Good housekeeping entails that everything must be kept in an orderly manner and in a clean condition ready for use. To be able to imbibe good housekeeping and maintain it, you need to be conversant with the 5S as developed by Tahichi Ohno during the 60s in Japan.
1. Sort – Remove materials that are not necessary, store the ones that are important and are needed on a daily and weekly basis, and archive old but vital ones for future retrieval.
2. Set in Order – The important materials you need should be set aside, labelled, colour coded and put in easily tracked locations. Ensure everyone knows the location of all materials
3. Shine & Clean – when setting materials into different locations, ensure they are cleaned and in good working condition. Repair broken items, and ensure your working area is constantly clean
4. Standardisation – Ensure that the new pattern of arrangement and level of cleanliness you have achieved are now standard. Put it down on paper so that anyone taking over will adhere to all housekeeping standards as prescribed. This will help to build consistency in the system.
5. Sustain – ensure that the standards are passed on to everyone to maintain cleanliness and locations of the equipment. Then, simple routine audits can be done to check if the standards are maintained, and equally ascertain areas that need improvement
These 5S are very vital when one wants to maintain good housekeeping. You also need to bear in mind that housekeeping you skip may cause a fall, trip or slip.