Good housekeeping

The negative impressions and implications of poor housekeeping can affect you and co-workers for a long time to come. Safety is an even more critical issue. Poor housekeeping can frequently contribute to accidents by hiding hazards that cause injuries.

Should you be paid a visit by a WorkSafe inspector first impressions do give a good indication as to the level of safety or care taken in the work place.

Morale is often lower for some people who must function every day in a messy, disorderly work environment, and why should they take care in completing jobs properly when people can’t even be bothered to keep the place neat and clean.

Safety is an even more critical issue.  Poor housekeeping can frequently contribute to accidents by hiding hazards that cause injuries.

Poor housekeeping can be a cause of accidents, such as:

• tripping over loose objects or power leads trailing across the floor
• being hit by falling objects
• slipping on greasy, wet or dirty surfaces
• striking, cutting, puncturing, or tearing the skin of hands or other parts of the body on projections
• flammable waste material igniting during other routine work such as welding or grinding
• dirty light fittings can reduce the amount of light needed for safe work or dirt build up can obscure warning signs or control labels
• blocked emergency exits or aisles

Actions:

Housekeeping includes keeping work areas neat and orderly; maintaining aisles and floors free of slip and trip hazards, removing waste materials and other fire hazards from work areas. The orderly arrangement of operations, tools, equipment and supplies is an important part of a good housekeeping program as is attention to the adequacy of storage facilities, workplace layout, aisle marking etc.

Effective housekeeping is an ongoing operation, periodic “panic” cleanups can be costly and are ineffective in reducing accidents.

Good housekeeping is not achieved by chance but by integrating housekeeping into jobs and assigning responsibilities for the following:

• clean up during the shift
• waste disposal and removal of unused materials
• inspection to ensure cleanup is complete

Critical to the success of any housekeeping program is inspection. Workplace Inspection Checklists provide a general guide and record of fact; corrective actions are then implemented to fix the discrepancy.