure washer you bought on impulse to clean the driveway. Items you paid good money for, use a handful of times a year, and that gather dust and rust the rest of the time.

Garden equipment is one of the most underrated categories in peer-to-peer rental — and also one of the most profitable. Demand is high and concentrated: people with a garden tend it seasonally, anyone renting out a house with a lawn has to tidy it before handover, someone moving home needs a pressure washer for a single weekend and has no interest in spending €150 to use it once. In this guide we look in detail at which tools are worth renting out, how much they really earn, and how to manage the category safely.

Why garden tools are perfect for renting out

Three traits make this category ideal for a lender who wants to earn without much effort.

The first is the very low utilisation rate: a domestic lawn mower is used on average 15–20 times a year, a pressure washer even less. That means it sits idle for more than 330 days a year, tying up €200, €400 or €800 that could be generating income instead.

The second is the high purchase cost relative to the rental cost: someone who needs the tool for a single job has no reason to buy it. A petrol string trimmer costs €250–400 and gets maybe two hours of use a month. Renting it at €12–18 a day is the rational choice for a lot of people.

The third is seasonal but predictable demand. From March to October gardens need tending, and the peaks (early spring, late summer for pruning) are easy to anticipate. Knowing when demand arrives lets you keep your calendar full at exactly the right moments.

Which tools earn the most: the price table

Not all garden tools have the same demand or the same returns. We've gathered reference prices for peer-to-peer rental in European urban and suburban areas, with an estimate of net monthly earnings in peak season.

Figures are net of the Lendmates fee and refer to peak-season months. The pressure washer and lawn mower are the two workhorses: steady demand all year for the former, very strong peaks from April to September for the latter. The more "seasonal" tools — leaf blower, scarifier — earn a lot in short windows, which is exactly why it pays to keep them at full price during those periods.

The four factors that determine your earnings

1. Clear photos of the tool in action

For garden tools, photos matter as much as engine power. Show the tool clean, from multiple angles, and ideally in use: a mower actually cutting a lawn instantly signals reliability. Include a close-up of the display, the tank or the included accessories. A listing with good photos gets far more requests than one with a single dark shot taken in the garage.

2. A precise technical description

Someone renting a trimmer wants to know whether it's petrol or battery, the engine size, the cutting width, whether the line is included. State the brand, model, year and what the rental covers (fuel separate? charger included?). The more precise you are, the fewer questions you get in chat and the more direct bookings you win. It's worth reading our guide to pricing your rental items alongside this.

3. Pricing aligned with local demand

The app suggests a price based on similar active listings in your area. For garden tools, demand is very local: in a neighbourhood of terraced houses with gardens, a mower is worth more than in the city centre. Aligning with the suggested price tends to give you a higher occupancy rate.

4. Response speed

Demand for garden tools is often urgent — "I need it for this weekend." Lenders who reply within an hour have nearly double the confirmation rate of those who reply the next day, by which point the borrower has already found another lender.

A full example: a petrol lawn mower

Imagine you have a petrol lawn mower you bought for €320. You cut your own lawn once a week from April to September; the rest of the time it's idle. Here's how that translates into numbers on Lendmates during the season:

• Daily price set: €20
• Estimated demand in a residential area: 6–9 days/month in peak season
• Estimated net monthly earnings: €100–170
• Estimated season earnings (6 months): €600–1,000
• Break-even on purchase: less than a single active rental season

In a single season you've recouped the full cost of the mower and you're still ahead. From the following season on, every rental is net profit on an item you keep using for your own garden anyway.

Safety and maintenance: what to check

Garden tools are motorised and potentially dangerous, so managing them takes a little more care than a camera or a bike.

Before every rental, check that blades, lines and discs are intact and properly fitted, that the guards are in place, and that the engine starts without issues. Hand the tool over clean and, if it's petrol-powered, clearly state the type of fuel or fuel mix required. A short spoken explanation or a message with usage instructions prevents accidents and misunderstandings. For a broader overview of managing power tools, our guide to renting out DIY tools is a useful companion read.

Deposit and lender protection

A legitimate worry is: "What if they wreck the blade or don't bring the tool back clean?" Lendmates handles this with a deposit held at the time of booking, proportional to the declared value of the tool. The deposit is released to the borrower only if the return happens without damage. If there's a problem, you open a dispute with photos and, if the damage is verified, the deposit is held in full or in part in your favour.

The "garden kit" strategy

The smartest lenders don't stop at a single tool. Demand in gardening is interconnected: whoever sorts out the lawn often also needs to trim the edges, cut the hedge and wash the driveway in the same weekend. Renting out a small "kit" — say a mower, a trimmer and a pressure washer — lets you capture more requests and, often, rent two tools to the same person in the same period.

If you want to understand the overall maths of renting before you start, read our guides on how much a lender really earns on Lendmates and on earning money renting out power tools: the mechanics are identical and reinforce each other.

A note on taxes

In most countries, income from occasional peer-to-peer rental between private individuals is taxable, even when it's modest. Rules vary widely by country and by how regular the activity is. For your specific situation, always consult a qualified accountant or tax advisor — sharing-economy rules are still evolving, and what applies today may change.

---