National aging-in-place expert Dr. Jill Bjerke of Silver Spaces LLC joins Suzanne to talk about steps we can take to maintain our quality of life in our senior years: downsizing, eliminating clutter, and improving safety.

Dr. Bjerke says, "Aging in place is not what people think it is. It's not 'I'm just gonna stay in my home forever.' The problem is that we change, but our homes don't. That means we need to step back and take a look at what's going on in our lives. We need to look at our finances, transportation, health, socialization. Ask questions: What am I gonna do if I can't drive? Do I have transportation in my town so I can get where I need to go? Is my health good enough for me to remain at home, or my partner to remain at home, or do I have a condition that's going to need some attention in the future, and remaining at home may not be the best option for me. Socialization is one of the downsides of aging in place, because you can become very isolated if you can't get to where you can socialize with other people. So those are some of the really important factors that we need to think about in addition to staying in my home as long as I can."

Some people get overwhelmed with downsizing and de-cluttering. Dr. Bjerke says, "I've had clients say things like, 'I need to downsize because I don't want to leave all this stuff to my kids,' which is an amazing thing. And I hear people say, 'I don't know where to start.' Well, I can see why. But if you break it down into manageable pieces, you do two drawers at a time, or part of a closet at a time, and you sort things, you decide what you're, keep going to keep, what you're going to sell, what you're going to recycle what you're going to give away, that makes it a lot easier.

"Now, along with that comes with some things that have memories attached to them. One of the things people don't realize is they are not attached to that thing, they are attached to the memory that that thing brings to them. If you are going to downsize, you don't have the room for some of these things, possibly take a picture of it, so you still have that image, or find someone who will love that piece as much as you do. I've given entire sets of China to churches. There are ways to manage getting rid of some of your things in a very peaceful way. And that's what it should be. It shouldn't be full of stress, it should be peaceful."

Coming in our next segment, Dr. Bjerke introduces the Silver Space app to help you survey your home and make it more aging-in-place friendly. Visit Silver Space’s website to learn more.