Ellie and Pergie once again changed their location. Today they are in the living room on the bedroom dresser. Yes, the bedroom dresser is in the living room now.
For the past several months Charles and I have talked about how to make our home work better for us as we age. Our lives change with time and our needs change as well.
The more we have studied history the more I have been drawn to functional and intimate settings in the home. When I was a child and a teen, our home was arranged to sit comfortably for having conversations, to listen to the radio, read the newspaper, or do handwork. When we did get a phone it was one house phone and a party line.
When the children were still at home, our needs were completely different than they are now as we are getting older.
I have had some issues with getting my photos to download for the post I was going to do for the history study so I decided to change my post and use the photos that did go through.
I decided it to be a good time to talk about some reasons to make our home a practical home, not one that fits in today.
Charles and I have been a caregiver four times. With that came nurses, physical therapist, speech therapist coming to our home.
When things change to a hospice situation, the home most often will need some changes and never at a good time to do those changes. This is what happened to us.
We learned that we needed comfortable seating for the home care people. They need a place to sit and write notes. They need a place to put their sweater or coat or bag. They need a clean place to wash and dry their hands. They liked that I kept paper towels and trash can in the bathroom. Also I kept a larger trash can in the care room that they were in.
Sometimes they brought their lunch and a drink, which could be at any time of the day, and needed a small space in our refrigerator. Hospice nurses can start feeling like family and so we treated them as if they were. They never asked for anything, we simple provided for them to help them do their job more comfortably. They normally do not stay for very long at a time unless they provide a short time sitter so we could sleep.
Also comfortable seating in the room that the person being cared for may be confined to the bed so that visitors can sit in the room. This normally means removing some other furniture and possible stored.
Our first two times taught us how to prepare ahead. It would be different situations if you are bringing them home to live with you verses you going to them.
For us we needed to move from our bedroom so they could have the bedroom with the bathroom. We also moved in a few things that were familiar to them and so we had to store some of our things.
We also learned to be ready for change and when it came time for a hospital bed we used the living room because it was easier to keep a check on them and for people coming in and out. Another thing we had to remember is when they die in the home can they easily take them out of the room they are in? Another reason for using our living room as the care room.
Now we are getting older, and since we moved our bed into our kitchen/dining room and turned it into a little flat/apartment to save money on heating and cooling, we have discussed how it is really better this way because we can take care of the other if our health changes. There is more stimulation, cooking smells, and communication.
We like our little flat and when company comes the other two rooms on the other side of the house are guest rooms. We even moved our two chest of drawers into the living room on the entry wall. We did this after we had company and our clothes were in the room they were staying. Now our clothes are in a room that is always accessible to us.
This is not for everyone to do this, but just knowing other options may be helpful for later on in life. Unexpected illness or accident can occur at any age.
This is just our life experiences and the realization that one day we will either die a fast death or possibly slow death but there will not be as many adjustments if we have considered things ahead of time. With Madge we were not prepared, we always thought we would go up there and stay in our little place we built to be close by to take care of her. But a sudden stroke and she had to be transported to our town and then it was downhill from there with a serious sudden decline and a new diagnosis of brain cancer.
Now for us, we have our furniture placed to where we have solid things to hold on to as we walk from one side of the house to the other. Charles has already had two outside falls and one inside fall before we made these changes. His falls were due to his stiffness from arthritis. Also he was extra tired when he fell and got up from a deep sleep and was not fully awake when he arrived in the bathroom and fell injuring his elbow. Things happen and we need to consider changes before it is too late. We have grab bars in the bathroom.
We decided to place our furniture pieces in the rooms for functional purpose and for comfort. This is not a 1940s thing as far as our history study. our history study is to learn about the past and discover how they got through the tough times and possibly learn things that could help us today.
Our children are grown and our grandchildren are grown. When they do come for a visit they do not mind that our home is a bit different and find it interesting. This does not affect the guest rooms but makes it more comfortable for them when they do come to stay overnight and gives them more privacy. Charles and I get up early and are on the other side of the house. That being said our house is not a large house to the other side of the house is not that far away.
We just recently found a note typed on our vintage typewriter from our last visitors. Our possible grand daughter in law typed a poem and also typed that she loves it here.
I encourage others to make your house to help you do the things you want to do and make you comfortable at whatever stage you are at in your life. You may be just starting off and are full of ideas and things you want to do or make and need the space to work. Use that space as you need it. Many years ago Charles and I emptied our living room and made it a work room where we made furniture. We got a license to work from our home. It was our only option at that time and worked well for us. We sold our pieces in a nearby store. This was our second job as we both worked other jobs.
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When Charles mother passed away, we became new parents to her cats. Jess is very comfortable here. This was taken today and he was making muffins on the ring of his bed and purring. They have lived with us over two years now.
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They have their own room due to them needing a litter box and they had never been around dogs and our dogs had never been around cats. This was another factor in why our bed is in the kitchen area. This was the only way we could still have two guest rooms.
Charles desk is in their room and there is also a sitting chair in there and Blue loves for Charles to sit with her and to be at his desk. The way our house is built there are two doors in their room and one of the doors can open for them to explore on the other side of the house. When company comes they are no bother to anyone and stay in their room and if there are storms we keep them in that room so they cannot run and hide from us. They have special screen and wire windows so they can watch the birds and wildlife in the backyard. They love it when the weather is nice and we can open their windows. We opened them today.
Eight people can sit comfortably here in our flat. We have other small sitting areas placed around the house. We can eat at this table and also play dominos or other games. We actually can get two more chairs at this table making room for six to sit at the table and two in the comfy chairs against the wall. We keep two folding chairs handy for just in case.
This space is where Charles and I read, or I crochet or do needlework. I have had yarn projects in different parts of the house for the past couple of months and I finally decided to put a big bowl close to where I sit and so I can just put it there for easier access and easier to put it out of the way. I sit in the rocker on the right and Charles chair is there on the left. I like to switch up with different projects, that is just how my brain works.
Another can sit in the kitchen. We love sitting in the kitchen when something is cooking on the stove or in the oven.
The rocker can be turned to face the table and other chairs and one more chair at my small desk making seating for eight.
Just in the next room another six people can sit comfortably. In the winter we put our fuel heater on top of the hearth and it is nice and warm sitting in this room. This way we only heat the room that we are using.
We have saved several hundred dollars in our electric bill by heating and cooling only the space we are in.
Our living room may be too cramped for some people that are used to a large house but we have always lived in a small home and so it does not bother us at all.
Our kitchen is functional for us. I keep things on the counter for easy reaching because I am very short and reaching up to the cabinets is difficult.
So this is how it is for now and we like how it is working for us.
I have been working on getting the small clutter under control. When I have something that I need to do I have a tendency to take it from its place so I can work on it and then it sits out of place until I can get to it. I have three vintage pin cushions and they had gotten dusty and so this week I took the time to remove the pins and needles and I used a old toothbrush I use for household cleaning and I cleaned the pin pads on the pin cushions. Just taking the time to do this small task made me feel better.
We put up some hooks to hang one of the laundry racks next to the water filters. It is good to find a place for this laundry rack to live. We have another that has a place to live in the master (guest) bedroom.
We also repaired the vacuum cleaner and gave it a good cleaning. I have some ironing to do tomorrow since I did not iron yesterday and I hope to do some mending.
I am thinking spring thoughts..
It is getting time to plant seeds for our spring garden. It will become a busy time with running our seedlings inside and outside with weather fluctuations. The coneflowers and bee balm will simply come up through the soil on their own as they are perennials.
Do you have any experiences or information to pass along that has made your home more comfortable and helpful?
Hope to see you up in the forum. Grandma Donna
