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

I've pretty much perfected the talent of online grocery shopping. Thanks much for your comment!

I am 74 and live independently in a house with my spouse. We hire out yard maintenance and other maintenance tasks like painting, roofing, etc. We also have a house cleaner come in monthly. We have 4 dinners per week sent from a meal delivery service. We still have to prep and cook the meal from the ingredients provided. Avoiding falls and injuries is not as much of a concern for us since we are not frail. We keep up with healthy habits and anchors of good health: we get good quality sleep (both of us use a CPAP device), eat a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, manage stress, and exercise according to current guidelines. My wife has Long Covid, which is a challenge, but I have never had Covid so am able to provide support.

Thank you all for the very good suggestions for 'staying home' and I hope that you can help me. How do you get a large person up off the ground, in the house, when he has fallen? I am very fit but not too strong and have balance issues. My husband has Parkinson's and the last time this happened it was a real struggle. We have no neighbours at home during the day nor anyone that we can call on to assist. We are hoping to stay at home for as long as possible. RobinAnn

@robinann Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. You can call you local fire department for a medical lift assist. They are trained to do this, and actually respond to a fair number of this type of call.
Ginger

Yes, keep walking even short distance and the distance will become longer eventually and don’t stop walking however shorter walk, your muscle will be improving.

I’m 50, have limited mobility (no help, community supports, or family, as well as very low immunity which limits what I can do in terms of entering the community). I don’t qualify for assisted living due to my age, so even though there are some areas of my home and outdoor spaces that I haven’t been in for years (I mobilise on crutches and fall often due to tripping - my feet drag), I get someone to mow the grass, but otherwise I can’t access home help (the expense is hundreds per hour unless you qualify for help).
If I could, I’d have vertical rails on walls near doorways, ramps over thresholds on floors/doorways, rails adjacent to toilets & in/around shower, and railings next to steps.
I use a bed stick to aid getting in and out of bed, and have light sensors to turn on lights when it’s night and balance is affected by drowsiness (reaching/twisting for light switches while using walking aids is not easy). I have installed shelves near toilets to hold toilet paper and cleaning items so I’m not reaching down into the bathroom cabinet under the sink, and the little used items are in baskets so I can slide it out instead of bending down to search into the cabinet. I’ve changed door handles to levers to make grip and turn easier, and installed lever mix taps throughout (it was a bit tricky in the bathroom, but I figured it out with YouTube videos). I have lots of easy reach long handled graspers around the house in case I drop something, and I use small sturdy trolleys to move things around (baskets of laundry, shopping deliveries, etc).
When I have falls (4-10 usually each week), I move to furniture and use it to climb up on, and in hallways or areas that don’t have furniture I’ve installed ropes on hooks from the ceiling to help me get up.
It’s helpful to have a pelican belt around your waist if you have frequent falls, and have someone in the house with you, as the belt has handles to aid someone else in getting you off the floor.
I use a flexible magnetic whiteboard on the fridge to write down to do’s, where I see them all the time as reminders, otherwise using reminders in devices to take medication or appointments is helpful.
I have sturdy handles installed on the sides of my computer desk to aid transfer (sit to stand/stand to sit), because it’s a rolling computer chair and increases risks of falls for people with balance deficit.
I use shower stools and over toilet aids with handles to make sit to stand safer.
I’ve coated tiled flooring with anti slip coatings. I use vertical plate and bowl racks to make storage and retrieval easier from cupboards, and again I use lots of baskets to slide in and out of cupboards to make it easier to access items.
In the instance I can’t reach my feet, I use a sock gutter to put socks on. I don’t have access to an alarm for falls (it’s ridiculously expensive), and I’ve already smashed three smart watches when falling (using my arms to protect my face, head and neck), so they are pretty much useless in my case. I do leave my phone within shouting distance and yell for Siri to call an ambulance if I’ve really hurt myself (it’s impractical to carry my phone everywhere around the house using crutches or trollies, where it often falls to a place I can’t easily get it, or I fall and smash it if it’s in my hand while trying to protect my head). And carrying it in some kind of holder on my body isn’t much different.
I recommend having a smart speaker in the house to ‘listen’ to you and respond to commands if you shout out to it, like calling services, relatives, etc.
Keeping busy, I’m a systemic advocate with national and state organisations in homelessness and housing, as well as cancer research (among other things like suicide crisis support for vulnerable people - I volunteer and work from home on the suicide crisis and prevention text and chat service..yep, you get a real person on the chat/text, not artificial intelligence 🙂, support health programs like national quit smoking research in the community where I review the research design for best practice in engaging vulnerable cohorts like people with mental health conditions, and baking/making treats for people as a kindness to them when they’re down or not well - the furthest I’ve shipped treats is to Nevada USA, which was my home made Turkish delight)..I enjoy constructive things that make a real difference to people who sometimes can’t do things for themselves.
Eating well as much as possible helps mind and body, and exercising is helpful however it can require some modification like doing it laying down (I have spinal problems and so working on core strength is easiest and most effective done after waking up, while laying on the bed).
Hopefully something here is helpful 🙂🌺

Very sorry, you feel isolated．
Have you ever had walking rehabilitation or balance physiology?
I have Vertigo sometime dizziness prolonged that makes difficult to walk steadily but have physiological sessions and Aqua Pilates improved my condition improved.
Why not trying to improve your walking abilities?

@kaylin7 A homecare agency needs to be Medicare certified in order to have some of the services covered.

Here is a link to what Medicare will cover as far as Home health Services. As seniors, or those who may need to be on the watch for staying independent, we need to to always be advocating for ourselves, and not be taken advantage of. I know that working with a local Area Agency on Aging or senior services ombudsman, has been very useful for me at times!

https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/home-health-services
Ginger

Wow - that’s a wonderful service! We don’t have that in Au; they only attend if it’s a transport to emergency.
The other thing I used to give people was those two-step blocks that often are used in rehab facilities for people to start learning to lift their feet and step up onto two steps..it’s solid wood, and is simply two steps, which then the other person can drag over to the person on the floor, stabilise it with their feet (blocking it from sliding), and the person on the floor can move to it, lever themselves onto the low step then up on to the second step, rest, then stand. This is where a pelican belt is also helpful, because once the person is ready to stand, their assist person can stabilise them easily at their centre of gravity by holding the handles on the belt.
Otherwise, a mobile hoist with sling can help if the person is quite large - it’s a hand operated rolling device like a miniature crane. Not sure if funding is available in the US for something like that? Usually it’s occupational therapists who assess and prescribe these (former OT here) 🙂

@mguspixi25 Yes, the lift you are speaking about is called a Hoyer lift. I have seen them in several different configurations.
Ginger