Cleaner Spaces Safer Seniors: Spring Cleaning Tips for Caregivers

Springtime is now in full swing which means it's time for a little housekeeping! Help your senior loved ones feel more refreshed, calmer, and safer by providing a little help with spring cleaning. In this month's edition of the Canyon Creek Senior Living blog, we'll be discussing the benefits of spring cleaning for seniors along with some tips on how you can tidy up with senior safety and happiness in mind.

Tidy Home, Tidy Mind

When our living spaces are cluttered and dirty, we tend to feel more stressed, frenzied, or chaotic. We all know the feeling that comes over us after we've de-cluttered our spaces: an immediate sense of relief and calm.

By helping your senior loved one organize and de-clutter their living spaces, you can help them achieve a greater sense of peace, helping to lessen their stress and anxiety.

A few key tips for helping to de-clutter your senior's space:

• Organize the medicine cabinet, getting rid of medications that may be expired or that they no longer need to use
• Help sort the mail, recycling or shredding mail that they no longer need
• Dispose of or donate items that they no longer have a use for
• Go through the fridge and eliminate all expired food items

An important note however is to always try and include your senior loved one in the process of de-cluttering their space. If you throw something away that carries sentimental value or that they still need, you could actually be causing more stress. With that in mind, be sure to check with your senior loved one before disposing of something that may be of personal value to them.

Breathe Easy

Dust, vacuum, and mop! In addition to helping our mental well-being, cleaning our living spaces can remove dust dirt and other particles that have a damaging effect on our respiratory systems.

To further freshen up your loved one's space, you may also want to consider investing in an air purifier. Not only do air purifiers help clean and purify the air, reducing concentrations of air pollutants, but they are especially helpful for people who suffer from asthma or allergies.

Clear the Way

As we know, falls are one of the leading causes of injuries among seniors. A clean and well-organized living space can actually go a long way in helping to prevent falls.

For example, loose rugs, electrical cords, rickety stairwells, and clutter in the walkways can all increase the risk of tripping or falls.

Given this, it's important to do a little safety check and to organize with senior safety in mind. Below are a few things to check for when making sure your senior loved one's home is safe:

• Check your stairs: Make sure the handrails are sturdy and that there aren't any loose boards. Consider investing in slip-resistant stair treads to prevent slippage.
• Check your rugs runners and floors: Check for uneven flooring rips in the carpet and loose floor boards. Make sure that any throw rugs, mats, and runners are secured to the floor with double-sided tape. If it's too easy to trip over the rugs or mats, consider removing them from the living space.
• Eliminate extra electrical cords: Make sure electrical or telephone cords aren't blocking the walkways. You can even try securing or taping cords to the wall so that they're eliminated from the floor completely.
• Invest in non-slip mats and grab bars: Check the bathrooms and make sure that nothing poses excessive slipping or tripping hazards. Investing in grab bars and non-slip mats can help reduce the risk of falling.
• Check the alarms: Make sure your emergency response system fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are all working properly.

Happy Spring Cleaning!

We hope that you found these tips to be helpful. If you have any questions for our caregivers and senior care professionals here in Cottonwood Heights, UT, be sure to contact Canyon Creek Senior Living staff. We're always happy to help! And don't forget to stay tuned for next month's edition of our assisted living and memory care community blog. We're always updating our senior living blog with community updates and helpful tips for seniors families and caregivers.

Happy spring all!