Housekeeping is a task that often takes a back seat to other jobs that seem more pressing and important. But good housekeeping is important, too. It helps ensure a safer workplace.
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Remember the old saying, "A place for everything and everything in its place"?
Well, there’s a lot of truth to that dictum, especially at work where an effective housekeeping program can make a big difference in preventing accidents, fires, and occupational diseases.
Good housekeeping provides other benefits as well. It:
- Encourages efficiency
- Makes better use of space
- Keeps inventory at a minimum
- Helps control property damage
- Provides a good appearance of your facility and impresses the customer
- Reflects a well-run organization
- Encourages better work habits
- Minimizes janitorial work
- Makes jobs easier and working conditions more pleasant
Great news! BLR’s renowned Safety.BLR.com® website now has even more time-saving features. Take our no-cost site tour! Or better yet, try it at no cost or obligation for a full 2 weeks.
On the other hand, here is what you can expect to find in a dirty and disorganized workplace:
- Cluttered and poorly arranged areas
- Untidy piling of materials
- Items stored that are no longer needed
- Blocked aisles, stairways, and exits
- Materials stuffed in corners and out-of-the-way places
- Materials gathering rust and dirt from nonuse
- Overcrowded storage areas and shelves
- Overflowing bins and containers
- Broken containers and damaged materials
- Combustible materials stored near sources of ignition
Tackle housekeeping chores by assigning different areas of responsibility to supervisors and workers and holding them accountable for safe housekeeping in those areas. Use a housekeeping checklist to help them remember requirements and to help you evaluate each unit for cleanliness, order, and safety. Be creative about encouraging employees to keep up on housekeeping tasks rather than "sweeping them under the rug."
The result will be employees who are proud of their jobs, their workplace, and the product they produce. The benefits will be higher production and better products at a lower cost.
Your one-stop safety management resource, available 24/7. Go here to take a no-cost site tour or here to try it in your own office!
Need More Information?
Whether it’s information about workplace safety and health issues such as safe housekeeping, answers to questions about regulatory requirements, the latest news on OSHA activities, or information about a whole range of other topics from accident prevention to workers’ comp, you’ll find it all reported and interpreted for you by our safety experts at Safety.BLR.com. And it’s all easily accessed and available at your convenience 24/7.
What’s more, this one-stop safety website is a fantastic resource for safety training materials on just about any topic you can imagine.
Training responsibilities become a snap with the website’s thousands of audio presentations, PowerPoints®, prewritten safety meetings, toolbox talks, trainer’s guides, and much, much more. You’ll find training tools on more than 120 safety topics along with plain-English compliance analysis and other resources.
At a time when budget considerations are paramount, what makes more sense than an all-in-one safety training and compliance solution?
And BLR has revamped Safety.BLR.com to better meet your needs. You’ll be amazed by all the features and functionality of the site. Highlights include:
- Side-by-Side State/Federal Compliance. By placing our state and federal regulatory analyses side by side, you easily see how to fully comply with both governmental entities.
- MSDS Library Expansion. The site now provides an immense library of 3.5 million MSDS and SDS forms, with about 10,000 more added or changed every week. Need one? Just call up the chemical by name, manufacturer, product group, or CAS number, and then print it out.
- Newsletter Wizard. If you’ve ever wanted to publish a safety newsletter but felt lacking in editorial skills, this new addition is for you.
- Plan Builder. Select from our library of safety plans, customize them to suit your company’s needs, and assemble them into collections you can save in our personal library.
We’re pretty excited about Safety.BLR.com and all of its enhancements, and we’re eager for you to experience it, too. That’s why we’ve created a complimentary site tour, available here. It takes just 5 minutes.
If you like what you see, you’re invited to try the site at no cost and with no obligation. We’ll even give you a complimentary special report for doing so. Go here to take a 5-minute tour of Safety.BLR.com. It may be just what you’re looking for.