When your elderly loved ones were younger, they were likely taught to be far less concerned with the environment and sustainability than people are now. Because of this, they may have developed some habits that don’t lend themselves to being as environmentally conscious as you may have liked. But luckily, there are things that you can teach your elderly loved ones, regardless of whether they’ve still living on their own or in a senior living facility, to help them make some new habits if this is what they’re interested in.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three ways to help your elderly loved one live a more sustainable life.
Help Them With Environmental Home Renovations
Within the home is a great place to start when you’re wanting to help an elderly loved one make sustainable changes that will make the biggest difference for them and their carbon footprint.
Depending on where and what your elderly loved one is willing to change within their home to be more sustainable, you can focus on basically any room to make environmental changes. For example, you can use low-flow toilets and showerheads in the bathroom, you can replace their current windows with more energy-efficient ones, or you can install a smart thermostat in their home to help them be more comfortable and save energy.
Choose Safe And Sustainable Appliances
A few other things that you can replace or make smart swaps with in the home of your elderly loved one are appliances.
The older appliances that your elderly loved one might be using could be resulting in a lot of waste. But by using more energy-efficient appliances, you could be helping them to use less energy and less water all over their home. And, if you’re able to find some of these appliances on sale for them, the upgrade may not be a financial burden as they make this new purchase.
Find Ways To Help Them Reduce Waste
There are likely other ways that your elderly loved one is contributing to excess waste in their home, apart from using more water than is necessary with their appliances and turning on machines that use too much energy.
One area where this might be true is with the food that they purchase and prepare. If they are used to cooking for a larger group of people, it can be hard to know how much food to get for just them or for their smaller family at home now. To help them with this, try to encourage them to cut down on the amount of food they buy each time they visit the store and to cook fewer times throughout the week or to cook less food when they do cook.
If your elderly loved one has expressed the idea of wanting to live a more sustainable life at home, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you learn how to teach them to make some potential changes.
