There are many reasons to maintain good housekeeping in a laboratory: to help protect human health, ensure safety and help prevent chemical releases into the environment. Good housekeeping includes proper container management, perhaps including maintaining an inventory of what compounds are present in the lab. Such practices may also show a positive financial return if they lead to greater utilisation of chemicals already purchased, and lead to pollution prevention - by reducing the ordering of duplicate chemicals that already exist in inventory.

Good housekeeping also includes other the regulatory requirements or best practices, including:

• Properly labelling containers so that contents and hazards are known
• Ensuring that incompatible compounds or wastes are not stored together
• Providing secondary containment for waste containers
• Keeping containers closed when not in use (a container with a funnel is NOT closed!)

This section contains many more tips about container management, including actions that are required - or prohibited. You should also be aware of Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.