Are Your Doorways Friends or Foes?
Doorways. We’ve all got them. We all never think about them.
They’re totally taken for granted.
We go through doorways to get home and rest after a long day. We’re hanging out in the doorway of Granny’s kitchen waiting for her to finish cooking lunch. We rush into the bathroom doorway to get ready for your sister’s birthday party.
Doorways are an intrinsic part of our lives. We don’t notice them until something happens to us, like an injury or illness. When we change how we move around, doorways can become barriers we never saw coming.
Let’s take a look at a client I worked with recently, “Dale” (obviously not his real name). Dale is a young man in his forties who got into a car accident that fractured his neck and left leg. He couldn’t step on his left leg to walk while it healed.
Dale had to wear a collar on his neck and a special brace to keep his leg in a certain position. He is also a very tall, broad-shouldered man. Dale looked like he could be a linebacker for an NFL team.
So imagine a big guy with a neck collar hopping around on one leg with a walker at the hospital. Not exactly the picture of grace when you’re down a limb and can’t move your neck. Dale was pretty awkward. Yet he kept working and finally got to a point where he could go home. He was so excited to recover in the peace and quiet of his humble abode.
Photo of bathroom door and toilet by Unsplash.
Once Dale returned home however, he realized that his walker could not fit through the bathroom doorway.
“Oh, shit.”
Dale wondered, “How am I going to get to the toilet? How will I get to the shower? What the heck am I going to do?”
Even when Dale turned to side step (or hop) with the walker, it was incredibly difficult to do. He didn’t feel safe. Dale felt like he was going to fall going through the bathroom doorway, reinjure himself, and go back to the hospital.
“I’ll be damned if I go back there!”
What could Dale do? He needed instant results right away. There was no time to hire a contractor and widen the bathroom doorway to 32-36 inches!
Here were the two fastest options Dale could do to make sure his basic needs were met:
1) Bedside commode
You’ve probably seen a bedside commode at some point in your life at Granny’s house, the hospital, or a nursing home. The beauty in bedside commodes is that you can put them anywhere in the house, like the living room or bedroom. This porta-potty like toilet has a bucket underneath for caregivers to empty the contents.
Because they’re easy to clean, people will also use bedside commodes to sponge bathe. So Dale could use the bedside commode as a two-for-one situation: toileting and sponge bathing.
But who the heck wants to use the bedside commode and watch their loved ones or a caregiver take their poop and pee in the bucket to pour down the toilet?
There are a time and a place for bedside commodes. I’m not totally knocking them down. They’re certainly a functional, temporary solution. The cost is minimal at around $50. You can take out the bucket and put the frame over the toilet to make it easier to get on and off the toilet (if you fit through the bathroom door with the walker!). Also, you can adjust the height of the bedside commode to make it taller or shorter.
Bedside commodes are totally a viable option.
However, if you have a choice to use the bathroom in your home, you’re probably going to lean towards that instead of the bedside commode. This is exactly what Dale did. The thought of putting the bedside commode next to his bed or in the living room was very unappealing: “Gross.”
Dale, I couldn’t agree more!
2) Offset Hinges
This type of door hinge is a magical, inexpensive way to widen the bathroom doorway instantly! You remove the current door hinges and swap them for the offset hinges. When you open the door, the offset hinges will allow the door to pull away from the frame and stay flush against the wall.
Voila! You now have about 1 and ½ inches more width to walk through the doorway. It doesn’t sound like much, but trust me on this: 1 and ½ inches can make the difference between you taking yourself to the toilet or stranded outside the bathroom door doing the potty dance.
Offset hinges cost around $40 or more for two hinges. Forty bucks versus thousands in remodeling to widen the bathroom door? Um, we don’t have to think too much about which solution is best for this situation.
Yes, I’ll take the inexpensive, instant independence, please!
(Just FYI: I’m an Amazon affiliate and will receive an itty bitty commission if you buy these products at no extra cost to you. Thank you!)
Lever Door Handle
If you throw a lever door handle on the bathroom door, now you’ve made it even easier to open and close it! Lever door handles make it so you don’t need to grip and twist the handle to open it like a traditional doorknob. All you need to do is push down on the lever with your hand/forearm/elbow to open the door with little effort. This makes life easier especially when you’re using a walker.
After the offset hinges and lever door handle were installed, Dale hopped over with the walker, opened the door, and went through the doorway.
“I don’t need my old lady to help me out with this.”
No, Dale, you don’t need anyone to help you out with it! Welcome to a dignified recovery at home.
No Barn Doors
I won’t get into why opening a barn door or pocket door would be super hard for Dale to open and close while standing on one leg with a walker. I challenge you to try standing on one leg while moving your arm back and forth in a horizontal line like you’re opening a barn door. How did it go? Did you lose your balance?
Keep your traditional doors, people! It’s easier to push or pull open a door front and back compared to side to side. Read why I’m not a fan of sliding doors for bathrooms here.
It’s an understatement to say this was an eye-opening experience for Dale. He said he planned to remodel in the future and eventually widen all doorways in the home.
You never know what’s going to happen in life. I’ve worked with countless people who had ended up not being able to return home because it’s not set up for them to take care of themselves. That’s the worst thing that could happen to a person!
Dale doesn’t take doorways for granted any longer. And I hope you don’t either.
Widen Doorways to 36”
Widening doorways in your home is a good investment to keep yourself at home. Don’t become someone who has to stay in a rehab center or a family member’s home until completely healed. Set yourself up now! You’ve got the power to do it!
Have you been in this situation? Or do you know someone who has? Tell us about it in the comments section below!
We also want to know what you’re doing to set yourself up to live at home for a lifetime?
All I know is you better do it before you need it!
(Hey, did you know we have an awesome online course for people who have a hard time wiping after using the toilet? It’s an awkward topic that you can learn how to solve in the comfort and privacy of your own home! Learn more about the course HERE!)