“I’m not going anywhere.”  Say 92% of seniors, whose primary desire is to stay in their homes and don’t want to move “unless they have to!”   Many of them haven’t planned on how that will look and how to do it safely. Staying in our own home, this is the ideal.  But how to accomplish that safely, takes some forethought and planning.

Not wanting to move “unless we have to” means a fall, illness, dizziness, changing family situation, the pull of grandchildren, etc, can come at a moments notice.  A fall, surgery, knee or hip issue can make our home a challenge overnight.  OR perhaps you can’t do as much yardwork as you have in the past, OR the roof is older, bathroom needs updating to be more ADA friendly, or the kitchen is hard to navigate with a walker, bending over, or it’s just plain old and less functional.  Maybe you want less space to take care of and/or to give up yardwork, garden, ladders?  There can be lots of reasons to bring up the conversation short of moving.  Maybe the point is preplanning can avoid a sudden need to move. 

Simple things can make your home more accessible and easier to navigate.  Besides the common recommendations of taller toilets and grab bars, there are things that work well and save steps.  Take the Stiltz Lifts (Stiltzlifts.com) for example, a plexiglass type elevator in a Rossmoor home I was showing to a senior client.  We tried it, thinking it would be claustrophobic, and take up too much room.  Wrong on both counts, and it rendered the entire home completely accessible.  It had a smaller footprint, did not require major modifications, and seemed affordable.

Another simple change that can make a huge difference is just having pull out drawers in your cabinets.  Do you find yourselves on your knees pulling out something from a lower cabinet, ie, crockpot or the air fryer because you need two hands to lift it?  Installing pull out shelving can alleviate back problems and accessibility to things you want to use more often but don’t because they are difficult to get to.   At any age, this is a huge plus…wink. 

So, whether you are looking for improvements that will increase your home’s appeal later, IF you have to sell, plan on what you will do if you become immobile even for a short time and figure out how you’ll navigate your home, so that you don’t have to move suddenly.  And if selling is in your future, make the improvements that bring in more money.  Those improvements should be within a couple of years for the buyer of today to find them valuable.  Remember your 1980 remodel is older than some of the buyers who might buy your home.