Farm Safety – Housekeeping

By Author: peter main
Total Articles: 223
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Housekeeping is a word most often associated in the commercial sector with hotels and guesthouses, where a specific employee has a responsibility for both cleaning a particular area, and making sure it is set to its proper way of looking and being.

Housekeeping in the context of farming and agricultural business has a slightly different meaning, but is crucially important in order to address health and safety issues.

When thinking about safety on a farm, people tend to focus mostly on the potential risks and hazards concerning tractors and machinery, as well as potential risks associated with buildings, certain types of animal livestock, chemical and poison hazards etc.

Whilst all of these are really important, housekeeping tends to revolve around a more general sense of looking after all of the areas, and others as well. It is a sense of how everything on any specific farm or agricultural business needs to be stored, how it should be used and what the policies and procedures are for ...
... clearing up any potential spill or damage that may occur.

Housekeeping in the sense is normally done, or should be done by everyone associated with the work of the farm or business, as they go about their normal work routine. It is as much an attitude as anything else. It is a recognition that if these areas are not addressed properly, then it creates an unsafe working environment, which leads to real health and safety risks and hazards.

It is important for everyone to understand that the workplace needs to be safe in a general sense all the time. This can be as basic as you sure that all areas where loads are carried are wide enough for the load to be carried safely, and are high enough as well. It can involve checking that there are not boxes and packages discarded in the area that could compromise the safety of the load being carried.

It is about checking that there is enough light and ventilation or areas of the workplace, as well as things like checking if ramps are needed, if slip resistant floors are in place when needed, and that all exits, especially fire exits are clearand properly signposted.

Housekeeping can also be about making sure that certain items that are not used that often but are needed, such as forklift trucks, are properly maintained and in good working order.

The importance of the above, and importance of housekeeping generally is that you want to make sure that the areas of the workplace, and all housekeeping needs, are safe and effective before they need to be used for any particular work.

The other option which often happens is that people need to undertake some work, and then realised that they are starting or halfway through either the something doesn't work properly, or a need to stop and clear a load of debris out of the way.

Aside from the practical problems that this generates, a healthy housekeeping attitude demonstrates a much needed and important attitude to the workplace generally. This is a significant knock-on effect, or at least should have, on everyone who works in the environment, and means more likely to be on the lookout for a clean and safe workplace, and remedy any particular hazard risk they might see whilst going about their duties that they would otherwise do.