Getting your elderly loved ones to clean houses when you’re not around can often be challenging, especially when there are so many uncomfortable things to do.
But hey, that shouldn’t stop you from training your seniors to perform the spring cleaning. Cleaning can be a great form of exercise and most importantly, it can bring you and your elders spend time together.
If you’re don’t know how can your seniors help you with the chores, we have curated the 6 easy house cleaning tips that are most suitable for them.
Without out further ado, here are the cleaning tips for seniors
1. Make A To-Do List
The first tip we have for you is to make the house cleaning work for them looks as easy as possible. And the way you can do that is through a checklist.
By having a proper cleaning to-do list, your seniors can easily follow along and know exactly what they have to do. Moreover, this can also help preventing them from doing any extra unnecessary works.
Some of the things they can easily follow are:
- Organize the medicine cabinet. Remove all expired medications and ones you don’t use. Having too many empty bottles or partially-used bottles can add to confusion about which medications you should be taking.
- Check your food. It’s easy to accumulate food that eventually gets pushed to the back of the refrigerator or cabinets. Eliminate expired food or items that have spoiled.
- Change smoke detector batteries. The U.S. Fire Administration recommends changing smoke detector batteries twice a year. To remember, consider adding this item to your list when it’s time for your clocks to fall forward or backward.
- Tidy up the living room
Remember to let them do only the easy things that can be done in little to no time.
2. Clean Up The Clutter
Clutters and belongings can be a roadblock for any cleaning works. By letting your seniors cleaning up all the accumulate clutters will not only help you speed up the cleaning process, but also help eliminating any potential dangers to the elders.
The work can be easily done and better than that, this can become a hobby that family members can spend time together.
Here are some tips to create a clutter-free home when cleaning:
- Keep hallways and walkways clear. When tidying up, make sure no items are blocking high-traffic areas to avoid tripping hazards.
- Give every item a home. If you don’t have somewhere to put it, either discard it or get rid of something else to make room for it.
- Use small bins. Using small bins that can be easily carried from room to room is a great way to store craft supplies, wrapping accessories, cleaning supplies and gardening tools. Small bins can fit on most shelves or in most drawers and cabinets.
For items you don’t necessarily need daily, such as certain counter-top appliances, keep them stored on shelves.
3. Use Bin For Quick Storage
Next up in the house cleaning tips for seniors is to use bins.
Bins help with organization and they can also give a home to any clutter on your floors. You can easily store away craft supplies, gardening tools, holiday decorations, and anything else you do not use on a regular basis.
Take note that it’s better to use smaller sized bins because they will be easier to move in and out of storage.
4. Do Low-Impact Tasks
While cleaning clutter can be something your seniors can help, you can also assign them other simple tasks or things that they can do to help your deep cleaning tasks.
For example, while you’re doing the heavy lifting around the house, seniors can sort through their papers to throw out, or go through their collection of mementos, deciding what to keep, and cleaning these of any dust while sitting in a chair or on the couch.
You can also add this to their cleaning checklist which can provide them a great opportunity to get involved in the house cleaning chores with you.
The best part is, once your seniors are trained to do simple cleaning works, they can keep an eye at the cleaning company whom you may hire to clean the house while you’re away because they will know exactly what to expect from the cleaning company.
5. Use The Handy Tools & Cleaning Products
Cleaning tools and products can help reducing the cleaning workloads tremendously. By teaching your senior citizens to clean the house using these tools can help them ease out the cleaning process tremendously.
For example, for hard-to-reach areas, a broom can save you some time and back pain. Use a clean broom and cleaner to scour baseboards or to scrub shower walls.
A dishwasher and white vinegar are also some of the tools and cleaning products your seniors can use to help speed up the cleaning process.
Talking about vinegar, check out our how to clean tiles floors using vinegar and baking soda article.
6. Help Them
Last but not least is to lend your helping hand to your elderly loved ones. There are chores that they may not able to carry out perfectly due to mobility issues and that’s OK. Give them some help.
Things like moving heavy furniture, accessing hard-to-reach spots, carrying trash and recycling outside, deliver unwanted items to donation spots, etc. can sometimes be challenging.
When family and friends aren’t available to help, professional cleaning services can help seniors maintain their home, especially if they no longer have the ability to keep up with housework. Professional services can also help with decluttering, downsizing and hoarder situations.
Conclusion
And that’s all for the spring cleaning tips for senior citizens that they can easily follow and implement.
As mentioned above, letting your seniors help you with the cleaning works won’t only help them exercise, but also can be a great opportunity for you and them to spend time together.
Let them do the cleaning work, but remember, they have their limitations.
