Downsizing is one of the trickiest elements of moving into assisted living in Rancho San Diego. While you will still have your own private apartment, these apartments are quite small, so you obviously cannot take many of your beloved items. While this can be troubling, it’s best to focus on what items you can and should bring, rather than to fixate on what you cannot bring.
1. Important Furniture Items
Some assisted living apartments include furnishings and some do not and others still can include furnishings, but for an additional fee. In general, you can bring your own furnishings to most facilities for assisted living in Rancho San Diego, and this can be a great way to help you feel a bit more at home.
You really only need a few items and these include a bed and nightstands, a sofa and a coffee table. If you have a studio apartment at your home for assisted living in Rancho San Diego, this may be all of the furnishings you can fit easily into the space. If you have a one-bedroom apartment, you might also add a dresser and a small café table with two chairs for eating.
You can maximize space and storage at a community for assisted living in Rancho San Diego by using a few tricks. For instance, consider opting for a double bed instead of queen to save space and place shallow plastic bins under the bed to hold additional clothing or supplies. Another way to add space would be to use a coffee table that doubles as storage. A narrow bookshelf or narrow entertainment center can be placed against one of the walls and hold your TV set as well as other items, such as books and photographs.
2. Entertainment Items
When you move out of your private home and into assisted living in Rancho San Diego, you take away many tasks from your daily schedule. For instance, you no longer need to cook, clean, do laundry or yardwork. This provides you with plenty of time to pursue your own interests.
While your facility for assisted living in Rancho San Diego will provide you with an assortment of daily, weekly and monthly activity choices, you also need to bring some of your own entertainment options. For instance, you will want to bring a television and a DVD player. You can transfer your DVDs from their cases and place them in a large binder to save space or use streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon to watch movies.
Bringing a computer or laptop is always a good idea. A laptop takes up much less space, so this might be the best option. A tablet also is a great option as you can use these to read books and watch movies as well as surf the web and email friends or family and to check up on social media. If you are an avid reader, a tablet can ensure that you always have something to read without taking up a ton of space. Many public libraries offer free audiobook checkouts and e-book checkouts, which can keep book costs down.
3. Personal Items
The fees at your community for assisted living in Rancho San Diego will include your apartment, weekly housekeeping, weekly laundry, meals and some activities and perhaps a bit more. However, these fees don’t include items such as toiletries, clothing and other personal items. For toiletries, this includes everything from shampoo to toilet paper to medical supplies and makeup. Don’t forget to bring one or two small trashcans for the bath and kitchen area.
You will need to bring a shower curtain and rings, a few sets of bath towels, two sets of sheets and all of your pillows, blankets, etc. These items not only are essential, they can help brighten up and personalize your apartment for assisted living in Rancho San Diego. While you may have only a kitchenette and don’t plan to do much cooking, bring a few kitchen towels, some paper towels and cleaning wipes. In addition, bring some beverages and snacks to store in the kitchenette. While snacks and beverages are sure to be provided by the staff, it’s nice to have your own snacks and drinks on hand, as well.
When it comes to clothing, think about comfort, ease and washability. For most people living at a home for assisted living in Rancho San Diego, mobility is an issue. There are staff members to help with dressing and grooming, but it’s still nice to have clothing that is easy to take on and off. Bring a small laundry basket, as well, to store the items that need laundering.
In addition, you want items that aren’t particularly delicate as the staff will be doing the laundry, and those industrial washers and dryers aren’t as easy on clothing as a home washer and dryer with its many settings. Still, bring one or two dressy outfits. There are parties and excursions at Rancho San Diego assisted living communities, and you may want to head out on your own once in a while for a special occasion. Because space is limited, it can be nice to have a family member store a few bins of out-of-season clothing at their home so that you can switch items out from time to time.
4. Sentimental & Decorative Items
These are perhaps the hardest items to pick and choose, and they tend to make the biggest impact on your apartment. Photography is always something people choose to bring to an apartment for assisted living in Rancho San Diego, and there are several ways to bring many photos without taking up a lot of space. Rather than bring all of your photos with you, ask a family member to take the photos and have them scanned onto flash drives. From there, they can be placed onto a computer and some can be loaded into digital picture frames. These frames can hold hundreds of pictures, and will shift every few minutes to show a new picture. You also can decorate the apartment with collage frames that are filled with photos and other memorabilia.
A few plants can bring much cheer to your new home for assisted living in Rancho San Diego, so consider bringing one or two plants along with you. Too many plants can clutter up the space, making mobility difficult, but placing an easy-care plant in the living room and one in the bedroom is a good idea.
Decorative items tend to take up a great deal of space, but a few items could be placed on a shelving unit, such as the shelf you bring to hold your TV. Some framed artwork will add some additional cheer. A favorite blanket or quilt also should come along with you to increase the hominess factor. A combination clock and radio can be placed on one of your bedroom nightstands.
These are just a few suggestions for those moving into assisted living in Rancho San Diego. Each facility should provide you with a helpful list of things to bring, but you also might consider asking a few of the residents about which items they wished they had brought and which items they really didn’t need to bring.