7 Things To Make Life Easier In Your Golden Years

Getting older doesn’t have to be a bad thing. 

The thought of getting older can fill us with grief, the distastes for the aches and pains, sapped energy, and not being able to do all the things we used to. However, it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. Your golden years don’t have to be droll and dull, they really can be golden years. 

If you buy the right things and prepare properly, your golden years and your retirement can be a walk in the park, hypothetically and literally. 

We often worry about the simple things as we get older, when things such as arthritis may kick in, and we can grab and lift like we used to, and we certainly don’t expect to be able to haul 50 lbs of shopping to the car any more! But, do not worry, inventors have come up with plenty of nifty gadgets that will make doing these simple things easier, so your golden years are stress-free. 

An example of this? Shopping trolleys! While they have the reputation of being a typical OAP thing, plenty of young people use these too, as it is just so much easier to wheel your shopping around than it is to be lugging bags about. This is only one of the amazing inventions that can make life easier as you age. Want to know more about this? We don’t blame you, check out https://wheelalong.co.uk/shopping-trolleys/best-shopping-trolleys-for-the-elderly/. 

Let’s take a look at what are the 7 things that can make your golden years truly golden! 

Get a shopping trolley. 

Shopping trolleys are without a doubt a wondrous invention. When we were kids, we related them to grandma taking a trip down to Tesco or waltzing around town for a bargain. However, as time goes on, we realize, these nifty bags are not just for grandma, they are for everyone who is done with the red marks shopping bags leave on your fingers. 

Why would you want to put up with those painful red marks and the exhausting lifting that comes with hauling all your goodies around the town, when instead you can simply drag your purchases around on a nicely coated bag on wheels? 

It’s just common sense. 

As you enter your golden years, these cool trolleys make for a brilliant purchase, not only do you save yourself from the painful strains of shopping bag handles, but you save your back too! And with less finger work, you won’t trigger your arthritis when you go dragging that bag along. We really cannot see a downside to these! 

Motion sensor lights. 

As we get older, our eyes don’t always work so well. Humans are not adept at seeing in the dark as it is, but with age we can see even less. If you need to get up to use the bathroom in the night, the last thing you need is to be sifting around the walls trying to find the light switch. 

This is why motion sensor lights are a neat invention. You don’t have to touch the walls just to see, these lights will turn on just by you walking past them. This can save you from falls, bumps, and scrapes, which as you get older are all things you want to avoid a lot more. 

Easy jar openers. 

We recommend these for absolutely everyone, not just people of the golden age. These are stellar inventions. Have you ever noticed that jars are getting harder and harder to open? Sometimes it seems like you need a gym membership just to open a jar of pickles! Well, you don’t. These openers have a silicone grip and have multiple hole sizes. Simply slip the jar into the silicone grip and twist. You don’t need to even pull very hard, this device does all the hard work for you. 

These devices are especially ideal for people suffering with arthritis, as they can open pretty much any jar and will help you with staying independent, even if your hands don’t want to work properly. 

Hot water dispensers. 

We can all agree that nothing quite beats a good cup of tea, but if your hands aren’t as good at gripping as they used to be, or your muscles just don’t have the strength they used to, lifting a kettle can become a rather trying activity. Sure, you could get a hot water tap installed, but that is pricey. How do you get around this? An electric hot water dispenser. These look a lot like coffee machines, they also stop you from needing to handle any heavy objects to make your cup of tea. The water boils in 50 seconds, and then all you need to do is press a button, pop in your tea bag and voilà! 

Grabbers. 

Grabbers are a lot like litter pickers. They make reaching for things and grabbing things that are difficult to get to less of a hassle. If your body is not feeling at its best, then leaning down to pick that sock up off the floor will be a daunting task. You can save your back with a grabber. Sure we would all love it if our back, knees, and hips would just function like they used to, but the world is not so kind, and so a genius invented grabbers, so we can do everything we need to without giving into back pains. 

These often come in a bright yellow, which makes them easy to see, and you can get folding or fixed versions, so you can even have one you can take to the shops with you, to save you stretching to reach things on the top shelf! 

Dementia Clocks

Whether you or someone you know has dementia, Alzheimer’s, or is just super forgetful, a dementia clock is a saving grace. This product will help clear up any confusion on dates and times. As we age, we do start to worry about Dementia making an appearance, so having a clock ready for any such situation can be useful. 

It spells out the time and date without any abbreviations nice and clearly, with a bright white text against a black background. It will also tell you if it is morning or evening, which is very useful when the seasons change and extra hours of light and dark get easy to confuse. 

You can get varying levels of advancement in dementia clocks at varying levels of expense, regardless, these are super useful, and they are digital, so there is no confusion trying to figure out which hand is pointing where. Speaking of useful technology, we have to shout out to Amazon Alexa and Google Nest, with features that can help with memory loss and keeping track of things when you get older. 

Most importantly- Stay social! 

Staying social is one of the keys to happiness with age. Friends and Family are the perfect people to lift you up when you feel down. Always try to make plans and stay social. Isolation and loneliness are also some of the situations that can onset conditions such as dementia, so the more social you are the more you push away dementia. 

Take trips with your loved ones, talk on the phone, go out for a coffee, maybe join a bingo group or go to games nights. Staying active and being around other people can be a great help. You could even get a pet, because pets can also help keep our minds active and our hearts full of love.