During the young years in life people are creating their habits, finding ways to make it easier through life. They stick to their habits and it helps them act faster and more secure in their daily routine. They are young and strong, fast and agile. Everyday tasks are no problem to their daily routine, and they manage to do all the tasks related to their job, family, weekend or vacation organization, socializing, and having fun in their spare time. It is very important to make lots of good habits from an early age, as it helps them to be more self-satisfied, healthier and confident. And if people develop a good daily routine from the beginning, everything is much easier.
Adjusting to changes
As people start aging, some habits have to change. Although there are many habits that seniors don’t want to change, as they would rather stick to the old ones in their comfort zone, there are some habits that need to be changed due to their health condition, which is sometimes changing more or less drastically. Seniors become slower, less strong and agile. Many of them are aging-in-place, which means that they have the possibility to stay in their own homes safely, comfortably and independently.
Although they feel safe in their own homes, which can be a great benefit as they feel more satisfied surrounded by all the stuff and routines they are very familiar with, there are some things that need to be changed, to be adjusted to the older parents they have become in years. One of them is making handling the laundry easier for your good old, senior parents, who took good care of you when you were a youngster. That’s why making some necessary changes and replacing traditional detergent containers with laundry detergent sheets becomes more than necessary.
Coming up with solutions
Laundry is a routine household task that nobody likes, but we all have to do our part of this necessity. We want our elderly home to smell nice, clean and fresh, so we have to do our best to make it easy for them. A very important thing is to provide easy access to all the stuff connected to this routine.
The laundry room must be easily accessible to seniors, because we don’t want them to get hurt while handling this not-very-easy, but very important routine. We have to keep in mind that some of the seniors have to use a wheel-chair or rolling hamper walker, and they have to be extra safe when using the laundry room.
Making the necessary adjustments
You may also need to move the laundry room to the ground floor of the house to make it more easily accessible, so they do not have to climb the stairs every time they need to do the laundry. The floor is often slippery, so you’ll also need to cover it with non-slip mats that will prevent your parents from slipping, and will stand firm to the floor so they do not get rolled-up if somebody has to use a wheel-chair. Laundry baskets have to be easy to use, and they have to be placed close to the washing machine. Very good care should be taken about containers for the detergent and softener.
The seniors’ hands are not as strong and precise as they used to be, so the containers must not be big and heavy. So, the best way is to use laundry detergent sheets. These detergent sheets have all the cleaning power of liquid detergents, but without the possibility of being spilt by not so agile seniors’ hands. And there is more – they are nature friendly packed with no plastic bottles and lids. Laundry detergent sheets dissolve easily both in cold and hot water and clean the stains on all the types of fabric. And they are very simple and easy to use, no opening the container, no measuring, just drop the sheet into the washer, and that is all to it.
There are also fabric softener sheets, which offer the same benefits as detergent sheets, so consider opting for them as well. They all should be placed where they are very easy to reach and very close to the laundry equipment.
Additional tips
When it comes to ironing boards, a wall-mounted board might be the best solution. They can be easily taken down when needed and also quickly stored when they are not needed anymore.
The laundry should be stored into separately dedicated hampers, according to different colors and different types of fabric which require separate washing. When the laundry is separated, it is much quicker and easier to put it in the washer, drop the laundry detergent sheet, and turn on the washing program.
Finally, the distance between hampers and the washer must not be big, because we do not want our beloved parents to get into trouble when bringing hampers to the washer. Everything must be placed within the reach of the hand.
