The Ideal Environment for Healthy Aging

by Kevin Smith Author

As a health aware senior, you may spend a lot of time taking care of your insides. Proper nutrition, regular checkups, and healthy movement form the backbone of your lifestyle. But have you ever considered the outside? The environment in which you live has as much to do with your over health as the care your take of your body. Just as you perform regular checkups for your body, take a moment to conduct a checkup of your home to see if it is the best environment for you.

Pick It Up

How many things in your home require you to bend over in order to access them? Many people place cleaning products under the kitchen sink, for example, requiring them to bend and reach every time they need to clean. Consider redesigning your cabinets and closets so that the items you use on a regular basis are in easy reach, thus helping to prevent most common twisting and lifting injuries.

Special Delivery

If you order items online, where are they delivered? Do packages go on the floor of your front porch? Consider taking a page from some senior housing communities in Johnston, PA, and install a package shelf outside your front door. This is a small shelf that sits about three feet off the ground. Deliveries can be placed on the shelf, making easier for you to retrieve them and carry them inside.

Furniture

If you needed to reconfigure your space right now, could you do it? Most of your household furniture would take considerable effort to move. A few simple modifications can make it much easier. Any furniture or hardware store will have glider plates which adhere to the legs of chairs, tables, sofas and more. With some minimal help from a decent carpenter, you can also install wheels on most furniture. A few simple modifications and you are ready to move.

What’s Your Handle?

If you’ve ever tried to twist a round doorknob while balancing multiple bags of groceries, you already know the benefits of lever style handles. Taking the time to replace all your door handles with a lever handles will make every room in the house easier to access, even with full hands.

These are just a few home modifications to make your environment ready for optimal aging. You can see these options and may more in places like senior housing communities in Johnstown, PA. The experts on optimal aging have thought through every room in your house, just like you have thought through the care of your entire body.