When you are considering a remodel of your kitchen, you should consider more than merely size and function for current needs. You need to evaluate the kitchen in light of future needs, especially if you plan to age in place.

What are some of the top considerations?

Sink Area

• Faucets should be lever controls, rather than knobs to eliminate difficulty with gripping and turning.
• Foot petal controls on sinks make it easy to work with both hands in the kitchen.
• Dishwasher drawers, rather than traditional dishwashers to reduce the amount of bending required to provide self-care.
• Lack of traditional lower cabinets under sink to permit wheelchair and seated access.

Handling Storage

• Alterations to cabinets which permit the contents of upper cabinets to be pulled down and returned to the cabinet easily using a spring tension extender, rather than requiring the homeowner to climb and reach to gain access.
• Lower cabinets can utilize pull-out drawers to allow access to the full depth of the cabinets without stooping or crawling back into cabinets to reach the far corners.
• Consider using open shelves to eliminate the need for opening and closing doors to find what is needed.
• Double-sided, pull-out pantries are easier to navigate than pantry areas utilizing closet-type areas, traditional upper and lower cabinets for food, or standard/louvered doors which can be hard to handle with walkers or wheelchairs.

Counter Tops

• Customize the height of counters to match the people who actually use the kitchen. Standard 36″ tall counters don’t work for people under 5″ tall or those over 6″ tall.
• Have some counters created for use from a seated position.
• Consider lowering counters (and cabinets) via motorized or mechanical systems to suit those who use the kitchen.

Cooking Area

• Adding a faucet near over the stove called a “pot filler” helps eliminate the need to carry large pots full of water.
• Convection stove tops are safer to use and easier to clean than old fashioned electric and gas cooktops.
• Keep controls for the cooking surface on the front, so there’s no need to reach over hot areas to adjust the cooking temperature.
• Controls should be touch control, rather than knobs.
• Lower cooking surfaces without lower cabinets, leaving open space to accommodate a wheelchair.

Enjoy the following video for examples of creating a great aging-in-place kitchen without sacrificing style:

Well, it’s that time of the year. We, as parents spend half the time feeling weepy about losing their near-adults to college, and the other half all excited and child-like — contemplating our own new-found freedoms.

If you are facing sending your first (or your last) child off to college you need to make the rules now about how much of the progeny’s stuff you will (or won’t) store and HOW it will be stored. If this isn’t handled now, there will be hard feelings from your offspring and/or entire rooms of your house being held hostage for four years and beyond.

Make sure your college-bound child knows that their old room will be utilized for other activities — and it will not remain a shrine to their fading childhood. And, if you can move into a smaller, more affordable house — now may be the time to do that!

If you don’t have an immediate need for the room, you should still exercise the right to use it for other purposes — like a guest room, a study/office, a sewing/craft room or an exercise/entertainment room. To do this, you should encourage your nearly-adult child to sort through their belongings and toss anything that isn’t essential.

Buy or dedicate a single box or trunk for their “personal” items or sentimental ones that they may leave with you… if you can’t bring yourself to require them take it all. And that one container should be stored in the attic or basement or garage — some place out of your way. You should also tell them exactly how long you are willing to store it. For instance, until a month after they get their first apartment or obtain their degree.

If you expect them to come home during the summer months, assure them that there will be a bed for them to use and closet space for them to hang their clothes — but do not promise to keep them in the same room or to maintain their childhood room in its current condition.

Clothing should go with them as should their books, furniture, bedding, curtains, towels, washcloths — and all decorating pieces that were specifically selected for their tastes, rather than yours. Their personal products, appliances and hobby supplies should be packed up and sent with them.

If they don’t think they will want to paint, build models, play soccer/baseball/football, roller-skate/skateboard or bicycle at school – then they should sell, gift or donate the equipment they don’t plan to take. Your house should not be the “dumping ground” for the things that they don’t want to have to sort or decided if they still want.

Make sure the children know they are welcome to visit anytime, but take back your personal space and send your adult children into the next phase of their lives by helping them to let go of the unimportant things in their past to make room for a bright new future… while you do the same thing!

Ok, you want to simplify. Life is out of control. You are tired of trying to figure out where to put things ? Do you find yourself buying something that you know you already have (somewhere), just because you can’t find it? Are your collections out of control?

Do you want off this roller coaster? Here are the baby steps that can help you begin.

Pick An Area – ANY Area!

If you can pick one area of your life to lasso, just one little corner to gain a foothold, you will have the strength to take the next step.

Only YOU know what one thing makes you crazy every day. Yes, there may be dozens of things, but pick just one. It may be that the kitchen or dining room table has become a “dumping” ground for whatever is in your arms when you come through the door, because it is (or once was) a clear surface. It may be the nightmare of figuring out what to fix for dinner every night.

Maybe you are tired of searching the desktop and attached drawers to find what you need to work efficiently. Maybe getting dressed in the morning has become a chore because, although there is a closet full of clothes, there is absolutely nothing in there that looks, fits, or feels right anymore. Maybe your daily frustration is simply trying to find your keys — which always seem to be somewhere that you are NOT.

Make a rule that NOTHING goes on the dining room table other than the plates at mealtime. Create a simple two-week menu. Clean off/clean out your desk. Organize your closet. Hang a hook by the door for your keys, or buy a keyring that will clip them to your briefcase or bag – or whatever you ALWAYS take with you. Quit throwing them in the bottom of the bag, on the table, or sticking them in your pocket.

If things have one place to be, and you never put them anywhere else, you can always locate them. Train yourself.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be taking on some specific RightSizing projects in more detail, but for now… we need babysteps. It only takes ONE to start making you feel a little better.

Make a List (Just Do It!)

If you are reading this blog, you probably have a mass of things that need to be done — so many that you find it incapacitating. If the myriad of tasks in front of you are daunting… making an exhaustive list may give you some sense of control. Yes, add “make a list” to your tasks — then move it to the TOP of that list and start it now.

Simply writing them down as they occur to you (keep the list with you at all times for a couple days) will help you to release the stress of juggling them all mentally. Once the list is made — or in progress — you can begin tackling the items. Some will be big, some small. There’s no sin in picking small ones to complete first — just to get the ball rolling. Progress is progress and it makes you feel accomplished and more “in control” of life.

My Experience With Baby Steps

After a recent move, (before which, I should have reduced my clutter footprint much more than I did) I finally tired of feeling like I’d never get anything of value done on that mountainous mental list I was carrying around. I gave up the memory acrobatics that an invisible list required and started putting pen to paper. (In my case it was stylus to iPad, but you get the idea).

SEVEN pages later, I had everything I could think of written down. I was appalled at the length and the depth of the list. One line-item, for instance, was to organize all my tools. That was going to require FINDING them all, and making a decision on where they should be stored and replacing any that are MIA from the move. Then I’d need to create an intuitive, organized way to store them so I could find them. This ONE item could easily take several days of focused effort. Others were as easy as “Call the Dump and find out their business hours.”

Yes, the list itself was overwhelming, but at least I could LET go of all that stuff floating around in my head, taunting me. It helped.

Unexpected Success!

After the list-making, the most amazing thing happened… I actually got three of the things on my list DONE on that same day. I just did them! The joy of striking those three things off my list was DELICIOUS! And, it made me feel like the day held progress, even though I didn’t get everything done that I’d hoped to do that day. Three digital lines across that iPad made me feel in control and productive for the first time in weeks.

I’ve always been a list maker. Often I have found that I get so involved in making lists that I don’t get much past that. In the past, I’ve made too many lists. I’ve been too specific on the creation and too lax in the execution.

Not anymore. If one of the items is a weekend project, it may still be a one-liner. Once the time comes to tackle that, I may break it down into bite-size parts on another list, but more likely, I’ll put the list down and start the work.

The next step is to use the list to minimize the amount of “stuff” I have to maintain and manage!

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