Tips on Accident Proofing Your Home
Taken from The Comfort of Home 2nd Edition by Maria M. Meyer with Paula Derr, RN

For the safest home, implement as many of these steps as possible:

• Remove all unnecessary furniture
• Arrange the remaining furniture, providing ample space for a walker or wheelchair, thus avoiding the need for an elderly or disabled person to move around coffee tables and other barriers. Move low tables that are in the walk path.
• Do not rearrange furniture after the person in your care has grown accustomed to its placement.
• Adjust furniture so it will not move if leaned on.
• Use automatic night lights in the rooms used by the person in your care.
• Provide smoke alarms on every floor and outside every bedroom.
• Place non-skid tape on the edges of stairs (consider painting the edge of the first and last step a different color from the floor).
• Thin pile carpet is easier to walk on than thick pile. Avoid busy patterns.
• Be sure stairs have even surfaces with no metal strips or rubber mats to cause tripping.
• Secure electrical and telephone cords to walls.
• Lock liquor cabinets, and remove all poisonous household items.
• Rid the home of firearms or store them in a locked cabinet, with the bullets in a separate locked cabinet.
• Cover or remove mirrors if they are upsetting to a person with hallucinations.
• Store car keys in a locked container; disable the car.

• Cover all sharp edges with rubber cushioning.
• Install lights in medicine cabinets so mistakes are not made when taking medicine.
• Remove locks on bathroom doors.
• Use non-skid safety strips or a non-slip bath mat in the tub or shower.
• Consider installing a grab rail on the edge of the vanity. (Do not use a towel bar).
• Remove glass shower doors or replace them with unbreakable.
• Set the hot water thermostat below 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Use faucets that mix hot and cold water, or paint hot water knobs/faucets red.
• Install toilet guard rails or provide a portable toilet seat with built in rails.
• Provide an elevated toilet seat.
• Install a ceiling heat lamp.
• Place a telephone near the toilet.
• Provide soap on a rope or put a bar of soap in the toe of a nylon stocking and tie it to the grab bar.