Decorating for the holiday season is one of the best parts of the year for many families. As Christmas approaches, your elderly adult might be eager to get their home decorated. A festive environment is a wonderful way to boost your parent’s spirits and help them maintain better emotional health throughout the season. When planning their decorations, however, it is important to make sure their home is ready for the additions in order to make them their most beautiful, but also their safest.
Some things to do to make sure your senior’s home is ready to decorate for Christmas include:
Elderly Care Springfield, PA: Decorating for Christmas
- Make sure the gutters are cleaned out. This is the time of year when the gutters tend to fill with leaves and other debris, which can cause snow and ice to tear the gutters away from the house. This can lead to shorts, breaks, and other dangers with decorations, as well as puddles that can ice over and make hazards for anyone walking into the house
- Empty out the yard. If your parent wants to add decorations to the yard, walk through it first to make sure there aren’t any items leftover from the previous seasons. Remove the sprinkler, lawn implements, and debris to protect decorations and reduce fall hazards if your senior, or anyone else, needs to go out to the decorations to turn them on or off during the season
- Be aware of the heater. Whether your parent has a central heating system, a radiator, a furnace, or likes to rely on space heaters during the cold weather, it is important to keep these systems in mind when preparing to decorate. You do not want to place holiday decorations, including the tree, too close to anything that emits heat. This can be a fire hazard or create very hot surfaces that might lead to burns
- Clean first. Adding decorations creates more places for dust, dirt, pet hair, and other potential contaminants to build up. This can make it more likely your parent will suffer an illness or allergic reaction. Reduce this risk by cleaning the home first. Give the home a deep clean and remove any clutter you can, and be sure to wipe down the decorations when putting them up as well
It is easy to feel overwhelmed in your role as a family caregiver, this is particularly true during the holiday season when you have all of your regular responsibilities and obligations to handle, as well as the needs of the holidays. But you are not alone. Elderly care can be there for you to help you manage these needs and challenges, make the most of your schedule, and feel less stress. An elderly home care services provider can step in to fill care gaps, manage a wide variety of care tasks, help your parents maintain more independence and participate in the holidays as much as possible, and more. This helps both of you to enjoy a higher quality of life, and enjoy the holidays more together.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering Elderly Care in Springfield, PA please contact the caring staff at Correct Choice Home Care today at (267) 323-1700.
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