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Key Takeaways:
- Begin with a home safety assessment and prioritize high impact, low cost updates that reduce falls and strain.
- Focus on core fixes grab bars, non slip flooring, brighter layered lighting, secure handrails, and clear, clutter free walkways.
- Adapt bathrooms and kitchens walk in shower with seat, raised toilet, lever handles, anti scald controls, pull out shelves, and easy grip D handles.
- Improve access with zero step entry, sturdy ramps, wider doorways, lever door hardware, and storage placed between knee and shoulder height.
- Add supportive tech medical alert systems, smart lighting, voice assistants, video doorbells, and routine check ins and revisit needs each season as mobility changes.
Prefer to watch? Check out the video here:
It’s never too early (or too late) to start planning your future home so that it can accommodate your changing needs as you age. According to AARP, when it comes to “aging in place”:- 87% of adults age 65+ want to stay in their current home and community as they age
- 71% of adults age 50-64 want to age in place
The Bathroom
Most of the remodeling done to accommodate our senior years is done in the bathroom, where you want to make sure showers and tubs are easy to access. You can consider removing your tub altogether and adding a shower without a curb, like this one here:
Entrance Ways + Stairways
People also remodel their entranceways or stairways, so that the widths of the doors are wide enough to allow for wheelchairs to move through… I’m not saying you should count on being wheelchair-bound if you aren’t currently using one, but widen your pathways just to have the flexibility, even for your visitors. You can also remove thresholds and floor borders that could be a tripping hazard in your doorways. Some people like to install sturdy handrails on the sides of their stairway, which makes perfect sense because we lose balance, the older we get… … and bad falls can lead to an increased risk of cognitive decline.
The Kitchen
Another popular place people remodel in their homes is the kitchen. You can design your kitchen so it’s more open with lots of light flowing through, which will help with visibility as your sight declines. Bonus Tip: It’s also recommended that you align your long walkways with lights for the dark hours of the day. This applies to the walkways that you have both indoors and outdoors. Back to the kitchen — you can modify your countertop heights to accommodate for different age levels and mobility levels.
Personal Examples
Just a couple of examples from my family to share… My aunt who’s in her late 60s recently fell upstairs in her backyard. She and my uncle have this amazing jungle-Tom Sawyer-like backyard. Check it out:
- She’ll bring her cell phone with her next time she’s alone up there, and
- They’ll need to do a property-wide safety check and set up sturdy handrails in sketchy parts of their house.
Think of Your Future You
As you think about upgrading or remodeling parts of your house, think about your future older self and work in the convenience factor now to make it easier for you later. That’ll help you:- Better manage the cost of your self-care because you’re spending the money now upfront and
- Be less overwhelmed down the road cause you’re doing all the work well in advance
