7 Everyday Ways a Stairlift Can Make Life Easier at Home

You are not alone if you are worried about losing your independence as you get older. In fact, 65 per cent of adults aged between 50 and 65 years old expressed this concern in a recent study carried out by Age UK.

One area where these worries may creep into your mind around the home is when you begin struggling to use the stairs. However, you might also feel that this issue is not enough to invest in a stairlift, seeing the equipment as simply being there to get you up and down your staircase.

While stairlifts can indeed help you to navigate a set of stairs more easily, they can also bring back ease, safety, confidence, and independence in small but meaningful ways.

Here at Access BDD, we have set out seven ways that having a stairlift in your home can help to make your life so much easier:

1. Maintain Your Independence Longer

Let us go back to that Age UK statistic that we mentioned in the opening paragraph of this article.

Retaining our independence in the home is so important, as it helps with our mental health and self-esteem. After all, no one wants to lose the ability or confidence to navigate to different floors within our property by ourselves.

With a stairlift, you needn’t worry about restricting yourself to only one level in your home or waiting until someone else is there to help you move from one floor to the next.

That daily routine that you have enjoyed in your beloved home for years can continue to be part of your life for a long time to come yet.

2. Start Your Day with Less Effort

We are all bound to have had those mornings when we wake up feeling stiff and achy.

Having a good night’s sleep is the longest time we will be inactive for a continuous period each day though. So, there will be instances when you need to give your body’s muscles time to properly wake up once you get out of bed.

Harvard Medical School’s consumer health information division Harvard Health Publishing advises that we should go for a stroll around our homes or neighbourhood to get rid of that stiffness.

Some fresh air in the morning can do you a world of good. By having a stairlift in your home though, you can safely get down the stairs from your bedroom while you are still stiff and then enjoy that walk which will hopefully ease your aching muscles.

3. Reduce the Risk of Trips & Falls

Your home should be your sanctuary – a place where you can guarantee to be safe and relaxed.

However, the National Accident Helpline has reported on Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) statistics which deem the home to be the most common place for an accident to happen. In separate research, RoSPA has found that the biggest cause of accidental injuries around the home are falls.

You can reduce the chances of yourself or someone you care about suffering from a trip or a fall in your home by:

• Improving lighting around rooms, corridors and stairs.
• Avoiding clutter building up around rooms, corridors and stairs.
• Putting frequently used items in places that are easier to reach.
• Making sure floors are never wet and slippery.

You should also look to adapt parts of your home so that they can provide more support. Installing a stairlift, for example, will mean there is a piece of equipment always ready to go that will reduce the risk of you or someone else from suffering a painful fall on a staircase.

4. Carry Items Safely Without Struggling

Let’s have some honesty – how many of you have gone to lift things up or down stairs, only to find around halfway that you may have underestimated the weight of what’s been carried?

The worst-case scenario that this can lead to is a fall like we covered in the previous point. But it can also lead to us feeling tired out and in pain if we persevere and get the items to where we want them to go.

A stairlift will remove the stress and risks of carrying stuff across floors. Whether it is strapping a pile of laundry into your stairlift and following behind or sitting with a new piece of technology for your bedroom on your lap, getting items up and down stairs will never have felt so easy and safe.

5. Relieve Pressure on Joints & Breathing

While it is something that many of us do daily, you need to remember that climbing stairs is still a form of physical exercise. Just look at a gym and you will see everything from single step boxes to large stair climbers being used by people to keep themselves fit.

Walking up a staircase can put strain on your knee joints, as different muscles are engaged and you are made to work against gravity. Your knee joints are then put under more stress when you descend stairs, as this part of your body bears a lot of additional force with every stair you step down onto.

You need quite a bit of energy to climb stairs as well, with your heart and lungs working that little bit harder to pump oxygenated blood around your body as you go through this physical activity.

Having a stairlift can be so useful if you are feeling particularly out of breath or are worried that your knees just will not be able to get you up or down a set of stairs on some occasions.

6. Create a More Comfortable Home Routine

With everything that we have covered so far, you should be able to see how a stairlift can help you to improve your routine around the home.

Not needing to use as much energy going up and down stairs – no matter if that is by yourself or when carrying something – means that you can conserve your energy. You can then use this energy to engage in your favourite hobbies for longer and enjoy time with your family that little bit more.

You can also avoid that awkwardness of getting a family member or caregiver to help you when you want to take a bath or change clothes – those self-care routines where you would prefer some privacy.

7. Improve Peace of Mind for Your Family

Don’t forget that you won’t be the only one worried about getting older.

Your family will also have concerns if they notice issues with your mobility. This will likely lead to regular questions about how you are managing to navigate a staircase or carrying items from one floor to the next.

Put their minds at ease by showing them that you are keeping yourself safe by choosing to have a stairlift installed in your home.

Hoping to take the first step to enhancing your home with a stairlift? Either contact us online or find your local Access BDD dealer for a free stairlift consultation or brochure request, so that we can find you the best equipment for both your property and your needs.