Aging in Place: How to Make Your Home Easier to Live In

You want to stay in your home for as long as you can. Start by looking at the things that get in your way.

Picture the bag you step around at the bottom of the stairs, or the rug by your bedroom door that you’ve caught your toe on more than once. You know they’re there, and you’ve learned to walk around them. After a while, you hardly notice them.

After 14 years working in other people’s homes, we know clutter blindness is real because we’ve watched people step around the same everyday things.

You may have made other adjustments without thinking much about them. Perhaps you've stopped using a cupboard because it's difficult to reach, or you've started doing something in another room because the usual space has become inconvenient.

You can make some changes in a few minutes, but you might need help with others. Change one thing at a time. If you're still deciding whether to stay, try our one-week home exercise to look at how you use your home before you make a decision.

Where to start

Walk through your home on an ordinary day. Notice what you step around and where you have to stretch or move something to open a cupboard. Pay attention to anything you've stopped using because it's become inconvenient.

You’ll likely find more than one trouble spot, so choose one room and finish a small job there before you move on. Address anything that poses an immediate safety risk first.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada's Safe Living Guide, 20% to 30% of Canadians aged 65 and older who live in the community fall each year. Clutter isn’t the only cause. You can help reduce some fall hazards by keeping your walking paths clear.

Talk with your doctor or an occupational therapist if you worry about your balance or find it hard to get around your home. An occupational therapist can look at how you manage daily tasks and suggest ways to make them easier.

Start with the bathroom

The bathroom is a good place to begin, since you use it every day. People often keep toilet paper and cleaning supplies on the floor because they have no other place for them. Put those on a shelf or in a cupboard, and keep the supplies you use daily within reach. Store bulk purchases elsewhere.

Check your medicine cabinet and take expired and unused medicine to your pharmacy for safe disposal. If you only have 15 minutes, clear the floor by the sink and stop there. You can use our one-minute rule afterward to help keep things from piling up again.

One client had so many things in her bathroom that she’d started using the kitchen sink to wash her face, brush her teeth and put on her makeup. Much of what she’d kept in the bathroom was old or unused. Piles of clothes and shoes also blocked her way from her bed to the bathroom, so we sorted through the bathroom and cleared that path too. Once we’d finished, she could use her bathroom for her morning routine again.

If you need grab bars or other bathroom safety equipment, ask an occupational therapist or another qualified professional what would work best for you. Have a qualified installer fit any grab bars securely.

Decide where things go before you move them

Before you carry anything you no longer need into another room, decide where it goes, so you don’t leave it on the floor somewhere else.

Keep what you use or love, and give each item a place where you can find and reach it easily.

Ask family first. Find out whether someone wants an item before you set it aside for them. Give them time to answer, and agree on a pick-up date. You may be surprised by what your adult children want to keep.

Donate what someone else can use, after you check what local charities accept. Use our Toronto donation guide to find a suitable place.

Sell what has value, if the item is worth the time it takes. If you have several pieces to sell, you could consider an online auction through MaxSold.

Recycle or throw out what you can't use or give away. Check how to dispose of broken items safely.

Set up one labelled box or corner for anything waiting on someone’s answer. Keep it away from any walking route, and write a date on it so you don’t end up stepping around it like the bag at the bottom of the stairs.

Begin with the items that are easier to part with, and leave keepsakes for later. Large furniture can be the exception, because you may use a whole room differently once one piece is gone. For over 30 years, we kept my husband’s family sofa, even though it didn’t fit how we used our rooms. When my brother-in-law finally took it, we could use our dining room again. From that I learned how one large piece of furniture can affect the way you use a room.

Keep everyday items within easy reach

Give the items you handle daily, such as the plates you use most mornings or the shoes you wear most weeks, the easiest spots to reach. The Government of Canada’s Safe Living Guide advises keeping everyday items and heavier items between knee and shoulder height, where you can lift them safely. Store things you rarely use, such as holiday decorations, away from your everyday items. Ask for help if you need to lift or carry heavy boxes.

You may have arranged your home years ago, when you used the rooms differently. Perhaps you keep your cleaning supplies in the basement and your extra towels upstairs, though you use both on the main floor. Keep a small set of cleaning supplies on each floor, and move everyday linens closer to the rooms where you use them.

You don't have to keep everything of one kind in the same place if that means carrying things between floors or reaching awkwardly.

Before you buy new storage, move a few things and see whether the new places work better. Try the arrangement for a week and make another adjustment if you need to.

Clear your walking paths, room by room

Start with the routes you use most often, especially the front entrance and stairs, the path from your bed to the bathroom, and the kitchen. Then check the living room.

Entrance and stairs

We’ve walked into homes where winter boots and summer sandals both sit by the door, and where someone has tucked a broken umbrella into the corner, meaning to deal with it later.

Move off-season shoes to a closet and throw out anything broken. Leave room by the door for the shoes you wear now. Put a sturdy chair there, out of your walking path, so you can sit to put on your boots.

Keep the stairs clear. When carrying something upstairs, make sure you can see the steps and hold the railing. Ask for help with anything heavy or awkward.

If you need better lighting or handrails, ask a qualified professional to help.

Bedroom

We’ve seen people push so much under the bed that they can’t remember what’s there.

Start with the floor and the path from your bed to the bathroom. Clear anything you might step on at night, and take up any rug you might catch a toe on. Check what you’ve stored under the bed and give each item a proper place. Ask for help if you need to kneel, strain or move anything heavy to retrieve it.

Give books and newspapers a place other than the bed, and keep your glasses and the other things you need at night within reach. Move the clothes you wear often to drawers or shelves you can reach without straining.

Kitchen and living room

Clear the counters so you have room to prepare a meal, and give everything you use daily a place close to where you use it. Keep heavy cookware between knee and shoulder height and paper towels away from the stove. One client had pots hanging from the ceiling right in the middle of the kitchen, and I kept forgetting to duck and hit my head. After a few bumps, we cut back the longer hanging items. I got that lesson at the school of hard knocks. If you have to duck to get past hanging pots, shorten the longest ones or find another place for them.

We’ve found living rooms with two televisions when the owner used only one. Start with what you no longer use, such as the extra television and the newspapers you won’t read. Then move any furniture that blocks your usual path, and keep cords out of the walkway. Ask for help with furniture that's too heavy or awkward to move safely.

Start with one small change

Walk through your home today and choose one thing you keep stepping around, or something you've stopped using because it's become inconvenient. Decide whether to put it away, move it somewhere easier to reach or give it another home.

If you’d like help with the rest of that room, work through one of our free home decluttering checklists at your own pace.

If you’d like hands-on help, call Brad for a free phone consultation. Tell him what you’d like to change and where you’re stuck.

About In and Out Organizing and the Writer

Cathy Borg is a professional organizer and partner at In and Out Organizing, a Toronto-based downsizing and estate clearing company serving adults 55 and older across the GTA. She has spent 14 years helping people decide what to keep and set up their homes around how they live today.

In and Out Organizing offers:

• Decluttering and home organizing

• Downsizing and move management

• Estate clearing and MaxSold online auctions

• Aging-in-place organizing

• Preparing homes for sale

  
  

Brad Borg and Greg Picard provide hands-on help in clients’ homes. They work at each client’s pace and decide nothing without the client.

To talk about your home, call Brad at 416-859-0518 for a free phone consultation, or email info@inandoutorganizing.ca.

💛 Making Space for Your Life™