#61 - Seasonal Home Safety Checks for Older Adults

Seasonal home safety checks are crucial for older adults who wish to maintain independence and prevent accidents while aging in place. Taking inspiration from a meticulous neighbor who prevented major maintenance issues through regular upkeep, I share practical advice for making your home safer through each season.

• Spring and summer checks include examining pathways for cracks, updating smoke detectors, clearing yard hazards, and servicing air conditioning
• Keeping a maintenance journal helps track issues and organize professional assistance when needed
• Fall and winter preparation focuses on furnace and fireplace servicing, checking for non-slip rugs, and improving lighting for shorter days
• Motion sensor lighting in bathrooms, closets and garages provides hands-free illumination and enhanced safety
• Emergency supplies like blankets, flashlights, medications, and backup batteries are essential for power outages
• Ice melt, snow removal services, and traction footwear help prevent dangerous winter falls
• Installing handrails at all steps provides crucial support regardless of elevation changes
• Remember seasons by their focus: Spring (refresh), Summer (cool), Fall (prepare), Winter (protect)
• Small preventative steps today can prevent major problems and help maintain independence tomorrow

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Chapters

• 1:05 Welcome and Introduction
• 2:30 Spring and Summer Safety Checks
• 5:36 Fall and Winter Preparation
• 9:21 Seasonal Maintenance Memory Tips
• 10:46 Benefits and Closing Thoughts
• 11:53 Final Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:33

Hello everyone, welcome to this episode of the Aging in Place Directory podcast. I'm Esther Kane, a retired occupational therapist, an Aging in Place specialist and a certified dementia care specialist. Today in this episode, I wanted to talk about seasonal home safety checks, specifically for older adults such as myself. I'm in my late 60s and one of the things that I want to do in my home is to make it as easy and comfortable and safe as possible.

Speaker 1: 1:11

I had a neighbor years ago who had the most, the most well-maintained home that I've ever seen. You know, if she bought an appliance that said, you know, she changed the filter every six months. That's exactly what she did. She would put it on her calendar. She had her dryer vents cleaned out every single year. She had her air vents cleaned. She had everything done according to the manufacturer of whatever it was that she bought. Or, even more so, she would clean out her kitchen cabinets every other month. It was amazing all the work that she did to keep that house as pristine as possible and, as a result, she ended up really preventing a lot of major maintenance issues coming up on the house, because she preempted them simply by maintaining everything as it should be. So that's one of the reasons that I think it's so important to do safety checks in your home, not only for maintenance, but for safety as well. You know you want to make sure that the gas is running properly, that there's no you know frayed electrical wires. You just want to be as safe as possible for as long as possible, so that while you age in place, you can be as independent as possible for as long as possible.

Speaker 1: 2:38

All right, so we're going to talk about some seasonal maintenance issues. That should be done per season, so let's get to it. All right. So spring and summer safety checks. The kinds of things we're talking about are checking outdoor pathways, especially if you live in northern climates, because winter can easily cause cracks in sidewalks or loose steps, especially if you have loose stones around those steps. You know you want to repair them before it causes a trip or a fall. You want to update your smoke and carbon carbon co2 detectors, change the batteries, test the the alarms If you can't reach them. You know what I do is I either get a friend to come help me or I will have my handyman come and do that, because I have them all over the house, of course, as you should. So definitely put that on the calendar.

Speaker 1: 3:42

You want to clear clutter and yard hazards, you know, trim back bushes, especially if they're around your AC unit. You want to remove a you know loose garden tools out there. Make sure that the hoses are, you know, wrapped up where they should be, check the outdoor lighting to see that it's working and it'll work through spring and summer and early fall. And then you want to check your air conditioning and ventilation. This is all spring and summer, remember. So air conditioning and ventilation.

Speaker 1: 4:12

You want to service your AC. I have mine serviced every six months to avoid any overheating risks, to make sure that things are going to keep working, especially once it gets really, really hot. You want to make sure that you have that AC running the best that it can, one thing that you can do if things aren't working correctly. You definitely want to keep a journal or write down somewhere. You know that you can keep of all the things that need to get fixed or change or that you're thinking about fixing or changing. That way, you have an idea of who to call for what if you're not going to do it yourself. As far as fall and winter, you want to make sure again that instead of you having your AC check, you want to have your furnace unchecked, your fireplace service, to reduce fire risks. I have a gas fireplace and I have mine cleaned out every other year. I don't do it every year because it is a gas fireplace, it's not real wood and I don't use it all that much, so every other year is good enough to have them come and clean it out and check everything. Make sure everything is working right.

Speaker 1: 5:26

You want to check your rugs and your mats. Make sure they're non-slip. If you have to have a rug or a mat, make sure they're non-slip, especially the ones at your entryways. You know the outside ones. You know where wet shoes may end up, causing them to be slippery Rugs. Indoors, I like to have vinyl flats. They're extremely, extremely thin and non-slip. It's a great way to have the aesthetic of a rug without having the danger of tripping over a rug that is a bit thicker or has a lip.

Speaker 1: 6:02

Lighting shorter days means less natural light coming into the house, so you may want to look at getting some brighter bulbs. Motion sensor lighting I like to have motion sensor lighting in a lot of places the garage, the bathrooms, closets that way you know if your hands are full with something, the light will still come on when you're in there, even if it's just for 10, 15, 20 minutes. And then that way it's just a safer environment. And remember, as we all get older, we need more and more light. You may not realize it because it's so gradual. So don't be afraid to go for brighter light bulbs, as long as it doesn't cause a glare. The glare can be difficult, so you want to.

Speaker 1: 6:55

You may have to test a few light bulbs, emergency supplies. If you live in a winter area, you may end up having to go a day or two or whatever without power because of snow, because of whatever I mean. This is also true in tropical weather. You know, during hurricane season I once, living in South Florida, I once went 19 days without electricity in my home due to one of the hurricanes I lived through. So you always want to have emergency supplies available For fall and winter. You want to have blankets, you want to have flashlights, make sure you have your medications and you want to, you know, have as much backup batteries as possible to charge your phone or charge all the multitude of things these days that seem to require a charge.

Speaker 1: 7:55

You can keep a bag of ice melt by the front door, hire a neighbor to clear snow and ice. It's an easy way to prevent dangerous falls. If you're in an area that has a lot of ice and snow and you definitely want to invest in shoes that have the tracks underneath them or I forget what they call them, but so that the clips you know that clipped onto your shoes, so that when you're walking on ice icy sidewalk that you're not on ice icy sidewalk, that you're not slipping. And if you have steps, outdoor steps, I highly recommend that you use treads non-slip treads to help you get down those steps with handrails. I think all steps should have handrails to make it as safe as possible. So an easy way to remember some of these maintenance issues. You know I personally have them all on a calendar. It's much easier that way.

Speaker 1: 8:55

But I think of spring as refreshing. Okay, so you want to refresh things, so you want to clear clutter. You want to check batteries. You, you want to clean up, so that's spring. You know, spring cleaning up, and then summer you want to be up, so that's spring. You know spring cleaning up, and then summer you want to be cool. Anything that you have to do to check on your AC, your refrigerator, anything to keep things cool, just like the squirrels do.

Speaker 1: 9:28

You want to prepare for winter, so you want to make sure your heating systems are going to be working. You want to make sure that your lighting is, you know, going to be good on those dark days. You want to make sure that you have enough blankets and food in case you lose power or anything like that. And then, in winter, you want to protect. You want to protect against catching a cold, getting the flu. You want to protect for all kinds of emergencies. You definitely, as an older adult, you want to guard against slips.

Speaker 1: 9:56

I had handrails placed everywhere in the front of my house, in the back of my house, because I don't have a zero elevation. Maybe the next house I will, but this one I don't. But by doing all of these simple steps and they are very simple, they don't take a lot of time. If you schedule them, you know, on your calendar, do one a month, when appropriate, you know per season, and you will have not only a much better home, a safer home, but you can at least be working to ensure that you yourself can stay in the home as long as possible and as independent as possible, because if an emergency were to happen and you got injured let's say, the lights went out and you didn't have your flashlights available, you didn't have batteries for the lights, stumbled in the dark, you fell, you hurt yourself, you hit your head, you broke your hip, whatever any of those kinds of things then your life is going to be changed dramatically simply because you just didn't plan these simple little things and it really is very simple little things. Just take a little bit at a time and you can do it. You can have a safe home, and that's the whole idea of aging in place, isn't? It is having a safe home and enjoying it.

Speaker 1: 11:16

I want to thank you so much for joining me today on the aging in place directory podcast. Don't forget to subscribe. Tell your friends about us. You know we put out podcasts every single week. Remember the small steps that you do today can really prevent the big problems for tomorrow. So take advantage of it. It's free advice and it's very helpful advice. All right, you take care and I will talk to you next time. Bye.