Spring Cleaning

As spring draws near, it’s a good time to start thinking about putting away the snow shovels and bringing out the brooms.

Housekeeping at work involves more than just sweeping the floors of course, but a clean floor certainly lays a solid foundation of good housekeeping practices. Poor housekeeping can cause accidents, slow down production, bring down morale, and create extra work for everyone.

What Message Are You Sending?

Just as a clean floor lays the foundation for sound housekeeping practices, housekeeping, or lack thereof, sends a message to everyone who walks through your doors. This includes visitors, potential clients, your workers, and safety and health inspectors.

Whether it’s true or not, good housekeeping sends the message that management places a high value on safety and health; bad housekeeping sends the message that safety and health is an afterthought at best.

Signs of Poor Housekeeping

Do you recognize any of these signs of poor housekeeping in your work area or at your workplace?

  1. Cluttered and poorly organized work areas.
  2. Dangerous storage of materials. For example, items stacked haphazardly on shelves, or shoved into corners, overcrowded storage areas.
  3. Dirty, cluttered floors and work surfaces.
  4. Blocked aisles and exits.
  5. Tools and equipment not properly put away and stored when not in use.
  6. Trash bins overflowing, items not disposed of properly.
  7. Spills and leaks.

What are your practices for spring cleaning? Is there you anything that you look forward to or dread?

Click here to download our free safety meeting on Spring Cleaning.

By: Paul Taulbee