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Aging in Place
“Free and Almost Free Home Safety Tips”

Glenn J. Gullo. CAPS, CEAC

As we age, we change. Unfortunately our homes don’t or at least not by themselves.  The following tips are things that you can do to make your home a little safer, a little more convenient and a little more comfortable.  Most of the changes you can do yourself or you may enlist the help of a friend, a relative, a handyman or a handywoman.  Most of the tips won’t cost anything to put in place.  Read on for a light-hearted approach to a serious subject.

1.  Smoke detectors – No excuses.  You must have at least one working smoke detector in your home.  Smoke detectors are inexpensive and save lives!  If you cannot afford one, go to your local fire department and ask for one.  Most fire departments will provide one for free.  To put it simply: “Fire - bad; smoke detector – good”.

2. Remove throw rugs – We all like to take trips but not this kind. Throw rugs can be a tripping hazard.  The fact that the rugs are a little higher than the surrounding floor may be enough to cause a fall.  Old rugs tend to curl on the edges.  Some rugs are smooth on the bottom and may slip and slide.  Don’t risk it.  Remove throw rugs from your home.    If you’re too set in your ways (pronounced “stubborn”) to part with them then at least replace your old rugs.  Replace rugs that are curled on the edges or are slippery. You’ll be happy you did.

3.  Watch out for electrical cords and extension cords – Are you guilty of this: running a lamp cord or extension cord across a walking path inside your home?  Not a good idea.   Never place an electrical cord or extension cord across a walking path or a doorway.  Hoping that you won’t trip on it this time is not a good safety strategy.   Also, it’s never acceptable or safe to run an electrical cord under the carpet or under a throw rug.  Don’t plug too many things into an extension cord either.  Just because it has three or four places to plug things in doesn’t mean it can safely handle the load and it may cause a fire.  To repeat: “Fire – bad”.

4.  Add a power strip – Are you tired of bending down, twisting your body into unnatural poses and reaching behind furniture to plug in an electrical appliance like your vacuum, your hair dryer or your lava lamp?  Mount a power strip on a wall in a convenient location, but close enough to an outlet for the cord to reach.  Then plug the cord into the outlet.  Voila! Instant outlet!  Make sure that the power strip is securely fastened to the wall. Do it yourself or get someone who is handy with tools to do it for you.  No more bending and reaching to plug in your Whirl-O-Matic or other favorite electric device.

5.  Don’t climb – Actually most experts would agree that climbing is not the problem … falling is the problem!  Avoid climbing … avoid falling.  If you must climb because you are a huge risk-
taker, never climb on a chair or table or such.  Use a piece of equipment that is made for climbing like a stool with a wide base or a stepladder.  Preferably the stool or stepladder should have a high rail for grasping.  But best option: don’t climb.

6.  Reacher – What’s a reacher?  It’s one of those things with a handgrip on one end and a claw-like device on the other.  How is this a safety item? Well, suppose you drop something and, given Murphy’s Law, it rolls, bounces and slides under the table.  Don’t bend down and risk a fall.  Use your handy reacher.  It’s a good idea to keep a few reachers around the house in convenient spots.  Some clever people keep theirs behind the bathroom door, bedroom door, etc.

7.  Magnifying glass – Have you ever heard the phrase “When all else fails, read instructions”?  Well it’s a good idea to read instructions on your bottles of over-the-counter medication before you take them.  The problem is … the print is too dad-gummed small.  But it’s critically important to make sure you take the proper dosage at the proper time.  Additionally, you don’t want your over-the counter medication to interact with your prescription medication and cause your head to explode.  Keep a magnifying glass near your medication and use it to READ the instructions.

8.  Improve lighting – As we age the amount of light that passes through our optical membrane and gets absorbed by our eye receptors decreases.  OK, that may not be exactly the right explanation.  I’m not an optometrist or anything and I don’t know the technical terms or the correct scientific explanation, but the truth is, as we age we don’t see as well as we used too.  So add lights, increase bulb wattage and see what you can see.

9.  Nightlights – While we’re on the subject of lights, nightlights can help avoid injuries.  If you’re like me you get up at night, sometimes several times a night.  You’re a little groggy, you can’t see and you shuffle through the house in the dark.  A small night-light can light your way to the Promised Land or at least to the bathroom.

10.  Use a rubber mat in tub – Each year in the US, 65,000 serious injuries occur in the bath and shower alone.  The learning experience here is “don’t take a bath or shower alone”.  Shower with a friend.   Just kidding.  To help prevent falls in the tub and shower, use a non-slip bath mat or some of that peel and stick stuff that has a rough non-slip texture.

11.  Think safety –Think before you climb.  Think before you step. Think before you lift.  Think before you act.  Just being conscious of the risk of injury will help.  Avoiding dangerous situations is your goal.  Aging in Place is the reward.