Important Safety Considerations for Your Elderly Loved One’s Laundry Room

As a family caregiver you know how important safety is for your aging loved one. The challenges and limitations that your parent might face as they get older, however, could compromise this safety and make it more difficult for them to age in place successfully. Fortunately, by understanding the risks that they face and making a few simple meaningful modifications to their home and your care routine, you can help your parent achieve their goal of aging in place while keeping them safe and healthy.

One area of the home where this can be particularly meaningful is the laundry room. Many people overlook this vital room of the home when considering safety issues, putting their elderly loved one at serious risk. Depending on the specific challenges and limitations that your aging parent is facing, there are some specific modifications and changes that you can make throughout this room to help keep it both safer and more accessible for your senior.

Some important safety considerations to make for your elderly loved one in their laundry room include:

• Keep laundry pacs out of reach. Laundry pacs are convenient and simple-to-use tools that make washing a load of laundry faster and easier. This can be fantastic for an elderly adult who struggles with strength or range of motion and is not able to use conventional detergent, or for a caregiver or care provider who is handling this task for the senior and wants to save time. For an elderly adult who is dealing with cognitive challenges, however, these pacs can resemble candy or body products, which could lead to poisoning or other issues. Keep these laundry pacs out of reach and supervise their use as you would any other chemical.

• Clean up spills promptly. Spills of detergent or softener can lead to a very slippery and dangerous situation for your elderly parent. Keep the proper cleaning supplies readily at hand to clean up even small drips and spills so that they do not lead to a troublesome situation.

• Keep the lint trap clean. Remember to clean out the lint trap every time that you dry a load of laundry. This helps to reduce the risk of fires that can cause extensive devastation in your parent’s home.

• Invest in a high quality iron. An iron that tips over can lead to a fire or serious injury. Make sure that your parent’s iron has an emergency cut-off feature that automatically turns the heat off if the iron tips over. Be sure that you never leave an iron unattended as this increases the risk for burns and other injuries to your elderly loved one.

If you are concerned about your aging parent’s safety as they age in place or simply feel that they would benefit from more varied care and support, starting home care services for them might be the ideal solution. An in-home senior care services provider can create an approach to care, support, and assistance specifically designed to address your loved one’s individual needs while encouraging as much independence, autonomy, and fulfillment as possible.

When it comes to helping them stay safer, this care provider can evaluate their home to identify potential risks and hazards, take steps to remediate those risks, such as keeping potentially dangerous items out of reach, and modify or handle tasks that might be too challenging for your parent so that they are handled properly, safely, and healthily. This can give you tremendous peace of mind while also helping your parent to maintain a greater sense of self-reliance and ability to live the lifestyle that they want.