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What are your tips for staying independent at your own home?

Posted by Colleen Young, Connect Director @colleenyoung, Aug 31, 2023

Many people say they’d prefer to grow old in their own homes. What are your tips for remaining independent as long as possible. What do you do to:
- Keep up with home maintenance and housekeeping?
- Avoid injuries around the house?
- Combat loneliness or stay connected?

Any other tips?

October 25, 2023: Update from the Community Director

The knowledge exchange shared in this discussion helped to create this article written for the Mayo Clinic app and website. Knowledge for patients by patients and beyond Mayo Clinic Connect. Thank you for all your tips.

Aging at home: Advice for staying independent

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Aging Well Support Group.

methel | @methel | 3 days ago
In reply to @bclane "I recently posted this on the group for caregivers for dementia patients, but it's good to..." + (show)
@bclane

I recently posted this on the group for caregivers for dementia patients, but it's good to help with remaining independent no matter your circumstances. I care for my husband and the thing with Gene Hackman and his wife made me realize that if some emergency happened to me (stroke, heart attack, bad fall, etc.), he wouldn't know what to do. I read about this site that lets you set up a time to check in each day and, if you don't, they notify the emergency contacts you give them. There's a free plan and a paid one. I think it's a great thing even if you're twenty years old and healthy, but living alone. For seniors, it's a gotta-have in my opinion, along with things like smart watches, etc.
https://www.snugsafe.com/

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The state of Maryland offers this as a free service of the state department of aging to citizens of Maryland.

REPLY
happilyalive | @happilyalive | 15 hours ago
In reply to @edsutton "Practice Imaginative ProActivity! Go through your house and your daily routines imagining that 1) You are..." + (show)
@edsutton

Practice Imaginative ProActivity!

Go through your house and your daily routines imagining that
1) You are having dizzy spells.
2) You are in a wheelchair or walker (borrow them to test)
3) You can't reach higher than your shoulder or lower than your mid-thigh
4) You can't lift heavy things (like a large iron skillet) or your hands are weak
5) You have trouble with complex sequences
6) Your vision is fuzzy

What can you do about this?

If you want to age in your house, Now is the time to start preparing your house and now is the time to coordinate with your house mate.

Examples:
Make a walk in shower with chair now. There won't be time to do it when you've had surgery and need that shower chair to bathe.
Make sure you have grab bars and solid furniture along the route from bed to bathroom and toilet. Vertigo can come as a sudden surprise at 3am.
Make it a habit to not gather unnecessary things, and weed out clutter often.

Planning to care for ourselves as long as possible can be an enjoyable project.
It is self-empowering.
Start doing it now and you'll enjoy the feeling of lightness!

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Thank you for this post. I'm making a copy of it now to put on the fridge and work on each of these things. Most are already in place but some I need to improve on. Currently my husband is dealing with an injury he received while getting up in the middle of the night and falling due to hypotension. So, there are some things I wasn't prepared to conquer yet. It was a wake up call and this list will also help tremendously. Thank you for posting it.

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