Finally accumulating all the necessary resources, whether we speak about time, money, or labour, and then designing your home the way you’ve always dreamt is one of life’s milestones and dearest moments to cherish. Have your long-yearned projects crossed one by one off your checklist, and you’ll immediately feel like you’ll never have to worry about your living space’s design for a minute of your life. However, as ideal and efficient as your place may look, without wanting to rain on your parade, the calendar’s only winding down, and what’s now suitable may become useless or even hindering in your golden years. For safety, comfort, and suitability reasons, homeowners consider and implement “aging-in-place” design plans for their living spaces to stay ahead of the curve and not be taken aback when realizing their staircase becomes more complicated to use.
Call it a universal scheme, but this design is ideal for making life easier and more beautiful for those of different ages and abilities. Here are some of the primary considerations and ideas you want to look into when structuring your home or your loved ones’ dwellings to accommodate the transformations and needs that change with aging. Planning a perfect home to meet changing needs isn’t at all a complex or budget-wrecking project, assuming you’re making adjustments and strategies as you go.
Set up benches and bars in bathrooms
All one wants is to conduct daily tasks safely, especially for older people whose abilities degrade in time. As individuals age, bathrooms become some of the most hazardous places to use, given the many opportunities for slips, trips, falls, and other accidents. Bathrooms pose the most dangers for elders, leading to many hospitalizations and potentially permanent immobility. You want to ensure water on the floor is not a problem and that the bathing tub is safe. But this isn’t all! Older individuals need nooks and spaces to rest and elements to grab to maintain their equilibrium or rely on should there be a mishap.
Grab bars are vital in bathrooms as they provide the extra support to grab onto while squatting. In contrast, benches serve numerous needs and safety purposes in the shower area. Suppose they’re feeling a cramp, spasm, or any other incommodity; then their risk of tripping or falling is reduced considerably when they have a bench or bar to lean on. The junction between wet floors and slippery substances can be deadly, but showering becomes safe the moment elders sit down. And let’s face it: everyone could use a sitting tool for those endless baths when washing the hair or scrubbing the legs feels like an eternity.
Install vital adaptive equipment
When aging, wheelchairs, walkers, or other mobility tools to help get around become more likely to be needed. For incapacity to move around can stop many from safely conducting and enjoying their daily tasks, many elders are taken to senior centers.
There are situations when the elderly may need the permanent care of a nursing home, but the signs are evident. Sometimes, all one may need is a wheelchair ramp or stairlift to move around freely and unhindered; from that moment on, they can do almost any important job by themselves.
Given the wide range of stairlift prices and models, as well as the broad variety in any mobility aid an elder may need, you can effortlessly sort out your options and choose the ideal one. Other adaptive equipment you or an aging loved one may do well with besides an efficient stairlift can include walker stairs, ramps, stair climbers, handrails, grab bars, and half steps, to name a few.
Rethink stairs
Ascending and descending stairs becomes increasingly more challenging as we age. If this activity has become tiring and daunting, imagine how difficult it can feel for your elders or yourself as you progress in life. Depending on your living space’s layout and size, you can install a stairlift in most cases. This addition can increase an elder’s confidence to get up and down the stairs and diminish the perils of falls, slips, and trips in the house.
The marketplace abounds in choices depending on the size and style you want for your perfect stairlift, and experts in reliable companies are down to help you pick your most suitable solution. While long ago, stairlifts were unsuitable for narrow designs and bulky, there are now numerous models waiting for you to appreciate them and sort through to find your best pick to meet your space’s requirements.
Get higher-level furniture and beds
Low-level furniture with one bending over to grab something can be comfortable while lying on your near-sided bed and in your silver years. However, low-level bedside tables, stools, and other elements can make them harder for older adults to use. Similarly, the closer a bed’s surface is to the floor, the more difficult it will become for them to get up and down on their own.
A higher bed is ideal in such situations and best matched with high-level furniture as well. Comfortable to sleep in and easy to climb, a high-level bed can also serve as storage space and keep the home decluttered, as plenty of items get out of use forever without being thrown away immediately. Too low or high beds can cause older adults to fall or struggle to climb and go down. Still, the marketplace abounds in furniture ideal for seniors, coming without bed frames, wheels, and other stuff that would impede their usage. It’s only a matter of envisioning future needs and seeking bed models to meet them.
Invest now to reap the benefits later
It’s never too late or too early to start transforming your home to accommodate you later in life. Readjusting your living space to meet your all-time needs can offer you priceless peace of mind, especially when that’s all you’ll be looking for down the road.
