Deupree House's Premier Senior Living Blog

Despite the cat's reputation as an aloof, disinterested animal, the fact is, most house cats are loving, affectionate animals who become attached to their owners—and to their homes. That means when it's time to move, your cat can feel as disoriented and uprooted as you do, and it's important you take some special steps to help your cat adjust to new surroundings. Finding senior apartments that let you bring pets is the first hurdle to overcome, but once you find the right community, there's still more work to be done. Here are a few tips to help your cat feel more comfortable and at home in a new community:

October 24th is Make a Difference Day, a nationwide celebration dedicated to improving the lives of the people in our own communities and neighborhoods. You don't have to look outside your senior apartments or make a grand gesture to make a big difference in someone's life. Often, just one small gesture can make a big difference in the day (or even life!) of a neighbor or person in your local community.

If you're not sure what you can do to make a difference in your community, we have a few ideas to get you started:

Downsizing to a home with a smaller footprint or simply because you're ready for less "stuff" are two of the most common reasons that older adults find themselves de-cluttering a living space, but don’t limit yourself to a major life event like moving house to get your home in order. A clutter free senior apartment or house has multiple benefits, including a healthier, stress-free environment.

September 28 is National Good Neighbor Day. An observation that grew out of an initiative led by Montana resident Becky Mattson in the early 1970s, the holiday was proclaimed a National "Day" by President Jimmy Carter in 1978. Why? Because good neighbors create good neighborhoods. And we all acknowledge that good neighborhoods are safer, better, more supportive, more active, and friendlier places.

Neighborhoods filled with individuals who care about one another and who will work together for the common good can be found anywhere—a suburban cul-de-sac, a single floor in a high rise apartment building, a senior apartment or condominium community, a marina filled with live-aboard boaters, or a base of military families.

Moving from a home that you have “built up” for many years is never an easy circumstance to face. As you get older, though, sometimes the daily tasks of keeping up your house become more and more of a nuisance: A winter of shoveling out the driveway can take a toll on your knees and back. Heating (or cooling!) a drafty, old house isn’t budget-friendly, and is it really practical for one or two people to rattle around a 5-bedroom house?

Planning and adjusting to a new living space can be an exciting, adventurous time—as long as it's properly planned, of course. With New Home Owner's Day on May 1 kicking off a flurry of fair-weather moving, we thought now would be the perfect time to share four simple senior solutions for those who are making the move from a house to an apartment.

Collectively, they'll help streamline the moving process and keep stress levels low during the move itself.

After moving into a retirement community, there often comes a time in your life when cooking for yourself becomes an unnecessary chore. And with all the options available to Cincinnatians—you’ll find no dearth of excellent restaurants in the Queen City—it’s no surprise that many local seniors opt to forgo cooking. At least on most nights.

But when you don't cook for yourself anymore, eating healthy can be a challenge. You are at the mercy of someone else's menu, and must make choices based off of what is available to you. If you no longer cook for yourself, but want to eat healthy, here are some tips that work.

It's no secret that, with all of the advances in medical science and our improving knowledge on healthy diets and exercise, people are living better, longer. Based on the 2014 World Health Statistics, a child born in 2012 can expect to live 6 years longer than a child in the same setting and area who was born in 1990. Aside from the life expectancy numbers, there is a lifestyle change occurring in recent generations of seniors— older adults are maintaining a more active lifestyle. If 40 is the new 20, then 80 is the new 60, and there's no reason to slow down on the things you enjoy. In fact, senior apartments and retirement communities are geared for the exact opposite— energetic, fully invested seniors who want to contribute to their community and enjoy these prime years.

Each night, countless seniors toss and turn, just hoping for a better night’s sleep. Many more lie sleeping snugly in their senior apartments, without a care in the world— these seniors have kicked their bad sleep habits to the curb. In fact, according to the National Institutes of Health, nearly half of all Americans aged 60 and older are affected by sleeplessness that can last weeks or even months.

Sleep Awareness Week™, held March 2-8 in 2015, is an annual public awareness campaign that promotes healthy sleep—and it’s the perfect time for you to get a handle on your sleeping habits.

In order to maintain independence and health, a goal that we all strive for, developing an appropriate and effective exercise routine is one of the best things that you can do for yourself.