Your guide for products to make your home or rental more functional, safe, and user-friendly
With Amazon Prime Day approaching around the corner on July 12-13, 2022, here are a few products to add to your wishlist. I think that they will make your spaces more functional, safer, and easier for you, your family, and guests. Some can even make traveling less stressful.
I have purchased all of these items and can attest to the improvement they brought to my home and to my life.
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Rubber threshold
This is one of my favorite accessible items we have purchased for our home. It is a functional hack without completely reconfiguring your door! It has made it SO much easier for our family and guests to enter through a door without tripping or getting their wheels caught at the threshold. You can purchase up to a 4” rise threshold ramp on Amazon. Most can be customized to the width of the door by trimming the sides. This is a great hack even for commercial spaces because if your restaurant, office, school, or building in general is ADA compliant and you have a 1.5” threshold…big oops. This could have caused you to unknowingly lose a customer, client, or even a home buyer. If people can get inside, then you have started the visiting experience on a positive note already!
SnapPower outlet with LED light
Need lighting on your stairways, landings, hallways and other areas where you have outlet covers? This is an easy and simple fix! No need to cut in to the stairs or walls. Simply replace your outlets with these motion sensor lighting options! We LOVE having these in our hallways, upstairs and on our stair landing areas. A fantastic solution when you do not have lighting along your pathways! Make it safer for everyone to see the stairs and walk to the bathroom at night.
Motion sensor plug in lighting (directional)
This is similar to the SnapPower outlets with LED lighting, but this simply plugs into your existing electrical outlet. This, too, can be used in hallways, stairs, bathrooms, etc. This small plug makes it easy to travel with and can be used anywhere you go to make maneuvering in the dark safer.
Toilet Paper Assist bar
If you need a little oomph or stability to get on/off that toilet, the toilet paper assist bar is an amazing and practical option! It’s perfect for toilet areas where room for a grab bar is limited; however, I love this toilet paper grab bar beside EVERY toilet. This is not just for the elderly or handicap. This is perfect for those unexpected short-term disabilities or injuries where a grab bar can help you stand up.
Bidet Seat Attachment
Before you consider a bidet toilet seat, make sure you have an electrical outlet behind your toilet. But, no biggie if you don’t. You can still purchase a non-electric bidet toilet seat (just be prepared for a cold splash on your tushy and no dryer function). We have the Bio Bidet in 2 of our bathrooms and we now wish we had it in all of our bathrooms. You simply don’t know what you’re missing until you use one. It not only promotes independence to those with limited upper body movement, but also promotes good health and hygiene to everyone especially for those who have had surgeries and promotes healing for us moms in postpartum [the BEST]. The newest one we have in our primary bathroom is the BB-800 which is similar to the BB-600 we have in our guest bathroom. Before ordering, be sure to note the type of toilet (elongated or round) and double check the size and specs for compatibility. This will not only be a hit for you and your family (there are kids and feminine settings too!), your guests may go home with plans to purchase one for their bathroom! Read more About That Bidet on our blog.
Shower seat
This shower seat is lightweight, portable, easy to put together AND it works inside most standard tubs and showers. Just double check the measurements and specs before purchasing. Not only do we have this for our guests to use inside the shower, but if they don’t need it in the shower, it becomes the perfect place outside the shower to sit for breaks, to dress, or to set their clothes. It’s versatile, inexpensive, and makes showering safer. This is also the type of chair that can be rented when on vacation. Makes showering and bathing safer for everyone.
Lever Style Door Handles
Whether you have purchased a home or building a home, lever style door handles are an easy and inexpensive add-on. Unless, of course, you have a LOT of doors. In that case, perhaps have them installed on all active doors or doors that will be used more frequently by you, your family, and guests. Have you noticed lever style door handles are almost standard in public or commercial spaces? Lever style handles are even on most plumbing fixtures. They make our daily tasks a little easier and more efficient. Think about how many times you’ve had your hands full carrying grocery bags from the car into the house. How many doors do you actually have to go through to get them into the kitchen (something to keep in mind when designing a floor plan)? With lever style handles, almost anyone can use them AND they can be used by almost any moving body part (no fingers or dexterity is required). You can use whatever spare active motion you have from your wrist, forearm or maybe a stub, foot, hip, or even your chin. I say more efficient because you don’t have to take time to set all the bags (or boxes) down to turn the knob and pick all the bags back up again or wait for help. Save time, energy, and even strength! When choosing your door handles, be sure to find one that requires low effort to open. They range from heavy duty to light weight. We have light-weight Kwikset lever handles in our basement and the heavy duty Emtek levers on all other swinging doors.
Solar Pathway Lighting
Light up your pathways and driveway! For our son’s 2nd birthday party, I found some cool star solar lights for our walkway in the backyard to go with his moon and stars themed party. We loved them so much we left them in place. The stars would light up the pathway and made it SO much easier and safer to see the walkway at night. This is also great for rentals because it is inexpensive, requires no digging, wiring, or electric and simply recharges during the day and lights up at night. The star solar lights didn’t last long with a toddler, but it convinced us it was worth upgrading with the nicer and more durable XMCOSY solar lighting. There are several solar lights to choose from on Amazon. I would even plan to get the ones to line up the driveway because how many times have you or your guests rolled off the driveway or had someone stand outside the car to guide you [guilty here]? Exterior lighting is incredibly important for safety and to provide clear guidance to/from the door. We have passed up an AirBnb rental and struggled to find it because of no lighting on or around the house when arriving in the dark.
Suction / Adhesive shower accessories
Does your shower / bathtub lack storage space? Suctions have come a LONG way in strength and in disguise. Suction accessories are a FANTASTIC option for adding a few places to store your bar soap, sponges / wash cloths, razors, and even shampoo/conditioners. The ones we have in our primary shower look like they are installed and quite a durable suction (we have had these for almost 2 years and they have not fallen off or had to be readjusted). I do not recommend the suction grab bars. This is only shower accessories for non-medical use. There are several great adhesive options as well which
I'm anxious to try!
Removable Shower Head
Something I wish we had installed in ALL of our showers! A removable shower head on a grab bar is even better...multi-functional and allows people of various heights including growing kids to use the shower head at any height AND for stability. In addition, how in the world do people clean their showers without a removable shower head?! I have used a mop since it seems to be more ergonomic friendly. However, think about how easy it could be to rinse off the soap or wash down the walls, rinse the floor in the rear of the shower, and under the shower head. The removable shower head reaches all the nooks and crannies. It's also great for women who do not want to wash their hair every time they shower or people who need to sit while showering. The shower heads with a "pause" button or feature is great to "pause" the water flow while making scrubby bubbles and then un-pause when ready to rinse. This water conservation feature has been awesome especially when it comes to washing dogs or even babies.
BONUS FEATURE
3-Tier Rolling Cart
This one of the most universal and versatile items in our house! In fact, we have two! It makes life easier, more efficient and even SAFER in our home! I started to use it with our first born and called it the “breast pump cart.” It organized and stored my breast pump on top (easily accessible), onesies, socks, diapers, wipes, and meds. Basically, all the daily necessities that will keep you from multiple trips between rooms or going up/down the stairs. Then my husband called it the “code brown cart” because how many times do you change diapers with the newborn/infants? This handy cart rolls easily and saves you many trips because you can wheel it anywhere in the house effortlessly when supplies are needed. This cart has now transformed into the toy cart with organized and labeled containers while we have a new one to store essentials for another baby or aka, the "code brown cart."
Enjoy creating your Amazon wishlist. These make great gifts, too! Think of the people who would benefit and enjoy these practical gifts that make life a little easier.
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