Interior Planning for Changing Mobility Checklist

Write down the routes actually walked in an ordinary day — bed to bathroom, bedroom to kitchen, front door to sitting room — in the order they happen.

Homes are used along a small number of repeated routes, and naming them is the difference between describing a house and describing how it is lived in.

Note the routes taken at night separately from those taken in the day, including what is switched on and what is not.

Night routes are taken in different conditions and are often the ones that have changed most, so keeping them separate matters.

Write down any part of the home that is no longer visited, and what used to happen there, without deciding why it stopped.

A room that has quietly gone out of use is one of the most useful observations a household can bring to a professional.

Note any route that is now taken differently — a longer way round, a different door, a different room — and when that changed.

Households adapt without noticing, and the adaptations they have already made describe the home more accurately than anything else.

Record roughly how often each route is taken in a day, since a route walked many times is a different subject from one walked occasionally.

Frequency is what a professional uses to prioritise, and it is information only the household can supply.

Write down who takes each route, since different people in the same household may use the home along completely different lines.

A record that merges everybody produces an average home that nobody actually lives in.

Note every point on each route where somebody stops, waits or pauses before continuing, and write down where they were standing.

Pauses are the clearest thing a household can observe and among the most useful things to hand to a qualified professional.

Write down what somebody reaches for on the way — a door frame, the back of a chair, a worktop edge, a windowsill — and where each one is.

You are recording what is being used, not concluding what should be installed. That distinction is what keeps the record honest.

Do not draw any conclusion from this about what should be fitted or where. What follows from these observations is for a qualified professional to decide.

Record the places somebody sits down that are not really seats — the edge of a bed, a stair, a hall chair that arrived for that purpose.

Furniture that has migrated to a route usually marks something, and its position is a fact the household can state exactly.

Write down the points on each route where carrying something has become awkward, and what is usually being carried there.

Describing what is being carried and where is concrete, and it avoids any judgement about the person carrying it.

Note anything in the home that has been moved, added or left permanently out because of how the home is now used.

These are adaptations the household has already made, and they are often the most informative part of the whole record.

Make these observations across several different days rather than in one sitting, and note the date against each one.

A single day gives a partial account, and the variation between days is itself information a professional will want.

Walk each route and write down every point where the level changes, including single steps, thresholds at doors and changes between rooms.

A written list is what lets a professional plan a visit efficiently, and single steps are the ones most often forgotten in a description.

Photograph each level change from the direction it is approached from, with something recognisable in the frame such as a door frame.

A photograph taken from the approach shows what somebody actually sees, which is different from a photograph taken side on.

Photographs are a record for a professional to work from. Do not attempt to judge from them what any level change requires.

Note what is beside each level change — a wall, a handrail, a door, an open edge, nothing at all — without deciding what should be there.

Describing what is present is an observation. Deciding what ought to be present is a determination for a qualified professional.

Write down what is at each external door, what is immediately outside it, and which external doors are still used.

Getting in and out of the property is usually the first thing a professional asks about and the part households describe least precisely.

Photograph any staircase from top and bottom, note what is on each side of it, and write down how it is lit.

A description in words rarely conveys a staircase; a pair of photographs and a note about light and handrails does.

Nothing here assesses a staircase. What any staircase requires is for appropriately qualified professionals to determine for the specific home.

Note any level change that somebody in the household has said is hard to see, and at what time of day they said so.

Recording it as something that was said keeps it an observation rather than a conclusion about anybody's sight.

Write down the floor surfaces each route crosses, in order, and note every point where one surface meets another.

The junctions are what a professional will ask about, and they are easy to list once you walk the route deliberately.

Note every loose rug, mat or runner on any route, where it sits and whether it moves when walked on.

This is an observable fact about an object, and it is exactly the kind of detail that gets missed in a single professional visit.

Record any part of a floor on a route that is worn, lifted, rucked or no longer sitting flat, and photograph it.

You are describing the condition of a floor, which is an owner observation, rather than judging what it means.

Write down anything anybody in the household has said about a particular floor being hard to walk on, in their own words.

Recording the household's own words avoids substituting your interpretation for what was actually said.

Whether any floor surface is appropriate in a particular home is a determination for qualified professionals, not something to conclude from these notes.

Note which floors on a route regularly get wet, and what causes it — coming in from outside, a bathroom, a kitchen, a pet bowl.

Where and why a floor gets wet is concrete and specific, and it is information a professional cannot gather from one visit.

Photograph what happens underfoot at each doorway on a route, since that is where most surfaces change and where thresholds sit.

Doorways concentrate several observations in one place, which makes them worth photographing rather than describing.

Write down every place on a route where somebody sits or leans on the way to somewhere else, and how long they usually stay.

This describes how the home is used over its distances, which is not something a plan of the property shows.

Note what is actually being used to sit on at each of those points, and whether it was put there for that purpose.

A chair placed halfway along a hall is a piece of evidence the household created, and it is worth recording as such.

Write down the routes where there is nothing to sit on at all, and how long those routes are in terms of rooms and doors crossed.

Describing length in rooms and doorways avoids stating any distance, and it is the description a professional can picture.

Note which seats in the home somebody uses in preference to others, and record that preference without interpreting it.

Preferences between existing pieces of furniture are observable, repeatable and specific, which makes them useful evidence.

Record where somebody waits when somebody else is using a room, and whether there is anywhere to sit while waiting.

Waiting points are part of how a household shares a home and are rarely considered in an interior brief.

Write down the route from the property to the street, the car or the bins, and where somebody stops on the way.

The route beyond the front door is part of the same daily experience and is frequently left out of an interior record entirely.

Walk the routes and note every door handle, window catch, lock and bolt that anybody has said is awkward, and photograph each one.

Naming the specific object and where it is turns a general difficulty into something a professional can look at directly.

Note which taps, shower controls, heating controls and appliance controls anybody has said are hard to operate, in their own words.

Recording the exact object and the exact words avoids putting any interpretation into the record.

Nothing here determines what any control should be replaced with. That follows an assessment by an appropriately qualified professional.

Write down which light switches and sockets are difficult to reach or find, and where each one is in the room.

Position is a fact the household can state precisely, which is more useful than a general statement about switches being awkward.

Note the storage in each room that is no longer used because of where it is, and what is in it.

Unused storage is a concrete observation and often explains why things have accumulated somewhere else entirely.

Write down anything in the home that has to be operated with two hands, and whether that matters on any of the routes.

This is an observation about an object rather than a person, which is the form these notes should take throughout.

Record anything in the home somebody has stopped using and what they do instead, without deciding whether the workaround is a problem.

Workarounds are how a household describes a home honestly, and they are exactly what a professional visit is unlikely to observe.

Read the whole record back and remove anything that states a conclusion rather than an observation, keeping only what was seen, heard or photographed.

A record of observations is far more useful to a professional than a record of an owner's conclusions about those observations.

Ask locally who carries out assessments of a home where somebody's needs are changing, and what such an assessment involves.

Arrangements differ considerably by area, so this is a question to ask where you live rather than one with a general answer.

Confirm locally what services and professionals exist in your area; this checklist cannot tell you who to approach or what applies.

Ask a qualified professional what should happen before any design or building work is considered, and record the answer before commissioning anything.

Work commissioned before an assessment can be the wrong work, and the order is something to ask about rather than assume.

Ask the professional what else they would like you to record before or after their visit, and add it to the same document.

A household can observe things over weeks that no visit can capture, and most professionals will say what would help.

Date the record, keep it in one place, and add to it as things change rather than starting a new account each time.

Change over time is itself information, and it only exists if the earlier version was kept rather than replaced.

Share the record with everybody it concerns, including the person it is mostly about, and correct anything they disagree with.

A record written about somebody without them is neither accurate nor appropriate, and correcting it is part of making it useful.