BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) — Spring is here, and that means it is time for spring cleaning, but cleaning this area, in particular, could be life-saving.

Justin Hill with the Baton Rouge Fire Department says it’s the clutter in your garage that you should look out for. “You know, you start stacking stuff in your garage, you may have a hot water heater or something like that out in the garage and that could lead to a fire. Also, it could impede you from being able to leave the house if there is a fire,” Hill says.

You may want to stack clutter in your garage while cleaning out your home, but Hill says, if you “take that clutter and place it next to something that generates heat like a hot water heater and next thing you know you have a fire that happens, and it does happen.”

There is one item in particular that Hill says you should be careful about how you should dispose of it. “Just your normal household cleaners, you don’t think of them as being a fire hazard or a hazardous material to us, but they really are,” Hill says.

He says the best way to dispose of chemicals is to take them to one of the hazardous materials collection events hosted by the Baton Rouge Fire Department.

“While we’re doing this spring cleaning make sure we keep stuff kind of orderly, we don’t let it get, you know, block outlets and things like that, don’t let it block out exits. You know, be careful while we’re doing this stuff,” Hill says.