The popular trend of ageing-in-place can be a reality. Remain in your family home with many memories of your marriage and children surrounding there. There are a wealth of products and services to help you age-in-place. These five products will help you to age gracefully in your home. I’m sure you will have thoughts and concerns that might creep up as your age creeps up there too. Write these down and keep a list. One always feels best at tackling these challenges with some thought to feel empowered to a good solution and do the research for the best price and outcome.
Do consider investments in your health such as exercise and finances. Exercise may sound like a dirty word. However, it keeps you independent longer. Exercise is a flexible term which changes with age. Consider all the opportunities for walking just in your daily life such as the mailbox, post, church, and the market. Exercise can take on a more intentional form as well with stretching. In a sitting position on a chair, stretching your arms, legs, trunk and back using a belt or flexible band will improve range of motion. You can also hold onto a lightweight object or ball and lift it over your head and twist side to side with it, reach to your feet on the floor and just stretch from a sitting position. So the next time you want to dress up in a different outfit, you can easily dress yourself. You can still reach the items on the top shelf in the kitchen. You can still wash your hair in a long shower. Retired life is more affordable if you handle most of your needs for as long as possible such as bathing, cooking, and cleaning.
Thoughts to finances of keeping debt low and researching programs in your community that may be of assistance to help you age in place are huge. These community resources and information on good contractors in your community will be a huge help when considering the modifications your home will need for you to age-in-place. Local friends are a great source of ideas and information too. Assess your home’s challenges: To age-in-place it makes sense to assess your home’s difficulties such as multi-story home, front door steps, narrow doorways, bathtub only, or uncomfortable cooking arrangements in the kitchen.
All these items can be a separate project to tackle down the road on your way to retirement. So many think of the two-story house as a curse. But full of so many memories of your family growing and time spend with your spouse, leaving a family home is so difficult. It may not be necessary to leave either. In a multi-story house, a Stairlift is a huge empowerment tool for retirement. Stairlifts can be a huge help as they run along the side of your existing stairway, even with a landing or curved stairs. So you may ride on a seat from the top to bottom of stairs and vice versa in the safe comfort of a seated position secured with a seatbelt.
Another challenge can be the entry steps. Any contractor can easily measure space available and determine the angle of the climb that would best suit your individual needs. This challenge can be met with temporary metal or wooden ramps or a poured cement ramp. A ramp need not lead to the front steps either. Sometimes, a ramp might fit better into a garage. So, there is a lot of flexibility in door ramps construction and a lot of good door ramp products on the market that may fit the bill easily. Consider your bathing arrangements. What is your preference, a bath or a shower? Walk-in bathtubs are a helpful addition to add some ease of use to a bathing arrangement. For those who like a shower, a shower seat, roll in shower, or larger shower with glass enclosure would be a great investment. Shower modifications make a huge difference for those who wish to age-in-place. Assess your food preparation arrangements in the kitchen.
- Are you having trouble standing while preparing foods? Consider purchasing a stool.
- Are the countertops too high? Consider adding a shorter island for food preparation.
- Are you having trouble reaching some shelves? Consider a reacher/grabber product for assistance and install lower shelves too.
- Do the dishes pile up? Consider purchasing a portable dishwasher.
- Have you been microwave resistant? This could be a good time to invest in this time and effort saving tool to easily make use of prepared foods and reheating leftovers.
With some pre-thought to your health and mobility needs now, you can have time to make the necessary updates as they are affordable in order to age-in-place and enjoy many more years making fond memories of your family home.
