Is your house comfortable? Does it “work” for you or do you adapt to how it is built? Whether you’re a baby boomer facing the realities of aging, a new mom with your hands full, or someone with a physical disability, there are simple, inexpensive ways to make your home more comfortable and functional. Here are some ideas:
Throughout the house doorknobs are swapped for door levers. It’s so simple and inexpensive to swap out a doorknob for a doorknob, but if you have arthritis or weak hands, turning a doorknob can be very painful, if not impossible. Also, if you’re a new mom with a baby in your arms, it’s a lot harder to turn that knob. Maybe you just have your arms full of groceries and it’s hard to turn that knob. Can you imagine if you have arthritis in your hands and you just walk around your house and every time you knock on the doors it hurts? If you replaced that knob with a lever, you can touch it with your elbow. The arthritis problem and all the others are gone.
In your bathroom there are several things you can do. One is to install grab bars in the shower or near the toilet. This is great if you have weak knees. I have a client who had a Roman tub and was afraid to trade it in for a shower because she didn’t want to lose the value of the house. I asked him, “What’s the value of knee surgery? You’re going to hit your knee every day.” Switched to a shower. He didn’t have to bang his knee every day to get his feet in the shower.
You can also place a seat and a handheld sprayer in the shower. You can go to a home improvement store and buy a seat for as little as $20 and a handheld sprayer for another $20. This allows you to sit in the shower and shampoo your hair or shave your legs. If you have weak knees, it takes the stress out of them. If you are having trouble feeling dizzy or dizzy when standing up, this would eliminate the problem.
The shower or bathroom floor can often be a hazard in and of itself. With all the soap and water it becomes slippery and you can quickly lose your balance. There are several solutions to this, from quick and easy to a bit more expensive. We’ve all seen those little decals you put on the bottom of the bathtub. Put them on, it’s a cheap solution! If you are redoing your shower, you should use smaller tiles on the floor. It will cost a bit more to make this smaller tile, but if you use an inch or two tile on the floor, all that extra grout will give you extra grip.
You may think that the kitchen is an area that would not be easy to change. Is not true! The easy fix is to change your sink handle to a single handle design. The two-knob design poses the same problem as the doorknob. It will be easier for someone who has arthritis or just has their hands full with a new baby to be able to use one touch to control the faucet. Going one step further, I just saw in a showroom that they have a new faucet and you can tap anywhere on the faucet to turn it on or off.
Another thing is to make sure the cabinet handles are low enough that you can reach them. I’m only 5’2″, so half of my upper cabinet space is wasted as far as I’m concerned because I can’t reach it. If you’re in a wheelchair, you want to make sure you have plenty of lower cabinet space. space for you to go out and cook.
Here are some simple and inexpensive solutions to make your home more comfortable.