Aging is often framed as something negative, but when you still have your health and your independence, it doesn’t have to be. And in fact, there are plenty of things you can do to make sure you maintain your independence and enjoy living in your own home as long as possible!
Many of us are lucky enough to be able to lean on the ones we love, such as local friends and family, which is a wonderful thing – but there’s nothing wrong with making sure you can rely on yourself too. So today, we’ve put together a few ideas that might help you start thinking about what you can do to maintain your independence and future-proof your lifestyle. You can start implementing some of these ideas in stages so that you slowly adjust your assistance as your needs increase. I hope you find the following tips helpful, keep reading to learn more.
- Enlist help
We know this might sound counterintuitive, but staying independent is actually easier when people around you help you to do so. Why not make your life easier where you can – for example, hiring a weekly cleaner so you don’t have to expend energy doing difficult chores, or worry about such things getting on top of you? Later on, other services such as meals on wheels companies can help you to eat hot meals easily whilst still enjoying the comforts of your own home. This can help you feel more independent while still having a little assistance to make the day to day tasks easier to manage.
- Home modifications
It’s not admitting defeat to recognise that some things might become more difficult physically – you just need to make your home fit your future needs. You can think of this as future proofing, and it can involve things like moving a bedroom downstairs, or if you don’t want to rearrange the house you could invest in something like a stairlift from a company like Age Co Mobility, so that you don’t have to worry about future mobility issues significantly impacting your ability to move about your home. It can also help increase the value of your home too, which can make it easier in the case of wanting to sell it at a later date.
- Keep active
This one may be easier said than done at times – even in our younger years! – but keeping active keeps us mentally and physically healthy, meaning we’re able to be independent for much longer. This can be as simple as walking to the shop for your newspaper every morning, just to keep things ticking over. You can meet up with friends to go for a walk, do some light exercise like yoga or even swimming, or you can get into cycling. Try to find low impact activities you can enjoy for many years to come.
Obviously, these three tips are just a starting point – everyone’s lifestyle, needs, circumstances, and wants will call for different things! But certainly, these three things are good to keep in mind when you’re thinking about your future life and what you would like it to look like for you and your family.