Surveys show that most seniors want to remain in their homes as long as possible. As a result, the home retrofit business is booming. All sorts of products and modifications are available that claim to increase safety and ease of use.
We each need to decide for ourselves if and when it’s time to move. Survey your house with an eye toward how much remodeling will be needed to accommodate your future self. Are the retrofits feasible and cost-effective?
Here’s a great set of questions to use when surveying your house.
Other checklists and resources can be found at Homemods.org, “an information clearing house on home modification” for both professionals and consumers. The website is affiliated with the Fall Prevention Center of Excellence at the University of Southern California Andrus Gerontology Center.
While structural changes like widening doors can be expensive, there are many cheap and simple changes that will make our homes safer. Most are related to preventing falls, which are high on the list of hazards for seniors.
As you look around your house, think about moving or eliminating anything easily tripped over or bumped into (e.g. area rugs, shelf corners). You can move frequently used objects to the most easily accessed shelves, replace doorknobs with levered handles, and use bathmats with safety treads.
Studies show that most household accidents happen in the bathroom and kitchen, so it makes sense to examine these rooms critically for possible hazards.
If you’re in a wheelchair or think there’s a wheelchair in your future, you’ll want your living space to allow a wheelchair to maneuver easily: smooth floors, wide doors and halls, no protruding doorjambs, low counters and storage areas, and numerous other special features.
As with many other senior needs, services are evolving to improve mobility and accessibility. For example, Access.Architectural, a commercial enterprise in Phoenix, AZ, offers to “perform a thorough on-site residential evaluation on your existing or new home or condo for a detailed look into your specific, unique, accessibility needs.”