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Toolbox talk · 10 min · Housekeeping & General

Slips, Trips and Housekeeping

Hazards: Trips over debris, cords, hose and material left in walkways · Slips on wet, oily, icy or dusty walking surfaces · Punctures from form lumber with protruding nails · Fire from combustible scrap and oily rags left to accumulate

Why it matters

This is the most ordinary injury on any site and the one nobody talks about until it happens. OSHA calls slip, trip and fall hazards a leading cause of worker deaths and lost-workday injuries, and estimated that its walking-working surfaces rule would prevent 29 worker deaths and 5,842 lost-workday injuries every year in general industry alone. A trip does not need height to break a wrist, an ankle or a hip — and on this site it usually starts with something somebody chose not to pick up.

Key points

  • Clear work areas, passageways and stairs. 1926.25(a) names all three, and names form and scrap lumber with protruding nails first. Bend the nails or pull the board.
  • Clean as you go — not at the end of the week. 1926.25(b) requires combustible scrap and debris removed at regular intervals during construction, with a safe means provided to do it.
  • Spills, ice and snow are surface hazards, not weather. 1910.22(a) wants surfaces free of leaks, spills, snow, ice, loose boards and protruding objects, and floors dry so far as feasible.
  • Cords and hose belong overhead or against a wall. If a line has to cross a walk route, it gets ramped, taped or hung — and everyone gets told where it is.
  • Access and egress stay open. 1910.22(c) requires a safe means of access and egress; 1910.176(a) requires clearances at aisles, docks and doorways. Nothing gets staged in a stairwell.
  • Covered cans for oily rags. 1926.25(c) requires separate containers for waste and used rags, with covers on the oily, flammable or hazardous ones. That rule is about fire as much as tripping.
  • Watch your hands and your light. Both hands full and a phone in one of them is how people go down. Poor lighting turns a small trip hazard into an invisible one.

Do / Don't

Do

  • Pick up what you drop, when you drop it.
  • Clean a spill or barricade it until somebody can.
  • Keep one hand free and look where you are walking.
  • Bend or pull every protruding nail you find.

Don't

  • Step over debris and leave it for the next crew.
  • Stage material on stairs, in aisles or across a doorway.
  • Run cords or hose across a walking route at floor level.
  • Pile oily rags in an open bucket or an open bin.

Quick site check

  • Walk one main route together and count the trip hazards out loud.
  • Find the nearest waste container and the nearest covered can — if there isn't one, that's today's action.
  • Check every stair and ladder access on this level is clear top and bottom.
Discussion — ask the crew
  1. Walk the route from the gate to your work area: how many things would you step over or around?
  2. Whose job is it to clear the debris we generate, and does it happen before the end of the shift?
  3. Where do cords and hoses cross a walkway here, and what would it take to route them overhead?
  4. What gets spilled regularly, and is there anything to clean it up with within a minute's walk?
  5. Which stair, ramp or ladder access is partly blocked with material right now?
Refs: 29 CFR 1926.25 — Housekeeping in construction: (a) scrap lumber with protruding nails and debris cleared from work areas, passageways and stairs, (b) combustible scrap removed at regular intervals, (c) covered containers for oily and hazardous waste · 29 CFR 1910.22 — Walking-working surfaces: (a) clean, orderly and sanitary, floors dry where feasible, surfaces free of sharp objects, loose boards, spills, snow and ice; (c) safe means of access and egress; (d) regular inspection, correction or guarding · 29 CFR 1910.141(a)(3) — Housekeeping and floors: workplaces kept clean, floors maintained dry so far as practicable, and every floor, working place and passageway kept free from protruding nails, splinters, loose boards and unnecessary holes · 29 CFR 1910.176(a) and (c) — Handling materials: sufficient safe clearances for aisles, loading docks and doorways, and storage areas kept free from accumulations of material that create tripping, fire or explosion hazards · OSHA — Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Fall Protection Systems final rule: OSHA estimated the rule would prevent 29 worker deaths and 5,842 lost-workday injuries each yearSign-in sheet included in the printed version

Frequently asked questions

Yes, and in more than one place. In construction, 1926.25(a) requires form and scrap lumber with protruding nails and all other debris to be kept cleared from work areas, passageways and stairs. In general industry, 1910.22(a)(1) requires places of employment, passageways, storerooms, service rooms and walking-working surfaces to be kept in a clean, orderly and sanitary condition.

1926.25(b) requires combustible scrap and debris to be removed at regular intervals during the course of construction, and says safe means shall be provided to facilitate such removal. It does not set a clock, which is why most site rules turn it into clean as you go plus a sweep before the end of every shift.

1910.22(a)(3) requires walking-working surfaces to be maintained free of hazards such as sharp or protruding objects, loose boards, corrosion, leaks, spills, snow and ice. 1910.22(a)(2) adds that floors are kept in a clean and, so far as feasible, dry condition, and that where wet processes are used, drainage and dry standing places must be provided.

Yes. 1926.25(c) requires containers for the collection and separation of waste, trash, oily and used rags and other refuse, and requires containers used for garbage and other oily, flammable or hazardous wastes to be equipped with covers. Waste has to be disposed of at frequent and regular intervals.

In general industry, 1910.22(d) requires the employer to inspect walking-working surfaces regularly and as necessary, correct or repair hazardous conditions before employees use the surface again, and guard the area in the meantime. Where the fix affects structural integrity, a qualified person performs the correction.

They can be. 1910.22(c) requires the employer to provide, and ensure each employee uses, a safe means of access and egress to and from walking-working surfaces, and 1910.176(a) requires sufficient safe clearances for aisles, at loading docks, through doorways and wherever turns must be made. Material parked in an aisle is not just untidy.

OSHA calls slip, trip and fall hazards a leading cause of worker deaths and lost-workday injuries, and estimated that the walking-working surfaces final rule would prevent 29 worker deaths and 5,842 lost-workday injuries each year in general industry alone.

Everyone's, but the crew that made the mess owns it. The standards put the duty on the employer, and the only way that gets met on a live jobsite is each trade clearing its own offcuts, banding, packaging and cords rather than leaving them for whoever comes through next.

Sources & references

Content checked against these sources — last reviewed August 28, 2026.

Results are estimates for planning purposes and do not replace a competent person's evaluation or an engineer's design. Follow the OSHA standards that apply to your work and your employer's written program.

By — Editorial team of SteelToeTools.com (published by LSEA SAS) Updated