Home Care in Irvine CA
Hiring a home care provider is a fantastic way to encourage a higher quality of life for your elderly loved ones. Whether they have extensive physical and cognitive needs that require care and 
assistance for the majority of the day every day, or just need a bit of support and help meeting their needs, having an in home health care services provider can enhance your aging parents’ quality of life by allowing them to age in place safely and comfortably, while also offering valuable social interaction and mental stimulation.
Getting creative and enjoying activities together is a fun way for your parents to build a relationship with their home care provider and keep their minds sharp, active, and engaged. These activities strengthen their cognitive processing, support faster, clearer thinking, and ward off memory loss. Some projects also offer the additional benefit of taking care of the environment and keeping the home clean and neat.
One such project is recycling the cardboard shoeboxes that often build up in the house. Many people recognize that these boxes could serve a purpose and hang on to them rather than throwing them away, but then do not know what to do with them so they just accumulate until they finally throw them out anyway. Instead of letting this happen, encourage your aging loved ones and their in home health care services provider to find creative and useful ways to recycle these boxes into items they can use throughout the home.
Let these ideas inspire you for ways your parents can recycle their cardboard shoeboxes rather than immediately throwing them away:
• Yarn organizer. If your elderly mother loves to knit or crochet, she probably knows the frustration of a skein of yarn getting tangled while she tries to do her project. A cardboard shoebox can make all the difference in this situation. Cover the box with wrapping paper or cardstock to make it more attractive and cut two holes in one side, approximately four inches apart. Reinforce and smooth these holes with small pieces of rubber-coated tape. Nestle skeins of yarn inside and thread the end of the yarn through the holes. As your mother uses the yarn, the skeins will unravel inside the box but not get tangled;
• Mental challenge mazes. Snip straws into pieces of different lengths and glue them to the underside of the lid of a shoebox to create a maze. Place a small rubber ball at the start position and encourage your elderly parents to figure out how to get the ball through the maze to the other end of the lid by shifting the lid around in their hands. This boosts their critical thinking, cognitive processing, and memory skills. It is also a fun game to have around the house for when your children visit;
• Picture frame. Make creative personalized picture frames using the lid of shoeboxes and pages from old magazines. Start by gluing magazine pages around a lid and letting it dry to create the base. Then cut two pieces of the other part of the shoebox in the same size as the picture you want to frame. Glue the two pieces together, then glue the picture on top and adhere to the inside of the lid. Roll individual magazine pages tightly to create narrow tubes, sealing the seam with glue, and glue into place along the inside of the lid on either side and at the top and bottom of the pictures to create a unique frame.
If you or an aging loved one is considering home care in Irvine, CA or the surrounding Orange County areas, please call us at 949-535-2211. We provide senior care services in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Laguna Woods, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo and surrounding areas of Orange County California. Contact us today to learn more.
