10 Things for Seniors

As we age, physical tasks can become more difficult.  These are some of the products hubby and I use to "combat" aging...

1. The pill boxes above.  Hubby takes a boatload of pills each day and there is no way we would be able to remember if he took his pills each day without these containers.  In fact, it is kind of a common thing that elderly people will overdose themselves if they just take their pills right out of their prescription bottles because they can't remember if/when they last took their pills.  Better to be safe than sorry.
2. A bidet.  We love our bidets.  Although it took hubby more than a year to come around to even trying it, now he is a die-hard fan.  For elderly people who have a hard time twisting around to wipe, a bidet cleans the entire undercarriage, no twisting required.
3. A step stool.  Although these days I don't even want hubby on a low step stool, it is better than the alternative of climbing on the counter to reach a high shelf.
4. A very long shoehorn.  Hubby has a hard time bending over these days so a short shoehorn isn't much help.  He found a super long shoehorn at Ikea and now doesn't even have to bend over to put on his shoes.
5. A "grabber".  We use a grabber like this that the SIL left at our house and it really is a better alternative to reach lightweight items on high shelves or pick up things off the floor for hubby who has a hard time bending over or reaching higher shelves.
6. The SIL also left an extendable hook like this that she bought when she couldn't reach into our top-loading washing machine to take out the clothes.  I've used it a few times when something drops behind the washer or stove and we didn't have the strength to pull the appliance out to reach the item.
7. A back-up camera.  Most new cars come with back-up cameras these days and it is a God-send to older, crunchier people who cannot twist to look behind them when they back out of parking spaces.  Fortunately, even if you have an old car, you can buy these cameras to put on old cars and they are pretty inexpensive.
8. A step-in shower.  This is the next home improvement project we will do at our house.  Our bathrooms only have tub-shower combinations and every time hubby goes to take a shower I worry that he will trip getting into or out of the shower which would be a disaster. 
9. Which leads us to grab bars.  We haven't installed these yet, but they are definitely a good idea to help people get on/off the toilet and in/out of the bathtub.  A bonus--many fire departments provide these for free!
10. Hearing aids.  Hubby is pretty much deaf without his hearing aids but a nice thing about today's hearing aids compared to the hearing aids from years ago is that they have bluetooth connectivity which means his hearing aids connect directly to the TV (nice because now we don't have to crank up the TV to deafening--to me-levels when we both watch TV) as well as to his cell phone so he can hear calls coming in/listen to music.etc.