Setting Up a Home That Is Safe to Move Around

Furniture placement is treated as a decorating question. In an older person's home it is also a safety question, and moving day is the one moment when everything is being positioned anyway and nothing has to be shifted twice.

Just-In-Time Moving works throughout St. George and Washington County. This is worth thinking about before the truck arrives.

Clear routes matter most

The paths between bed and bathroom, bedroom and kitchen, and front door and living area should be wide, straight and completely unobstructed.

That means no furniture corners projecting into a walkway, no trailing cables crossing a route, and nothing that requires a sideways step.

Plan those routes first and place the furniture around them, rather than placing furniture and finding the routes afterwards.

Rugs are the single biggest hazard

Loose rugs, and particularly small ones and rug edges, are among the most common causes of falls at home.

The safest answer is not to use them on a route. Where a rug is staying, it needs proper non-slip backing and edges that lie flat, and anything that has begun to curl should go.

Note also that many senior communities restrict rugs for exactly this reason.

Light the way

The route from bed to bathroom is the one that matters, because it is used at night.

Night lights along it, and a lamp within reach of the bed rather than across the room. A torch in the bedside drawer.

Check bulbs in every fitting on move-in day; new houses and rentals frequently have empty ones.

Put things where they can be reached

Everyday items between waist and shoulder height. Nothing used regularly should require a step stool or bending to a low cupboard.

This is worth doing deliberately as the kitchen is unpacked, since whatever happens on that day is where things stay.

Furniture worth reconsidering

Low, soft seating that is hard to rise from. Chairs without arms, since arms are what people push up on. Anything with wheels that is not lockable. Glass-topped tables at hip height.

A firm chair with arms in the main living space is one of the more useful pieces in the house.

What to ask about the property

Grab rails in the bathroom, which are inexpensive and should be fitted into structure rather than plasterboard. Thresholds and any single step, which are trip points. Handrails on both sides of stairs.

Outside, note that gravel and desert landscaping are common here and less stable underfoot than a path.

Tell us where things should go and we will place them there.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.