Five Lifehacks for People with Limited Mobility
For people with limited mobility, simply maneuvering through the halls of their home can be intimidating, not to mention venturing outside the house to enjoy the outdoors, or even going to the store to pick up groceries. But living life shouldn’t be a daunting task. Here are five great lifehacks to help people with limited mobility live life fully and safely:
1. Optimize your home’s entrance to prevent falls. For people with limited mobility, walking up a few steps to get into the house can be difficult. To prevent falls while entering and exiting the house, make sure there is a clear and smooth path to the front door. If there are stairs or a porch leading to the front door, be sure to install a strong handrail or a sturdy ramp if needed. Ramps can be rented if needed for temporary mobility issues, or there are many ramps that can be installed permanently as well.
2. Rearrange furniture and create more seating spaces. Try to avoid small walkways between furniture whenever possible and make sure each room has enough seating so a person with limited mobility can sit down and rest. It is also a good idea to secure all fragile decorative items on shelves and on the walls.
3. Purchase a reacher to help with picking things up off the floor or grabbing items from higher shelves. Reachers can even be used outside the house at places like the grocery store, to help grab items that are out of reach. These items are generally very budget-friendly and can make life much easier for those with limited mobility.
4. Invest in hand grips to use with smaller, everyday items. The thicker handles of hand grips will help those with arthritis or limited mobility use everyday items and tools with their hands, from toothbrushes to forks to crochet hooks.
5. Enjoy the comfort of the outdoors, indoors. For people with limited mobility, going outside can sometimes be a difficult task. To bring the serenity of the outdoors inside, open a window while eating dinner, put a comfortable chair near the window with the best view, or plant a container garden that can be placed near a window for sunlight. A breath of fresh air and a few rays of sunlight can do the body and mind good!