Like this couple standing in front of the home they enjoy, many of us are continuing to occupy and live in our homes of choice over time and are classic examples of effective aging in place.
We’ve already done the hard work
Living to whatever age we are now, from our twenties to our eighties, or beyond, we have survived. We have conquered life’s challenges – entirely or to the extent that we could. One thing we generally don’t need to do is find a new place to live because we already have a home that we like.
Of course, we could have outgrown our current place because of an increasing family size. It could be too far away from where we are working or want to work. It could be costing more than we think it should or than we can budget currently. It may need more repairs and maintenance than we are currently able to accommodate. Still, it’s our home and it generally works for us
Short of putting in the effort to look for, find, and move into another place to live, our current home, even with some limitations it might have, looks pretty good by comparison.
Everything we have is at hand
If we look around ourselves, we will find that everything important to us – really important to use – is right around us. We can touch it. That applies to furnishings, sporting goods, foodstuffs, clothing, hobbies, electronics, furniture, and of course, our family members and friends who visit us.
We have a friendship with our homes. We may not like everything about our homes, but we generally are satisfied. We like the location, the basic design and layout, and we know we can often find items even with lights off.
Why should we consider giving up what we have just to start over somewhere else?
Our home is ‘home’ to us
Over the years, we’ve had some adjustments to make and some growing pains. Maybe in some ways our home doesn’t understand or appreciate us – maybe it could say the same about us. Still, it’s home – a beautiful concept. Of every place there is in the world where could live, only one place is called our home.
It makes a lot of sense to keep our home and to age in place with it as the years go by, adjusting as necessary to changing life conditions.