The Free, Accessible Health Tool You Probably Haven’t Optimized Yet
Your home should work with you — not against your chronic illness. Whether you have recently been diagnosed with a chronic condition or you are tired of managing a home that doesn’t feel safe, you can make meaningful changes to how your home functions to improve your feeling of health and well-being.
Depending on the cause and severity of your chronic illness, the changes you make to your home might be extensive or small, quick, and easy. Here are some ideas to help you get started creating the home you need to better manage your chronic illness with safety and grace.
Alter Your Home’s Design
Unfortunately, most homes are built to accommodate the needs of the hale and hardy, which means chronic illness sufferers can experience difficulty getting around their homes easily and safely.
If your chronic illness is creating difficulty with your mobility, you might consider investing in significant renovations that will make it easier for you to move from room to room. Some ideas you might consider, depending on your unique needs, include:
- Relocating bedroom to ground floor;
- Adding handrails to hallways or stairways;
- Widening narrow passageways;
- Lowering countertops and shelves;
- Installing grab bars in baths and showers;
- Creating a walk-in tub or zero-entry shower.
If you do find that your chronic illness warrants extensive home renovations, you may look into discounts and deductions that help make these projects more affordable. There are more options available than you’d think!
Consider Lighting
Chronic illness sufferers tend to have complex relationships with light. If you have mobility concerns, you may want extra illumination around your home to help you see potential trip hazards and navigate safely. In this case, you might want to ensure that every room has bright ambient lighting, perhaps via lights installed on the ceiling to keep the floors clear.
Then again, especially bright spaces can trigger certain symptoms, like vision troubles or pain. Therefore, you need to alter the illumination in your home to suit your particular needs. For example, if you suffer from light-induced migraines or photophobia, you might install automatic blinds over your windows to quickly create a comfortably dim space when needed.
Eliminate Irksome Odors
Though air fresheners and scented candles might seem helpful, they might have dangerous health effects for your chronic illness. Many chronic illness sufferers find that certain scents trigger unwanted symptoms, especially respiratory problems and neurological effects like dizziness and headaches. Fortunately, you don’t have to live with the inevitable odors that arise from living in a space. You can make your natural deodorizers with baking soda and even develop your own air fresheners using safe ingredients like vodka and essential oils.
Stifle Unwanted Sounds
Like light and smells, sounds can spell trouble for chronic illness sufferers. Chronic pain or other symptoms might make you a light sleeper, which means various innocuous bumps in the night could keep you from the rest your body and mind desperately need.
You should consider covering hard surfaces around your home with softer materials, like rugs, table runners, blankets, and curtains, which can dampen sounds. If your walls are thin, you might also consider hanging felt panels, which could double as attractive and interesting wall hangings.
Discard Waste Appropriately
It should go without saying that you shouldn’t let trash build up around your home, but you might not realize that different types of trash should be disposed of in various ways.
For example, if your chronic illness requires you to use injectable medications, you cannot toss away your needles or syringes in your kitchen bin, as they could accidentally stick anyone who handles your trash bags, such as family members or sanitation workers. Instead, you need to use acontainer approved for household sharp disposal and dispose of them at a sharps collection site or through a mail-back program.
Swap Out Harsh Chemicals
As with your sharps, the chemicals you use around your home might be unexpectedly dangerous. Chemical cleaners, disinfectants, pesticides, and other chemicals could exacerbate your symptoms and pollute your environment, worsening the health of family members, pets, and wildlife in your area.
Both for your own well-being and for the safety and survival of everything around you, you might consider making a few eco-friendly swaps to more natural solutions. For example, you can use vinegar, lemon juice, and baking soda for many cleaning applications, and you can ward off pests with neem oil or fragrant herbs like peppermint or rosemary.
Living with a chronic condition is hard enough; you don’t need to make your life any more difficult by trying to exist in a space that isn’t safe. After considering your physical and mental needs, you should start making changes to your home to eliminate hazards and bring your mind and body some much-deserved peace.
For more tips, check out these home upgrades for better accessibility, plus 27 Subtle Ways to Optimize Your Home for Healing.
