By the year 2020 in the US, 45% of all homeowners will be over 55. The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) has noticed this trend, and “estimates that over 70% of homeowners doing a remodel project are planning for the future needs of themselves or their parents.” This led the NAHB to establish a specialist designation called Certified Aging in Place (CAPS). This designation is for builders or remodelers who specialize in this type of design. As Baby Boomers age, they are becoming the most active senior population ever, and are employing service industries and technology to help them stay in their homes longer.
Some improvements to your home are as easy as clearing out excess furniture to allow easier access to and within rooms. Remove small area rugs and rearrange cords and wires to prevent tripping and falls. Make sure that rooms are well lit, to avoid dark areas that impede vision. And begin replacing lightbulbs with LED lights. This reduces the number of times you need climb on a stool to change lightbulbs—a situation that can often lead to accidents
Updating Your Home As You Age
Instead of scrambling and trying to re-create the design of your home in one week, seek to make modifications over time, before changes are absolutely necessary. Some modifications can be made in the course of regular repairs—replace aging toilets with models that are a little taller, making it easier to sit and stand up from the toilet as you age. Create one entrance to your home that requires no stairs. According to Senior Home Remodel, consider replacing traditional doors with pocket doors. This can increase mobility between rooms. The pocket door is out of the way when opened, and prevents catching on wheelchairs. “[You] may merely need to widen some doorways, [but] pocket doors may be useful to you when a swinging door just won’t work.”
Increasing Services
Staying in your home may require you to increase the services that you pay for to maintain your home. You might decide to go from having a service who cuts your grass six months of the year, to a year-round contract that adds mulching, weeding, and snow removal services. Cleaning services will also take a burden off of your in-home care. Expanding these services affects your monthly budget, so make sure to plan financially and accrue the necessary savings to afford these services. Hiring a professional chef to deliver a certain number of prepared meals to your home can help you maintain a healthy meal plan. Professional chefs can accommodate a large variety of dietary needs like low-sugar meals for diabetics.
Change is necessary and often frightening. But planning for change helps to eliminate some of the stress that occurs from facing the unknown. We will continue to focus on the essential information to know as you age in the coming months to make the unknown a bit more familiar and less intimidating.
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