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Need a Clearinghouse for Clearing the House?
Home Improvements

Need a Clearinghouse for Clearing the House?

by Kimberly Johnson
written by Kimberly Johnson

 
Fingers crossed. A friend is trading her suburban house for an urban condo, which means the baby grand has to go. It has had no takers. At the last minute, I see a post from a gentleman who orchestrates neighborhood events seeking…a piano! He can handle the move and tuning. I rush to contact both people and arrange an introduction. They share a dream of keeping the music going; neither can fathom a baby grand being left at the dump. It might work out. Need a Clearinghouse for Clearing the House?
Welcome to the new world of downsizing…where anyone can be a matchmaker.
Downsizing a large household used to mean filling two or three dumpsters for the landfill, but only after the kids gathered up the bulk of the furniture and heirlooms. The elders of the family streamlined their material worlds for easy living. The mantle was passed to the next generation of hosts of large family gatherings along with all the trappings. The legacy remained intact, staying in the family.
Lifestyle changes and concern for the environment have altered the way people see the bountiful home. Millennials, coping with less money and space, are saying no thanks to traditional decorating. As a result, yesterday’s collectors find themselves scrapping the plan to give everything to the kids as they embark on an angst-filled search for anyone who might take their stuff. And to make matters worse, it now seems one needs a crash course in waste management to navigate the landfill.
As a downsizer, It is okay, perhaps essential, to take a moment to mourn whatever piece of the past might get lost as you face your belongings. But do not panic. Remind yourself again and again that you are lightening your load to free your spirit and renew your own vitality. Embrace the process in ways that serve you best and engage with others to expand your understanding of the possibilities.
Pay attention to your own feelings as you explore new surroundings. Find the best of your belongings to take with you so that you have what you need and what you love. Then build a community to help you take that deep dive into the discard pile from your material world. People from local charities, consignment shops, and online message boards in your neighborhood can become your new best friends.
And remember…your family may not want your stuff, but they can still help. Cleaning out the house can be a nostalgia-fest with your kids, your siblings, cousins, friends, anyone you need by your side. Learn to say yes to anyone offering help with the sorting and packing, and enlist the tech-savvy to gather research on remote donation sites or specialty recycling. Soon you’ll be strutting your stuff – even at the landfill – like a pro. Need a Clearinghouse for Clearing the House?
Kathleen Wright operates Essentially Yours, a downsizing company in the Greater Boston area where she lives with her husband. After careers in healthcare and education, she is hoping to help clean up the planet one house at a time.

Need a Clearinghouse for Clearing the House?

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Spring Cleaning Safety Tips for Seniors
Housing Tips

Spring Cleaning Safety Tips for Seniors

by Kimberly Johnson
written by Kimberly Johnson

Spring Cleaning Safety Tips for Seniors

Spring Cleaning Safety Tips for SeniorsWith the spring season officially underway, we all know what that means: it’s time to do some spring cleaning! This is a great time of year to get organized, especially after spending the chilly winter months indoors, but the key focus when spring cleaning is safety. If you’re wondering how you can go about completing your spring cleaning list safely, be sure to follow these spring cleaning safety tips for seniors.
Top Tips
There’s nothing quite like the sunny weather to motivate us to get organized this spring, and to help you get started, here’s our top five spring cleaning safety tips for seniors:

  1. Take your time. Set plenty of time aside to do some spring cleaning. The key is finding a balance: don’t let tasks drag on, but don’t feel like you have to get everything done in one weekend, either.
  2. Check the fridge and medicine cabinet. Although they are easy to overlook, both the refrigerator and medicine cabinets can be hotspots for expired products. Be sure to throw away all expired food items and medications, especially those that are no longer prescribed to you.
  3. Double-check smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are easy to ignore until there’s an emergency. Make sure that there are fresh batteries in all of your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
  4. Prep for emergencies. It’s a good idea to go over what to do in case of an emergency, such as a power outage or a house fire, every spring to help keep the plan fresh in your mind.
  5. Make it fun! Enlist the help of your children, grandchildren or friends to add a social component. Not only can they help you move heavy objects and furniture, but they can also make tasks seem less tedious and more fun.

Fall-proofing Your Home
While spring cleaning, it’s important that you check your home for anything that may be increasing your risk of falling. A startling 60 percent of falls happen within the home, but luckily, many of these falls can be prevented by fall-proofing your home:

  1. Clear out the clutter. Especially after being cooped up during the long winter months, there could be a lot of overlooked clutter in your home. Clear each room of clutter or anything else that could trip you, such as electrical cords and area rugs. Consider doubling your space by adding garage racks.
  2. Add safety supports. Non-slip mats are probably the easiest and most affordable way to reduce your risk of falls, especially in the bathroom where most in-home falls occur. A kitchen is another great place to have these mats in case any water gets onto the slippery floor.
  3. Check your stairs for safety. If you cannot have all the essential rooms on a single floor, attach non-slip treads to each step in your home and add sturdy handrails so you have plenty of support when going up and down the stairs.
  4. Refurbish furniture and flooring. Replace any unsteady furniture and rearrange the layout of each room so that you can easily move around your home. Make sure that all the floors are even and that carpets are securely attached to the floor.
  5. Improve lighting. Dim lighting greatly increases your risk of falling, so replace dim bulbs with brighter, more efficient bulbs. It’s also a good idea to add nightlights to the hallways so you can safely move around your home during the night.

It’s important to remember that spring cleaning isn’t just about cleaning. Just follow these tips and your home will be both clean and safe in no time!
Meghan Orner
Medical Guardian
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LINK
https://www.medicalguardian.com/medical-alert-blog/health-wellness/preventing-accidents-in-the-home
 

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Housing Tips

Simple Steps to Help Homeowners Ease into Spring Projects

by Jeff Dailey
written by Jeff Dailey

Simple Steps to Help Homeowners Ease into Spring Projects

GardeningNow, while the winter is still around, is the best time for homeowners to get a jump start on planning and prepping for their spring and summer home and garden projects; so when the weather really does warm up, it takes little effort to get the projects underway. In addition to fine-tuning home improvement and gardening plans, it is also a good idea to make certain the required tools are in tip-top shape, so the projects are not delayed.
Here are some ways to prepare for the spring and summer seasons with just a few simple steps:
* Plans – Sketch out those garden plans, and pick the plants that can be purchased or grown from seed. Plans don’t need to be drawn to scale, but they’ll provide great background information for a shopping list. Research how early seedlings should be started, so they’ll be ready for transplant when the time arrives.
Also create plans for any home projects that need to be accomplished. The depth of those plans depends on how complicated the project is. Make certain all permits are in order, if required by the community; and if a contractor is needed, a formal agreement and timeline is in place prior to work commencing.
* Lawn tools – Check pruning shears for sharp blades – and either sharpen or replace them if they don’t easily cut through a small stem of plant material. Also, review lawn mower blades. Check the oil, gasoline and starters on all gardening machinery to ensure they’ll run correctly when needed.
* House tools – A review of all home tools helps to determine if any new purchases – or replacements are needed. This is the perfect time to head to the store and purchase missing tools, add new blades to saws or replenish the sandpaper stash – eliminating wasted time running back and forth to the store.
* Hand tools – A little care can go a long way in keeping your hands and feet – the most valuable tools found in every household – in good shape after the long, dry winter months. These tools are vital to accomplishing everything on those garden and home project lists, and they are often forgotten. O’Keeffe’s Working Hands and O’Keeffe’s for Healthy Feet are both guaranteed to effectively relieve dry, cracked skin in even the most extreme cases. And just a little bit of the highly concentrated, hypoallergenic and odorless creams is needed. Start every project off with healthy hands, and keep them that way throughout the entire season of projects. It’s the best cream for dry hands – especially after the long and dry winter months.
* Materials – As the project season gets closer, start purchasing the materials needed ahead of time. This helps to spread the cost out, and can give an idea of how much time and effort the project will take to be completed. Get started now in matching colors, finding the perfect accessories and even price-comparing between different suppliers to help save money.
For homeowners who haven’t experienced the warm-weather-project itch quite yet, it’s still a good idea to start thinking about those items on to-do lists to help with being prepared and ready to go when the season arrives. It doesn’t take a lot of energy to have a successful spring and summer project season. Don’t forget O’Keeffe’s Working Hands and O’Keeffe’s for Healthy Feet to keep hands and feet in healthy shape to tackle any job.
 

Provided by: ARA
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