Cleaning out your garage and basement?
How do I know what products are hazardous?
The "signal words" on a product's lable can give you an idea of a product's hazardousness. Caution is the lowest level of hazard, followed by Warning, Danger, and finally Poison indicating the most hazardous. As a general guide, most chemical products labeled with Warning or greater should be brought to your local household hazardous waste (HHW) facility for safe disposal.
Spring cleaning? Finding household hazardous waste lurking in your garage and basement? Take any items you no longer need to your county’s household hazardous waste facility. If you live in Minnesota, Find your household hazardous waste collection site.
Don’t throw this stuff in the trash. All of it poses a threat to people or the environment—or both—if not disposed of properly.
Here are a few things to look for while you're cleaning.
In the basement or laundry room
- paint
- varnish
- paint thinner
- household batteries
- furniture stripper
- furniture polish
- spot remover
- pet flea spray/collars
- bleach
In the garage and where yard products are kept
- motor oil
- gasoline
- antifreeze
- weedkillers, insecticides and other pesticides
- fertilizers
- pool chemicals
- other chemicals
You can print out this checklist to identify common hazardous products in your home: 
Healthy home checklist (w-hhw1-35) .
Tips for reducing your use of hazardous chemicals
Healthy lawns require fewer chemical applications, hold soil in place, and withstand drought better than unhealthy lawns. Find out more about how you can take care of your yard without a lot of chemicals.
Consider using less toxic cleaning products. Find out more at reduce.org.
Find out more
To learn more about how to dispose of hazardous waste, check out our main household hazardous waste page.
