How to Make Your Home More Accessible as You Grow Older

No matter how gracefully you may age, a natural consequence of entering your twilight years is having reduced mobility. Just because you may struggle to navigate certain areas of your home as easily as before, does not mean that you have to compromise your independence or being able to access certain rooms in your house.

With a few simple tweaks, you can make your home much more accessible, so you still get to enjoy the entirety of your house without difficulty or risk of injury.

Outdoor Ramp

Whilst many people are able to enter and leave their home by taking a simple step through the front door, this isn’t always the case for everyone. Some people have a particularly steep step between their door and the ground, whilst others have steps leading up to their front door. When you have limited mobility and are less stable and agile as you used to be, these can actually be quite difficult to navigate, with many people then becoming anxious that they may fall.

One way to overcome this is by installing a ramp and/or handrail leading from your front door to the path. Ramps are much easier to use than stairs, since the gradual incline doesn’t require you to lift your legs as high and bend your knees, as many older people may struggle with due to having increased joint pain or arthritis and decreased muscle mass.

Hand rails then offer support for a bit of extra stability, so you can comfortably enter and leave your home without the fear that you may experience a fall and injure yourself.

Wet Room

One of the places that the majority of people find hard to access in their older years, and simultaneously one of the most dangerous, is the shower/bath. Whether it’s the case that you prefer to bathe or your shower is located in a tub, getting in and out of the bath can be frustratingly challenging when you have limited mobility – with water added into the mix, it then also becomes much more likely that an accident will occur due to surfaces becoming slippery.

Installing a wetroom reduces this risk significantly, as well as making it much easier and quicker for you to wash yourself. Rather than attempting to climb in and out of a tub, with a wetroom you can simply walk straight in and out; most also come with non-slip flooring, a foldable seat and handrails for added convenience.

Home Stairlift

Some people make the decision to relocate to a bungalow when they get older for the convenience it offers by not having to worry about going up or down any stairs, however this isn’t necessarily a viable option for everyone. It could be that you cannot afford or want to spend the money it costs to relocate, or perhaps you simply don’t wish to leave your home and the memories it holds, which is more than understandable.

An alternative solution, then, is to install a stairlift. Whether your stairs are straight or curved, there are stairlift solutions that will be suitable for your requirements. If you have a limited budget or don’t wish to spend more money than necessary, then there are even reconditioned stairlifts available that are just as safe as those that are brand new.

If you’re looking for local stairlift fitters in Warwick to make your home more accessible, then you need Alfix. We supply both new and reconditioned stairlifts, installing these for you as part of our service. For more information, email us today at mail@alfixstairlifts.com or call us on 01926 334848.