Living alone as a senior citizen can allow you to be independent and self sufficient. For many seniors living alone is preferable to living with an adult child, being placed in a retirement home or even living in an assisted living facility. But living alone when you are a senior can have its pitfalls and challenges as well. These senior tips for living alone can help to keep you safe while you enjoy the lifestyle you love.

Live Healthy

Perhaps the best senior tip for living alone is to make every effort to live a healthy lifestyle. Sticking to a good, healthy diet, getting regular, age appropriate exercise, making sure to get enough sleep and taking your prescribed medications are essential to keeping you fit and able to deal with problems on your own or with limited help. Don't let living alone mean eating out of a can with no fresh fruit or vegetables anywhere to be seen. Just because no one is checking don't skip taking that walk, for months at a time. Passing by your medicine bottles with a shrug or substituting cat naps for real sleep, are also not a good idea. Your ability to continue to live alone will very much depend on senior tips that can keep you healthy.

Get Organized

An important senior tip for living alone is to develop a system in your home that allows you to feel and be organized. It doesn't necessarily have to be a system that works for anyone but you. Being well organized in your home means having fixed locations for storing essentials like keys, wallet, important phone numbers , appointment cards, and medications. But organization also means establishing a comfortable schedule that will allow you to complete routine tasks like shopping, appointments, meetings and visits without undue duress. Putting that schedule and related phone numbers on a calendar in a prominent place will help you to function independently and prompt you to get to where you need to go when you need to go there.

A great senior tip for helping you to feel confident , comfortable and secure while living alone is to train ourself to maintain back up supplies . Certainly for those times when the power goes off, you will want to have back-ups like flashlights, batteries, blankets, candles and matches placed where they can be easily reached. But you will also want less dramatic backup supplies to hold you over during those instances when bad weather or a bad cold keep you housebound for a day or two.

A well stocked freezer, extra canned goods, surplus paper products and plenty of bottled water will all help you to feel prepared for any mishaps. You may never have to resort to any of the back up materials you store away,but laying in supplies will give you peace of mind and is a clear expression of your ability to take charge and manage while living alone.

There are literally hundreds of tips to help seniors keep safe when living alone. You can organize your own thinking about home safety by starting outside and working your way in.

A useful senior tip is to make sure you get to know your neighbors. You don't have to make them your best friends, but having a sense of who they are, what they do and their daily routines can help to alert you when something seems amiss in the neighborhood. Besides making them aware of the presence of a senior citizen in the neighborhood can work to your mutual advantage. Without being intrusive many neighbors enjoy taking a somewhat protective attitude toward seniors in their neighborhood and they can often be relied on to lend a hand or a cup of sugar as need be.

You can add to your sense of security in your own home by installing reliable locks or a security system that suits your needs in your particular neighborhood. The end result should be that you can enter your house easily and that you can also secure your home from unauthorized entry just as easily. However secure your house may seem, remember you hold the key, you must refuse to open your door to anyone you don't know, regardless of how nice they may look or sound.

Inside your home you can beef up your personal security by participating in a senior citizens call in program available in many communities. This system requires you to call a central switchboard at a set time each day to assure others that you are up and about your day. Failure to call in will activate a call to your home to check on your well being. Many seniors today feel more secure than ever because they wear an emergency pendant which serves as signaling device for outside help if you fall or require medical assistance. Being alone in your own home can never be totally risk free but there are ways to reduce the dangers.

If you have stairs, a good senior tip is to make a small investment to install a second handrail so that there are railings on both sides of the stairs. A few minor additions to your bathroom like non-skid mats, hand rails, and tub chairs all improve your ability to function well in the bathroom and to remain safe.

Some seniors scoff at adding safety and security devices to their homes. You'll be more likely to accept these senior tips if you recognize that they are simple, generally inexpensive and may really make the difference between being able to stay in your own home or not.

The best source of assistance for some seniors may well be other seniors. A good senior tip is to get connected with the senior community in your area. You may want to spend forty hours a week at the local senior center and go on every day trip they offer. Or you may only pass through occasionally. What's important is to make yourself known and to discover what services and activities are provided. You may be surprised at the diversity of senior activities that can be found in one central location.

Today senior centers are more than places to socialize over coffee and donuts. Most centers have a full schedule of activities including things like line dancing, creative writing, music, bowling and shopping trips. But they also offer free health screening, nutrition classes, relaxation courses and a variety of counseling options. The center allows you to connect with other people not unlike yourself. Sharing experiences may mean both getting some good senior tips for living alone and feeling the satisfaction of giving out a few senior tips of your own.

Being a senior living alone can be wonderful but it can also be a challenge. For those who are fully committed to that lifestyle, there are many senior tips that can help make living alone as a senior a safe, secure and happy lifestyle and one that you will enjoy for years to come.