Grime Doesn’t Pay... But These Cleaning Tips Do
Dirty doesn’t stand a chance, even if it can knock you off your feet. With a few tweaks you can be ready for the fight against grime.
It goes without saying that household chores can be a pain and a strain for everyone. But for older adults, especially those managing arthritis, back pain, or limited mobility, traditional cleaning routines can be overwhelming. Daily crumbs and spills can pose a serious risk for older adults who may not be able to see what's under foot, messes may be hard to reach if crawling on your knees is no longer an option and harsh chemicals with strong fumes may make you dizzy or light-headed.
The Bathroom is particularly full of hidden dangers. Clogged drains can leave standing water in tubs and showers, increasing the risk of slips. Wet tile floors are hard to spot and even harder to recover from if you fall. Mold and soap scum create slick surfaces that don’t play nice with your balance. And don’t forget the litter box, often tucked into bathroom corners. Spilled litter can scatter across the floor, adding one more obstacle to navigate.
In the kitchen, grease buildup, crumbs and messes from baking and cooking mishaps can make floors slick. Water splashed over the kitchen sink edge can be like ice skating inside, if you catch these puddles unexpectedly. Pet food and water, that are routinely placed in kitchens, splash out of the bowl compounding the mess.
These days there seems to be a unique cleaning product for every corner of your house but carrying dozens of cleaners around can be more exhausting than your workout at the gym. And if your one of the older adults with arthritis and grip issues, you can have difficulty hold and squeezing large, heavy or slippery bottles and using trigger mechanisms can often seem nearly impossible.
While the pains and strains of cleaning may not directly cause a fall, sore hands and muscles and the fatigue you have at the end of cleaning day, can increase the likelihood that other routine challenges do cause a fall. So let's redesign cleaning day to lighten the load and reduce the strain.
Look for individual, pre-measured cleaning pods for 🔗laundry and 🔗dishwashers and disposable wipes for 🔗glass, 🔗hard surfaces, 🔗toilets, 🔗stainless and 🔗static so you only need to carry what you will use today, and you avoid dealing with spray nozzles, big jugs, heavy buckets, wringing and mixing.
We recommend all purpose, multi-surface cleaners so you can use fewer products on cleaning day. And try continuous cleaners like 🔗drop in toilet bowl cleaners that extend the time between cleanings.
Use
long handled🔗sweepers, 🔗spray mops, 🔗extendable dusters,
🔗grippers and cleaning brushes, with wide, padded handles to keep your grip comfortable while you avoid bending, kneeling and reaching.
Invest in cordless tools like an 🔗electric scrubber for tough buildup and a 🔗lightweight, stick vacuum, that offers advanced features like an oscillating head. While robot vacuums are the ultimate hands-free solution, they do increase falls risk if you lose track of where your robot has wandered off to, so not our favorite solution for most older adults.
Break cleaning chores into short sessions, 10 minutes at a time is enough to make progress without fatigue. Do a little every day so the mess doesn't buildup and the job does not get too overwhelming.
If cleaning does bring you too much anxiety, consider hiring a professional cleaning service. whether one time or every week, it can be just what you need to get back on your feet.
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