Healthy Aging in Place Tips:

If you aren’t as comfortable in your home as you used to be, consider renovating it now so that everything is accessible and so that you and your family will live a better quality of life as you age.  Here are some things that you can do to improve the comfort and accessibility of your home:

• Work at establishing a barrier-free front entrance to your home by taking out items that are in the pathway and removing plants etc. that might get in your way
• Take pictures of the entire inside of your home and spend some time looking at each room with accessibility and ease of use in mind – do you have clear pathways for walking and moving around?
• Purchase storage containers and organizers for easier access to items in the kitchen, bathroom and in your closets
• Make sure that you have well lit outside pathways, interior rooms and hallways – consider using motion detectors on outside lights and in areas that are not commonly trafficked within your home
• Lower your light switches so they can be reached easily from a chair
• Raise your power outlets so that they can be easily reached from a chair

Look into appliances like stoves that shut off automatically,  and dishwashers that are raised about 8 inches higher off the floor for your  convenience.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 9:54 am and is filed under Aging in Place, Family, Healthy Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.