Accepting that your loved ones are getting old is never easy. However, if your once active parents are now dealing with various physical and cognitive changes, they may need help with various daily tasks, such as keeping their home tidy and clean. After all, health issues such as arthritis or impaired vision can turn even the most mundane chores into challenging tasks. For instance, vacuuming or even reaching the highest shelf can become a health hazard. Your loved one could easily trip, fall and find themselves on a downhill trajectory of medical issues. If you have noticed that your senior loved one is struggling to keep their house neat, there are several ways you can help them. Here’s how you can transform their home into a safe and clean space.
Remove all the potential health hazards
Seniors can easily trip, which can lead to a concussion, broken bones, or other severe medical problems. This is why it is important to remove all the fall hazards. Start with stacks of newspapers, loose cords, and furniture organization. Your loved one should be able to move freely around their house, so rearrange or get rid of any unnecessary furniture pieces that are always in their way. This will not only help you declutter their home, but it will also give you a chance to clean the floors underneath the furniture.Â
Next, remove all the throw rugs and make sure that all of their carpets are completely secured. If your loved one has carpeted stairs, pay attention to those as well. Such stairs are a great choice for the elderly since they can greatly reduce the chance of a slip and fall, but the carpet needs to be secured in place.Â
Create a cleaning schedule
Looking at a dirty home and trying to figure out how to clean everything all at once can be daunting and discouraging for seniors. However, if you create a schedule your loved one can easily follow, maintaining a tidy home will be much simpler. For instance, Wednesday could be a trash day, while Thursday could be a day reserved for dusting. When it comes to those more physically challenging tasks, consider hiring apartment cleaning services. Having a maid who will come several times a month to do your loved one’s laundry, vacuum, clean the windows or complete other tasks could ensure your seniors spend their days in a clean and safe environment.Â
Get rid of stale food
When you are cleaning your loved one’s place, make sure you check their fridge and pantry. It is possible that your loved senior has expired goods in their fridge or freezer that are going to make them sick if they eat them. Removing old, stale foods will not only keep your loved one safe but will also make their kitchen easier to clean.
Throw away or donate items they no longer use
If your loved one is one of those people who never throw anything away, it is very possible that they have built quite a collection of nick-nacks they do not really need or use over the years. Keeping a cluttered home clean is an exhausting job, one your loved one will not be able to tackle on their own. Therefore, sit down with them and help them downsize. Go over their shelves, cupboards, closets, and other storage areas and see which items no longer have any value to them. Throw away things that are damaged and donate those that are in good shape.Â
Breathe new life into old rooms
When their children move out, parents find themselves living in homes with many spare rooms. Over the years those rooms tend to become a final destination for things that have no other place to go. To ensure that clutter won’t gather in vacant areas of your senior’s home, give old rooms a new purpose. For instance, if your loved one enjoys painting, turn an empty room into their private studio.
Keeping your loved senior’s place in top shape will help them manage chronic conditions since regular cleaning will reduce the spread of germs and viruses. It will also reduce stress and anxiety, and even improve their sleep quality. Therefore, follow these tips above and improve your loved one’s quality of life.
