Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Daily Senior
Safety Advice Podcast, where we talk about simple,
practical ways to help older adults stay safe,
confident, and independent at home. I'm Esther
Kane, a retired occupational therapist, certified
aging in place specialist, and a dementia care
specialist. Be sure to visit our website at SeniorSafetyAdvice
.com and subscribe to the podcast and the YouTube
channel and share this episode with someone who
you think may need it. Today, we're talking about
rearranging furniture for safer movement because
the way a room is set up can make everyday walking
and mobility either much easier or much more
risky. Most people don't think of furniture as
a safety issue. They think about rugs and they
think about stairs. They think about grab bars
in the bathroom. But furniture placement matters
a lot too. I had many discussions with my patients
when I would do home assessments as an OT. On
this topic, I have walked into many homes over
the years where the furniture looked cozy, stylish,
and welcoming. But once I watched the older adult
move through the room, the problems became clear.
There was a narrow path between the coffee table
and the sofa. A favorite chair was tucked too
far into a corner. A lamp table stuck out just
enough to catch a hip or a knee. None of these
things seemed like a big deal at first. But together,
they made moving around the room harder and less
safe. And that is often how falls happen. It's
usually not one huge danger. It is a bunch of
small obstacles that force a person to twist,
sidestep, shuffle, or reach in awkward ways.
And when balance is not as strong as it used
to be, those little adjustments can become serious
risks. One of the biggest misunderstandings that
I hear is this. Mom knows where everything is,
so it's fine. Well, yeah, sometimes that is partly
true. And a person may know their home very well.
They may have lived there for years, but knowing
the room is not always enough. If they use a
walker, a cane, or even just move more slowly
than they used to, the room may no longer fit
the way they move now. That is the key. The question
is not, does the room look nice? The question
should be, does the room support safe movement?
After all, we all want to live much longer in
our own homes as independently as possible. I
want you to think about the path that a person
takes from place to place. From the bed to the
bathroom. From the recliner to the kitchen. From
the sofa to the front door. From the dining table
to the living room. These are the routes. Routes?
Yeah, routes that people use every single day.
If those pathways are crowded, tight, or uneven,
the chance of falling goes up. In my work as
an OT, I learned that safe movement depends on
predictability. People do better when they have
enough space to walk in a straight, comfortable
path without having to squeeze around objects
or change direction quickly. The body likes clear
paths. The brain likes clear paths too. And that
becomes even more important for someone with
arthritis or poor vision or weakness or dizziness
or Parkinson's disease or memory problems or
even recovering from a stroke. A room does not
need to be empty to be safe. I just want you
to know that. It just needs to be arranged with
purpose. One good place to start is with the
walking lanes in the home. Try standing in the
doorway of a room and looking at the route that
a person would naturally take. Is there a direct
path, or does the furniture force them into a
zigzag pattern? If the path is narrow, then open
it up. Move the coffee table, or better yet,
get a smaller one. Shift the end table. Pull
back that extra chair that hardly ever gets used.
Many homes have too much furniture for the space,
and that is very common. Or the furniture is
too large, I have to say. Especially, I think
it's hard for older adults when those pieces
have sentimental value. I get that. I understand
that. A side chair may have belonged to a spouse
or an older parent, a parent. A little table
may have been there for years. But when safety
is the goal, every piece of furniture has to
earn its place. And I know that can be hard emotionally.
But still, it helps to remember that keeping
a home safe is one way of protecting the life
that was built inside of it. It's one way to
keep that independence for as long as possible.
Another thing to look at is furniture with sharp
corners or unstable bases. Glass coffee tables
are awful. Small decorative tables, lightweight
chairs. All of those can be trouble. If a person
grabs onto an unsteady piece of furniture for
support, it may slide, tip, or turn. That can
lead to a fall very quickly. I have seen people
use whatever is near them to steady themselves.
They do not always wait until they reach a sturdy
surface. If the nearest thing wobbles, that can
be a problem. And that is why sturdy furniture
matters. You can also, just a tip, an idea, is
to anchor the furniture to the wall like bookshelves
or anything that your senior loved one may grab
onto. Chairs should be solid and easy to get
in and out of. Tables shouldn't rock. Frequently
used seating should be placed where there is
enough room to approach it safely. And also the
height of the furniture matters. Low sofas and
deep cushioned chairs may feel soft and comfortable
at first, but they can be hard to get out of.
When a person has to struggle to stand, they
may push awkwardly, lose balance, or need to
grab onto something unsafe. A firmer chair or
sofa or any type of seating with arms is often
a much better choice. I have a friend of mine
whose mother insisted on keeping her sofa. It
was a very low sofa and she got to the point
where the last several years of her life she
was not able to get up off the sofa. Her husband
who was in his late 90s had to pull her up off
the sofa and once he passed away there was no
one there to help her up. off that sofa. My friend
was often at her mother's house most every day
looking to help her get up from that sofa. That's
just silly. That doesn't make any sense. And
it's not about, you know, making the room look
weird or making changes, although changes are
needed in order to keep that independence. Your
body is changing and the furniture around you
should change as well in order to accommodate
that. The whole idea with seating is to help
someone sit down and stand up safely and independently
as much as possible. Another part of furniture
is lighting. A room may look fine during the
day and then become much harder to navigate in
the evening. Shadows can make furniture edges
harder to judge, dark wood pieces may blend onto
the floor, and if someone gets up at night or
walks through a dim room, Even familiar furniture
can become an obstacle. I also want to say something
here that shadows can be very disruptive for
someone with a head injury or dementia or Alzheimer's.
So it's important to walk through your rooms
at all times of the day to check for those things.
That's when a home safety assessment can really
be very helpful for you. All right, so when you
rearrange a room, think about how it looks in
both daylight and lamp light. Alright, then there
is the habit factor. People tend to place things
where it is convenient in the moment. A basket
near the hallway, a stack of books lands beside
the chair, a footstool stays out because it gets
used once in a while. Over time, rooms slowly
fill up with items that shrink a walking space.
That quiet buildup is something that families
often miss. You stop seeing it because you got
used to it. One simple trick is to walk through
the home as if you were carrying a laundry basket
or using a walker or getting up during the night
while half awake. Suddenly the space looks very
different. You notice what sticks out. You notice
what blocks the turn. And you notice what would
be hard to step around if your knees hurt or
your balance was off. That kind of fresh look
can be, excuse me, very revealing. If your loved
one uses a walker or a wheelchair, safer furniture
arrangement becomes even more important. Walkers
need room to turn. Wheelchairs need wider clearances.
Even a cane user needs enough space to place
the cane correctly without bumping into furniture
legs or table edges. And please don't forget
about pets. A pet bed, a food dish, or favorite
sleeping spot near a walking path can create
a real tripping hazard. I love pets. I have had
pets in my home for decades, but they are often
part of the safety picture. How many times have
you stepped back only to step on your cat or
your small dog? Hopefully, not many times. Sometimes
families worry that rearranging furniture will
upset an older adult, especially one who has
memory loss. And that is a real concern. Sudden
changes can be confusing. In those cases, go
slowly. Don't change everything at once. Make
one improvement at a time. Keep important items
and familiar, easy -to -find places. The goal
is not to create a whole new house or a whole
new room. The goal is to make the current home
easier and safer to move through. That small
difference really matters. Safer does not have
to mean unfamiliar. In fact, the best changes
often feel almost invisible once a person gets
used to them. The room still feels like home.
It just tends to work better. And actually, that
is a great reason to begin doing this process
before something happens. But when you're in
your 50s, it's time to start changing your environment
to accommodate you when you're in your 80s or
90s. Don't wait for dementia or stroke or a heart
attack. Do it now and get your home ready so
that you can become familiar with it as you grow
older. So if you're not sure where to begin,
pick the room that's used most often. Usually
that's the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom,
the kitchen. Clear the main walking route first.
Remove unnecessary pieces. Make sure the favorite
chair is easy to reach. Check that lamps, phones,
commonly used items are close by so that there
is less reaching and less rushing. Because rushing
is another hidden risk. When people have to hurry
to answer the phone or get to the bathroom or
answer the door, they're less careful. A clear
room gives them a better chance of moving safely
even in those moments. Alright, I want to leave
you with this thought. Furniture arrangement
is not just about decorating. It is about dignity.
It is about making movement easier. It is about
helping someone feel more secure in their own
home. Sometimes a few inches can make a big difference.
a chair moved here, a table removed there, a
wider path to the bathroom, a safer route to
bed. Those small changes can lower stress, reduce
fall risk, and help an older adult feel more
confident every day. And by the way, if you use
an interior designer, if you're looking to maybe
make some changes and use an interior designer,
Choose one that also is CAPS certified that has
the certification for aging in place assessments
because that person can modify and design your
area in both ways, not only aesthetically, but
also pragmatically. So take a fresh look around
your home or your loved one's home and ask one
simple question. Does this room make movement
easier or harder? If the answer is harder, even
in a small way, today may be a good day to make
just one change. Alright, thank you so much for
being here with me today. I hope this episode
gave you a few simple ideas to make moving around
your home safer and easier. For more tips and
resources, please visit our website at seniorsafetyadvice
.com. And if you're looking for Aging in Place
professionals, then please be sure to visit our
sister site at aginginplacedirectory .com. Subscribe
to the podcast or YouTube channel. And until
next time, this is Esther Kane wishing you safety,
comfort, and confidence at home.