Personalizing your parent’s assisted living home can do much to take the edge off the stress and anxiety that is inevitable with such a decision.
As your parent prepares to move from familiar surroundings into unfamiliar terrain, it is only natural that they will feel anxious and agitated. They may feel they are losing their independence besides having to contend with a new place and neighbors.
One way you can make the transition less stressful by encouraging your parent to showcase their individual style and taste by personalizing their assisted living home.
Planning A Smooth Transition
Involve your parent in the decision-making process. Let them choose the furniture they would like to take to their new home. Also, let them know that they will have a free hand to decorate the home, including a painting of the interior walls in their favorite color.
Here are a few things you will need to take into consideration to pave the way for a smooth transition:
Think about the dimensions and layout of the living home
Knowing the exact size and layout of the assisted living home will give your parent a better idea of how much they can take and which also which items to take. This ensures that they just what they need to make the place look homely without being either too barren or too cramped.
Consider how you will recreate the look
Help your parent recreate the look and feel of their current home by ensuring they have their favorite pieces of furniture, bedding, and even mementos. Having even just a few much loved, familiar items can make a huge difference.
Consider your parent’s favorite hobbies
Fixing a bookshelf on the wall is sure to bring great joy to a parent who treasures their collection of books and loves to spend time reading. For a music-loving parent, you could set up a music system and speakers in their room along with storage space for their CDs.
Tips To Add Personality And Comfort To Your Parent’s Assisted Living Home
Besides planning the transition, there are other things you can do to add a personalized and inviting look and feel to your parent’s assisted living home.
- Photographs and Paintings: To make the new home more familiar, arrange the paintings and photographs the way they were arranged in their original home. Click photographs beforehand so that you can use them as a reference to arrange the paintings and photographs.
- Wall Color: Try and arrange the walls in each room to be painted in the same color as the color of your parent’s home. Familiar colors can be tremendously comforting.
- Indoor Plants: Not only do indoor plants make the interiors look more inviting and comforting, they can also help improve indoor air quality. Look to place African violets and Boston ferns to boost indoor air quality, but do place them near a window so that they can enjoy natural light. Place planters in the kitchen area and encourage your parent to grow and tend to kitchen herbs such as rosemary, thyme, and parsley.
When moving from their own home into an assisted living home, a few things done to personalize the space can do much to reduce your parent’s anxiety and increase their sense of comfort.
The personalization tips mentioned above are the bare minimum you should consider doing to help your parent make the transition happily.
