Housekeeping, Slips & Trips Toolbox Talk

Project: ____________ · Date: ____________ · Led by: ____________

You can predict a site's injury rate from the ground: cords across walkways, scrap with nails up, mud on the ramp, boxes on the stairs. Slips and trips on the same level are among the most common injuries in construction — and unlike most hazards, this one is made entirely by us, every day.

Why it matters

A trip on a flat floor bruises you. The same trip carrying a saw, next to rebar, or at the top of stairs maims you. Housekeeping isn't about tidiness — it's about what you land on, and about the fire load and blocked exits a messy site builds up.

Key points — cover all of these

1. Clean as you go — your scrap, your cutoffs, your packaging, cleared by the person who made them, not left for a Friday cleanup.
2. Keep walkways, stairs, and ladder bases clear at all times. Materials get staged in staging areas, not travel paths.
3. Cords and hoses: overhead or along walls where possible, covered or taped where they must cross a path.
4. Bend the nails or bin the board — nail-up lumber has ended a lot of workdays.
5. Mud, ice, spills, and slick spots get fixed or flagged the moment they're found — not walked around all day.
6. Keep exits, extinguishers, and electrical panels clear. In an emergency, the pile in front of the door is everyone's problem.

Ask the crew

The answers are the point — this is where today's real hazards surface.

• Walk this site in your head: where's the worst walkway right now, and whose material is in it?
• Where does scrap actually go on this job — and is the bin close enough that people use it?
• What's blocking an exit, extinguisher, or panel today?

The one thing today

Leave every area you work in today cleaner than you found it — starting with your own cutoffs.

Reference: OSHA 29 CFR 1926.25 (housekeeping); 1926.1052 (stairways)

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