Hey, it’s John.
It’s the bathroom. Not the stairs, not the kitchen. Hard surfaces, water, and everything you’d grab for balance is either wet porcelain or a towel bar that was never designed to hold a person.
The number: falls are the leading cause of injury for adults over 65, and a meaningful share of the ones that happen at home happen in that room.
The three-dollar fix: a non-slip mat inside the tub or shower. Not a bath rug on the floor — a textured mat with suction cups on the shower floor itself. That’s the single highest-return purchase in this whole email.
The fifty-dollar fix: a proper grab bar, screwed into studs. Not the suction-cup kind. Those pop off, and they pop off at the worst possible moment.
The free ones:
A nightlight in the hallway and one in the bathroom.
Move the bath mat off the tile if it slides.
Anything you reach for on a high shelf — bring it down to waist height.
Not a fun email. It’s the one your kids would send you if they knew how to bring it up.
— John