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Elder Care Organization: Arranging the Living Room for Accessibility and Functionality

Elder Care Living Room Arrangement

Elder Care Fairfield CT

Proper organization can make all the difference in your elder care journey with your aging loved one. By keeping the home organized and neat, you can not only simplify your care efforts and the care efforts of your parent’s elder health care services provider, but you can also help to support independence, reduce fall risk, and encourage a more active, enjoyable quality of life. One area of the home that can benefit tremendously from proper organization is the living room. This is a room that most people use every day, and many elderly adults spend the majority of their time here. This means that keep that room as neat, organized, and clean as possible can make a major impact in their later years.

When it comes to organizing your parent’s living room, the goal of the organization should be accessibility and functionality. These two issues are extremely important in elderly care because they are concepts that impact independence, safety, and quality of daily living. The changes do not have to be tremendous to be effective, and even the smallest modifications can help your parent to live better.

Use these tips to help you arrange your parent’s living room for accessibility and functionality:

• Remove floor coverings. A rug on the floor may be a lovely touch to your décor, but it can be dangerous for your aging parent. Seniors tend to not lift their feet up off the floor as much as younger people, which can cause their feet to get caught on floor covering and result in a fall. Bare floors or low pile carpeting are the better choice.

• Streamline the remote. It can seem like just a little thing to you, but for a senior who has cognitive limitations, vision problems, or mobility issues in their hands, using multiple remotes to operate their television, DVD player, or other devices can be frustrating. Do your best to streamline these remotes as much as possible. Try programming a universal remote to handle everything or attach remotes to the corresponding device with small pieces of Velcro to make identifying them easier.

• Create an activity center. The living room is often where seniors enjoy their favorite activities. Make this easier and more organized by creating an activity center. Make cubbies or shelves along one wall and add large baskets or storage bins that contain everything that they need to do their activity. This will make it easy for them to choose the exact activity that they want to do and know that they have what they need rather than having to dig through larger containers and pull out their supplies.

• Organize furniture carefully. Seniors who have mobility or balance issues may reach out for furniture to help them as they are walking through a room. If there are bookcases or similar shelves in the room, make sure that you fill them with heavier objects on the bottom. This will help ensure that if they do grab the shelves, they are less likely to topple over and cause injury.

If you or an aging loved one are considering Elder Care in  Fairfield CT, please contact the caring staff at Fairfield Family Care today.