Safety Tip of the Week – Practice Good Housekeeping

Good housekeeping is one of the surest ways to identify a safe workplace. You can tell how workers feel about safety just by looking at their housekeeping practices. Good housekeeping isn’t the result of cleaning up once a week or even once a day. It’s the result of keeping cleaned-up all the time. It’s an essential factor in a good safety program, promoting safety, health, production, and morale.

Poor housekeeping practices:

• Injuries when employees trip, fall, strike, or are struck by out-of-place, objects;

• Injuries from using improper tools because the correct tool can’t be found;

• Lowered production because of the time spent maneuvering over and around someone else’s mess and time spent looking for proper tools and materials;

• Time spent investigating and reporting accidents that could have been avoided;

• Fires due to improper storage and disposal of flammable or combustible materials and wastes;

• Substandard quality of finished products because of production schedule delays, damaged or defective finishes, ill-equipped employees, etc.;

• Lack of future work due to a reputation for poor quality; and

• “Wall-to-wall” OSHA inspections due to the “first impression” of the compliance officer.

General housekeeping rules:

• Clean up after yourself. Pick up your trash and debris and dispose of it properly or place it where it will not pose a hazard to others. Institute a routine cleaning schedule.

• Keep your work area clean throughout the day. This will minimize the amount of time needed to clean a “larger mess” at the end of the day.

• Dispose of combustibles and flammables properly. If improperly discarded, they will increase the potential for a fire.

• Remove protruding nails and other sharp objects or hammer them flat to prevent someone from stepping on them or snagging himself.

• Stack materials and supplies in an orderly manner and secure them so they won’t topple.

Good housekeeping is an on-going process and requires a conscious effort and energy by everybody. It is everybody’s responsibility to maintain good housekeeping.

Make it your mission…not to live in unsafe condition!!