Little Finger, Big Problem | #ForAccessibleHomes News

It is amazing how much of an impact the smallest of injuries can have on our lives and the way we interact with our surroundings.

Earlier this year my husband broke his little finger. The following month, I twisted my ankle.

We are in our early 30s and generally fit, but it was fascinating to experience the impact these pretty small injuries had on the way we interacted with our home and how we became unable do many of the things we needed to do or enjoyed.

Washing was the big issue for me. Our shower is over the bath and getting in and out of the bathtub became a painfully scary experience. Once in the bath, with nowhere to sit and nothing to hold onto, I found myself precariously balancing on one foot in already slippery conditions.

It made me wonder that given there are countless variations of toilet paper holders, towel rails, bins and even toilet brushes, why something to hold onto that doesn’t make your home look like a hospital isn’t a more regular sight in our shops or comes as standard in bathroom suites.

For my husband with his broken finger, tying his shoelaces became an arduous and frustrating task. Opening jars just became outright impossible.

The way we design our homes and the products we use can actually disable us from carrying out many of our everyday tasks independently. Not just baths and jam jars, but think about narrow doorways, steps up to our front doors, positioning of our appliances, lighting. These are all things that have the ability to change our homes from places of comfort and safety to places of frustration and danger.

Truth is, we are all getting older and no one is immune to illness or injury. For us this situation was temporary, but it was definitely not unusual. We have been hurt before and will likely be again. Imagine too if we were older and our flexibility, mobility, and coordination may not have been as good, or if our injuries had been more serious or long term, or we didn’t have one another to help.

Sure, there are incredibly useful fixes you can add into your homes like bathboards, but these are sticking plasters on other spaces and products that have been designed without much thought of the wide range of real people who will actually use them. Generally they aren’t most people’s first choice for home décor either.

We need to start thinking a little differently and understand that life includes ageing, changes, illness and injury to lesser or greater degrees and we need to start creating homes that embrace this. This is not a morbid or a scary thought, but a fact of life, and indeed an incredible breeding ground for beautiful innovation, flexibility and sustainability in our living spaces.

The best bit is that more accessibility makes our homes that little bit nicer for us all throughout our lives. To most people – no matter age or ability, resident or guest - it will just mean a more spacious, pleasingly efficient and well laid out space.

Campaigns like #ForAccessibleHomes are doing great work to push designers and builders to create more aspirational, accessible homes. We also need more information and inspiration to help us incorporate beautiful, inclusive design as we carry our own routine home improvements too – none of which has to be complicated, expensive or dull. This is what The Pretty, Good Project is all about. Hop over to prettygoodproject.org to read more, my adventure to make our home one that will suit us age 83, but right now aged 33, and a whole load of practical information and inspiration to help you make your home fit for a lifetime too.

Thanks for reading. And please comment or get in touch if you have any thoughts you’d like to share on what I’m up to.