If you’re needing to use a wheelchair around the house or will soon be caring for someone that uses a wheelchair, it’s important that you learn how to best move the wheelchair around the house so that it’s safe and easy to use. This way, when you’re trying to get around the house even after your injury, you’ll be able to do so easily.
To help you in doing this, whether you’ve suffered a broken leg or are coming home after being in a rehab facility, here are three tips for maneuvering a wheelchair around your house.
Add Ramps Where Necessary
Ideally, a home where someone will be using a wheelchair won’t have any stairs or even steps. But if you hadn’t planned on needing to use a wheelchair when you first moved into this home, you’ll have to figure out some way to deal with the stairs and steps even with your wheelchair.
One of the best ways to do this is to add ramps around your home where the stairs or steps are. If you do need to build ramps, you’ll want to make sure that they are at a subtle slope, sticking to a rise of about an inch for every foot of length. This way, the ramp will be safe and secure to take the wheelchair on and won’t put yourself or your injured loved one in a more precarious position.
Rearrange Your Furniture
With a wheelchair, you’re probably going to need more space to maneuver around your home than you could when just walking around. Knowing this, you’ll likely need to rearrange some of your furniture to make space.
In most situations, a wheelchair will need about five feet of space to maneuver in. So if you can put about five feet between pieces of furniture and other areas where you plan to take the wheelchair around your house, you should have enough space to move around safely and without getting into any predicaments.
Consider Switching Up Your Flooring
Some flooring is going to be easier to push a wheelchair on than others. So if you have thick carpeting or have a lot of different rugs on your floors, you may want to consider making some changes with this, depending on how long the wheelchair will need to be used.
If you can, try to use your wheelchair on hardwood or other hard flooring. Then, no matter how big you are or the person you’re pushing in the wheelchair is, you should easily be able to glide across the floor and get to exactly where you need to be.
If you have a wheelchair that you’re needing to use around your house, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you with this.
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