Fall-proof your home: fifteen changes a physiotherapist would make first

The fifteen, in order

1. A non-slip mat in the shower or bath – the single most effective change in the house.
2. A grab bar where you step in and out – screwed in if you can, a quality suction bar if you rent. Never a towel rail.
3. Night lights with motion sensors from the bed to the bathroom door, at skirting level.
4. No loose rugs – take them up or fix them with double-sided tape; the edge is what catches the toe.
5. A chair with arms in every room you sit in, seat height at your knee, so you push up with your hands.
6. The rollator parked, brakes locked, where you stand up – beside the bed, the armchair, the toilet.
7. Shoes indoors with a closed heel and a thin grippy sole – not slippers, not socks.
8. A shower stool so you wash sitting down; a hand shower on a slide rail.
9. A bed assist handle on the side you get out, and the bed at a height where your feet reach the floor sitting.
10. Cables and clutter off the floor – one charging corner, nothing across a path.
11. Everything you use daily between hip and shoulder height – no stepping stools, no bending into low cupboards.
12. A reacher grabber in the kitchen and one by the armchair for the things that fall.
13. Light switches you can reach from the bed and the door – plug-in remote switches cost little.
14. The phone within reach from the floor – a cordless handset low in each room, or a watch or pendant alarm.
15. Stairs with a rail on both sides and a contrasting strip on the top and bottom step.

The bathroom

Wet, hard, small: the bathroom is where a fall hurts most. The non-slip mat goes inside the shower or bath; a second one, rubber-backed, on the floor outside. The grab bar belongs where your hand reaches for support when you step over the rim – usually vertical, at shoulder height, on the wall beside the entry point. A screwed-in bar is best; a good suction bar with a pressure indicator works on smooth tiles and is the renter's answer, checked before every use. A shower stool with adjustable legs lets you wash sitting; a raised toilet seat or a frame with arms makes standing up a push, not a heave. The rollator waits outside the door with the brakes locked.

The night

Most night falls happen in the first steps out of bed, half asleep and in the dark. Sit on the edge of the bed, count to ten, stand with a hand on the bed handle or the locked rollator, then walk the lit path. Motion-sensor lights at skirting level switch on before your foot does; they cost little and need no electrician. Keep the path from bed to bathroom clear of everything – the laundry basket, the slippers, the cat's bowl.

Chairs, sofas and beds

Standing up is when legs fail and chairs tip. A chair with arms and a firm seat at your knee height lets you push up with your hands; low soft sofas are the hardest furniture in the house. Raise a favourite chair with furniture risers; raise a low bed with risers too, or lower a high one. The test: sitting, your feet are flat on the floor and your knees are at a right angle, and you can stand up without rocking.

Rugs, thresholds and floors

The edge of a rug is the most common trip hazard in a home. Take rugs up or fix them with double-sided carpet tape along every edge; replace thick mats with thin rubber-backed ones. Door thresholds higher than a centimetre get a small ramp – a wedge of wood or rubber. Polished floors in socks are an ice rink; shoes or grippy slippers with a closed heel. Spilled water is wiped at once, which is easier with a reacher and a cloth kept where spills happen.

Light and eyesight

Older eyes need two to three times the light of younger ones and adapt slowly to darkness. Brighter bulbs in the hallway and the stairs, lights on both ends of a corridor, a lamp you can switch on from the bed. Have your eyes tested every year, and be careful with bifocals and varifocals on stairs: the near part of the lens blurs the step. Many falls services recommend single-vision distance glasses for walking outside.

If you do fall

Stay still for a moment and check that nothing hurts badly. If you can get up: roll onto your side, push up onto hands and knees, crawl to a sturdy chair or the locked rollator, put the stronger leg forward, push up with your arms and turn to sit. If you cannot: keep warm with whatever is in reach, move your legs to keep the blood going, and call – this is what the phone within reach, the pendant alarm or the watch is for. Then tell your doctor, even if nothing hurts; a falls assessment is the next step, and it is what the balance guide describes.