Decluttering Your Home as a Senior

As a senior, it is important for your home to be a safe, welcoming sanctuary for you to relax and feel protected. When clutter builds up in your home, it not only increases feelings of stress and anxiety, but it adds an element of danger to seniors with vision or mobility issues. Here, the aging in place professionals at Avila Home Care explain five ways you can declutter your home to help increase mobility and improve the safety and feel of your home.

Keep Important Items In Reach

In order to declutter your home, it is advisable to sell or dispose of items you do not use and prioritize the items you do use. However, once you decide which items you would like to keep, do not place important or frequently used items on high shelves, as it can become more difficult to obtain hard-to-reach items as you get older. In order to prevent falls or injuries from occurring when trying to reach an item in your home, keep valuables in low, easy-to reach cabinets and shelves and dispose of unwanted items that you feel take up space in your home.

Move Your Furniture

There are many ways to make your home feel less cluttered and more open by moving around furniture and getting rid of pieces that no longer suit you. For example, selling or disposing of end tables, coffee tables, stools and chairs that make your home feel cluttered will help open up the space and place importance on the few pieces of furniture that are necessary, most frequently used or have value. You will also find that, by ridding your home of small pieces of furniture that can act as a threat to individuals with mobility or vision problems, you will feel safer navigating your home.

Organize Your Medicine Cabinet

As we get older, and our sight becomes weaker, it can be difficult to read the small print often found on prescription or over-the-counter medicine bottles and packets. Failure to regularly declutter your medicine cabinet can result in the accumulation of expired or unwanted medications, and if you have a growing difficulty reading small print, you are risking taking the expired medication or wrong medication in the wrong doses. The medications you do keep should be secured in a container and properly disposed of once they are no longer needed or safe to consume. You can dispose of medication by taking expired or unwanted bottles to your nearest pharmacy.

Clean Up Your Shower and Bathroom Space

As our mobility and strength weakens with age, there is a growing risk of slipping on water or soap in the shower, which can cause serious injury. If your shower and bathroom area is cluttered by a growing collection of shampoo bottles and loose bars of soap, you are increasing your risk of tripping and falling. In order to ensure your bathroom and shower are free from potential obstacles, keep only one bottle of shampoo and conditioner at a time to avoid the accumulation of half-empty bottles. Also, consider using liquid body soap instead of bar soap, which can easily slip out of your hands and be tripped over in the shower.

Have a Place for Everything

In order for your space to feel open and organized, consider implementing storage containers to hold your valuable and necessary items. Go through the items in your home and separate the items that are necessary from the items that are collecting dust. Once you determine which items are necessary to keep, whether it is because they have meaning or they are used daily, placing these items on shelves or in cabinets can help secure a place for all of your valuables and give your home a less-cluttered feel. Any items you do not use daily, but desire to keep, should be placed in storage bins that are secured in a safe place. In addition, if you own a pet, it is recommended to fence off a designated pet area in your home where the toys, leashes and food and water bowls stay. That way, you are not risking tripping on stray toys or bowls that are strewn throughout the home.

The Home Care Professionals at Avila can Help You Declutter Your Home

It may be hard to part with your less-necessary belongings, or stay on top of organization and clutter, but these decisions ultimately keep you safe and give your home a feeling of warmth. The home care professionals want you to age in place in the comfort of your home, and can help you move furniture, organize your belongings, clean your bathroom, remove unwanted medications and even handle pet care. For more information on how to make your home a sanctuary so you can peacefully age in place, contact the home care professional at Avila Home Care today.