Working to Develop Your Home and Garden

If you have developed a condition which has reduced your mobility levels (such as arthritis, for example), here are three changes you may want to make to your home, to make your day-to-day life a little easier.

Install motorised blinds

Manually opening all of the blinds, shutters or curtains in your home when you have severe mobility problems can be a painful and physically tiring process. It can sap your energy and thus affect your ability to do other tasks throughout the rest of the day.

If this is a daily source of frustration for you, it might be worth replacing your existing window dressings with motorised blinds, such as those sold by Somfy. These can be incredibly helpful for those with limited mobility, as these blinds can be opened in seconds, simply by pushing a button.

While it could cost a substantial amount of time and money to fit motorised blinds on every single window of your home, it could spare you a huge amount of stress and physical discomfort in the long run. As such, it could be a worthwhile investment.

Update your bathroom to make personal hygiene activities easier

Bathing and using the toilet when your mobility is limited can be challenging. If this is something that you are currently struggling with, it's sensible to modify your current bathroom so that it better suits your personal requirements.

If the process of standing up or sitting down is painful, you might want to install a raised toilet seat and have handrails fitted next to both the toilet and the bathtub.

Additionally, it might be a good idea to have a bath seat fitted in the tub, so that you don't have to swing your legs over the bath panel each time you need to climb in and out of it.

Reorganise your kitchen and invest in a few new gadgets

If your hands and arms are sore and inflexible, it can be tricky to prepare meals. However, you can make this process easier by reorganising your kitchen and purchasing a few new gadgets.

For example, rather than storing non-perishable goods (like tinned food, flour, etc.) in hard-to-reach cabinets, you may want to stack them on the countertop, so that you do not have to stretch your arms up to access them.

Similarly, it might be better to leave your dishes, glasses and cutlery on a dish rack by the sink, instead of storing them in a cupboard, and to keep your heavy saucepans on the stovetop.

There are also several gadgets that can make your kitchen easier to use. Things like electric tin openers can save you the pain of manually opening tinned food, while specialist chopping boards that have clamps to hold down food items can make it easier for you to chop and peel vegetables, bread and other foods without cutting yourself.