5 Tips That Can Make Senior Citizens' Everyday Tasks Easy

02/11/2020

5 Tips That Can Make
Senior Citizens' Everyday Tasks Easy

Old age is the most challenging phase in anyone’s life. In most cases, seniors live in estrangement and are physically not able enough to deal with all the situations in life. Not only chronic ailments, but even little discomforts have an exaggerated impact on the senior adults who have gone past the prime of their life. For such seniors, even small everyday tasks become a huge challenge. Often, they get hurt or face accidents by just trying to accomplish easy household tasks.

Although we like to support the elderly, often, we are not available physically for them due to various commitments. To save the efforts of your dearest loved one , you can try some tips and tricks that will make life easier for them. Not only will these tips help them out, but it will also let them realize how much you care for them. Moreover, these tricks do not require expensive technologies. Let’s look at five tips to make senior citizens' everyday tasks easy.

1. Organize Household Items for Convenience

Seniors often find it challenging to reach household objects like a glass of water, their medicine rack, toothbrush, etc. Sometimes, they can’t get reach food that is kept in the back of the refrigerator. In such situations, you should make some clever arrangements in the household, such as:

• Use turntables on refrigerator shelves so that it can be revolved to reach the items on the other end.

• Use a calendar to help your loved one remember their medicine routine.
You can use items like pill organizers, or even mobile apps, but remember to make them aware of such arrangements.

• Keep electronic gadgets like cellphones, radio, TV remotes, headphones on the same table that holds the medicines and other necessary stuff. This will be extremely convenient for them to have them all in one place.

• If your loved ones use glasses, hearing aids, or a mobility device, make sure that these things are kept near the bed so that they can access these items immediately when waking up.

2. Use Raised Stickers for Handheld Controllers and Cellphones:

Seniors who are suffering from low eye-sight or blindness, or have lose of feeling in their hands find simple tasks, like pressing a remote control button, can prove to be a mammoth task. These seniors most likely can’t dial their cellphones or are not able to use the TV remote as they have reduced sensation and strength in their fingers.

An easy fix is to use raised dot stickers on the buttons that will let them feel a number by touching it. You can put these stickers on certain buttons that are used more frequently, such as the call and hang up buttons on a mobile phone or the on/ off, volume up/ down buttons on a TV remote. You can try the same trick on electric switches that control the lights and ACs.

3. Ensure Easy Movability Within the House:

Many older adults suffer from muscle strains, joint pains, and other physical issues that stall their movement within their house. This restriction of movement on top of their existing ailments really makes them morose and cold. Their stagnation in one part of the house also means that they are not able to meet all the family members or neighbors who can have lively interactions with them.

You can easily change this and bring a smile to their faces by using a 4-wheel electric scooter specially made for slow and comfortable rides. Such mobility options will not only take care of their captivity within restrooms but will also make them cheerful and lively. Make sure someone teaches them the controls and accompanies them while they are riding the scooter for the first few days.

4. Get Rid of Things in the House that Can Harm the Elderly and Cleverly Arrange the Essential Ones:

When older adults are living all by themselves, they struggle to do small tasks like moving in the house, pushing things around, or even arranging their food. On many occasions, due to their feeble physical and mental health, they end up sustaining injuries by colliding with something (unmindfully) or losing balance by landing on wet surfaces.

Such little mistakes can prove to be dangerous, especially if there is nobody to attend to the senior citizens. In such cases, you can do the following:

• Make the sharp corners of household furniture blunt.

• Have a fruit slicing machine or cutter instead of knives.

• Put an anti-skid mat on the floor so that even if water or oil falls on the floor, it doesn’t get slippery.

• Keep the toilet soaps in holders or grab bars so that they do not slip from the hands of the elderly.

• Install lights at key corners of the house so that the older adults can move easily at night
without groping in the dark.

5. Encourage Physical and Mental Activities:

Of all the barriers seniors face, physical and psychological issues are the most prominent ones. While physical issues can visibly disable someone from carrying out daily chores, mental issues silently weaken the elderly and destroy their mental strength to do something. Many of them lose their spouse, are left alone by their children, or are neglected by others. This is why issues like depression and insomnia are so prevalent among older adults. Disturbed mental health and lack of restfulness ensure that the senior citizens are agitated, anxious, and incapable of doing easy tasks on a daily basis.

Hence, it becomes incredibly crucial to push them for an exercise routine that can take care of both their physical and mental health. Yoga is an excellent example of such exercises that address holistic health and wellbeing.

Conclusion:

While it is a good thing to find ways that will make life comfortable for your old acquaintances, there is nothing like being there with them. Besides their physical troubles, they also feel psychological stress due to social alienation and personal losses. When you visit them, interact with them, they feel a sense of warmth, connected, and strength. Hence, try to meet them once in a while to spare them of their alienation. Also, remember that they are not as young as our young family members. So you need to put some extra effort to make them feel your purpose. Purposefulness is indeed what it takes to make the everyday lives of senior citizens easy.

Thank You to Our Guest Blog Writer:

Jeffery N. Thompson, Content Writer and Blogger

email: jeffery@home-box.co

Reference articles:
https://dailycaring.com/7-useful-tips-and-tricks-for-seniors-that-make-everyday-tasks-easier/
https://www.aha-now.com/elderly-care-home-tips/

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