Do you want to retire gracefully? Making important design choices today will allow you to live comfortably at home for decades.
Making your home retirement friendly doesn’t mean that you need to sacrifice aesthetics. In fact, just adding small, simple touches can make a significant difference in helping you find the right options in terms of function and style in your golden years.
In this post, we’ll walk you through some of the essential features and considerations in a retirement-friendly home:
1. An open floor plan
Removing walls in living, dining rooms, family rooms, kitchens, and hallways, allows easy maneuvering and accessibility.
Open floor plans also make your space look bigger, more comfortable, and easy to navigate. It also opens up more space for natural light, making it easy for family members to watch over older adults.
2. Single-level living
Walking up and down the stairs can be challenging as the person ages. In the same way, walking up and down a walker or cane is difficult and almost impossible with wheelchairs. If you must design a multi-story home, adding an elevator is ideal.
Another alternative is combining essential rooms on the first floor. You may want to stay in your two-story home. So, to ensure that your place is easy to navigate, you might want to consider placing the master bedroom downstairs. Opt for open spaces instead of smaller rooms or narrow hallways as much as you can.
3. Accessibility modifications
Getting in and out of a shower or bathtub can be challenging as one ages. Many replace their bathtub with walk-in showers, as it provides safer, easier access.
Falls are also common with bathrooms, but you can prevent them from happening. Consider installing grab bars or railings that provide someone with mobility issues with additional support to move around safely.
We recommend installing grab bars near the toilet, shower, or bathtub since these surfaces can be slippery. Ensure shower curtains aren’t held by a tension rod since grabbing these for support can also lead to falls.
If properly secured, grab bars remove the pressure on your knees when rising from the toilet, offering support. The best thing about it is that you can install them anywhere in your home. Just ensure these bars can hold up to 250 pounds, and install them while screwing them into wall studs.
4. Non-slip flooring
Older people are prone to significant fall hazards. To prevent falls, ensure that glass doors go all the way to the floor and that there are no curbs to step over.
Make sure that you level your bathroom floors and use surfaces that are slip resistant. The space in your bathroom should also be wide enough for movement or wheelchair access.
Uncarpeted stairs also tend to be slippery and challenging to navigate, making them a serious fall hazard. Thus, applying non-slip tapes allows better traction, preventing falls. Stairways should also have railings on every side.
5. Lever-style door handles and faucets
Adding lever handles in your exterior and interior doors allows older people to easily open and close doors.
They’re also much easier to hold into and manipulate when carrying laundry, groceries, or simply having unstable hands.
Level-styled Faucets have also become the norm for kitchens and showers because of their aesthetic, and they’re relatively more manageable to work with than knobs.
6. Ample lighting
Adding bright, functional lighting in a space will help seniors adjust and avoid falls, injuries, and trips. It’s best to ensure that there’s always bright light available; lighting up entrances and hallways also reduces the risk of possible trips or bumps.
Placing easy switches and illumination controls will also create uniform lighting throughout. Opt for LED bulbs since they’re more energy efficient.
7. Multi-level counters and pull-out and pull-down shelves
Your kitchen countertops should have a height that allows people to work comfortably. Ideally, counters should be at the standard height or around 36 inches. Others should be at least at a table height (30 inches) and have enough knee space for sitting. Doing so offers more options for prepping and cooking, whether sitting or standing, without requiring one to bend over.
In the same way, deep shelves are more challenging for older adults to use. Pull-out cabinet inserts make it easy for anyone to retrieve items from storage. These cabinets should also be lower so that someone needs to step on a stool to access them.
8. Higher Electrical Outlets, Lower Electrical Switches
Usually, outlets are installed about 12 to 8 inches off the floor. This isn’t ideal for the elderly since it often requires bending or kneeling before they can plug in appliances.
To avoid hurting the back and the knees, ensure that outplaces are at least 24 inches from the floor since it provides easier access. Electric switches should be at the ideal height for adults to reach.
9. Bathroom safety features
Adding a shower or a bathtub safety seat will offer stability for someone who has difficulty standing for extended periods. Fortunately, they’re easy to find these days and affordable. Another great idea is adding a wheelchair shower platform for people using mobility aids, making it easier to get in and out of the bathtub.
Installing a handheld shower head is also more convenient since it can be used alongside a shower chair, making it easy for people with limited mobility to bathe when sitting down.
Raising your toilet seat height will also alleviate any pain, making it easy to use the bathroom independently and helpful for people recovering from injury or with limited mobility.
Over to You
So there you have it. These are the essential features and considerations when building a retirement-friendly home. Making these modifications is one of the many steps you can take to ensure that you’ll age successfully in a comfortable home. Applying these essential home modifications is relatively easy to do and makes all the difference regarding your convenience and safety and those around you.
