Keeping up around the house

One tough aspect that seniors face as part of aging in place is housecleaning, home maintenance and repair.

Why should you care? Aging in place is a strategy that many seniors employ, but they may not consider the tasks of home maintenance when they do.

The gist Seniors are capable of managing some tasks, but they must outsource others, while still others go undone.

The rest of the story A study titled, "Challenges to Aging in Place: Understanding Home Maintenance Difficulties" reported that 53.5 percent of maintenance tasks of seniors got done by outsourcing, 9.7 percent got done using tools and technologies (think Roomba), 7 percent left the task undone, 4.3 percent got done just through the senior's perseverance with the task and 4.3 percent got done with assistance from others.

Outfitting the home for aging in place

Aside from making accommodations in the home for aging in place and paying for those changes, another aspect of aging in place is house cleaning, upkeep and home maintenance. All of these become more difficult as we age.

I write this as I get mentally ready to shovel my neighbor's driveway. She's a widow in her 80s. Why mentally ready? It is cold out. Balmy to some northerners, but not to me. Anyway, it got me thinking about the problems that seniors may have when aging in place. There's not one right approach, just an approach that's right for you.

My twice-widowed father, also in his 80s, is putting his house on the market because he doesn't want to deal with the responsibilities of maintaining a big house when he's the only one in the home. In contrast, I know a woman who is 101 and still living on her own in her family home and wouldn't have it any other way.

I came across an article in the spring 2011 issue of Journal of Housing for the Elderly titled, "Challenges to Aging in Place: Understanding Home Maintenance Difficulties" by Fausset, Kelly, Rogers and Fisk. The article was interesting in how the writers categorized the issues and solutions in home maintenance for seniors. They categorized tasks, ranked them by difficulty in performing the task and considered the different solutions to complete the task.

See the article here:
Keeping up around the house