Five Home Renovation Hacks that Improve Mobility
With mobility impairments, navigating your own home can become a challenge. However, there are many simple renovations that can provide a solution to this problem. Stairs, raised flooring, and open spaces can all be treacherous when trying to navigate with an impairment. These are five expert-approved hacks to help make your home experience more fulfilling and improve mobility.
Stairlifts to Improve Mobility
The experts at Jameson Medical believe that your home should be an extension of you. It should be functional and practical, rather than hold you back. If climbing the stairs is becoming tricky, try the Jameson Medical stairlifts. These transport you easily between the upper and lower floors of your home.
Reduce the risk of falling and improve your safety at home with these easy-to-install tech innovations. Jameson Medical and other mobility aid stores also offer pool lifts, bathroom rails and other accommodations that make day-to-day functioning a little easier.
Bars and Handles
One area that can be incredibly difficult functionally when dealing with an impairment, disability, or injury is the bathroom. A quick and easy installation that can be completed without the help of professionals is the shower bar. Adding handles and bars along the shower, bathtub, and bathroom walls make it easier for people with limited mobility to bathe independently and safely.
Using a rail takes some strain off of your legs and allows you to hoist yourself out of the bath tub or keep you steady when exiting the shower. Bars and rails are easy to install on a budget and can even be put beside the bed, in the closet, along the front door, or next to the couch in the living room to help you get up and down.
Furniture Pads
When moving around causes pain or risk of falling, even things like pulling out a chair from the table can be difficult. Keeping balance while moving heavy objects is a major cause of falls. Furniture pads are relatively cheap and can be easily attached to the bottom of furniture. They are discreet and can’t be seen unless the chair is turned upside down. And, they can be removed easily whenever you’d like.
Furniture pads allow for chairs, tables, and other objects to slide easily across any tile or wood flooring. They prevent loud dragging sounds and allow furniture to be moved around more easily to prevent a person from losing their balance.
Easy Paving for the Backyard
Walking on uneven grass is a major hazard when moving with a walker or wheelchair. No one should be forced to stay inside for fear of falling. Adding pavers in the backyard can make it possible to roll wheelchairs and use canes and walkers while you go to check on the garden or enjoy a moment in the fresh air.
Pavers can be customized to your needs and incredibly affordable. They can also add a stylistic design element to the yard on top of their functionality.
Ramp Your Steps to Improve Mobility
There are tons of tech innovations available now that offer easy ramp accommodations for even steep steps. Mechanical lift ramps or retractable ramps make it easy to get up your front porch steps with a wheelchair or walker. Many of these also offer the possibility of retracting so that others can use the steps rather than the ramp to get inside.
The Bottom Line
Your home can be customized to serve you with these easy renovations. Many of them can be achieved on a budget, with minimal installation necessary. Rather than deal with the hassle of getting around in a space that was not designed for functional use, try these practical renovation hacks to make your home suitable and comfortable.