Choosing an Ideal Retirement Home: 4 Things To Look For + a Nifty Real-World Example

Whether it’s for you or your loved one, you should set the standard for what you’d want to see from it.

Researched, written by Amber & The Team
Updated on January 22, 2023

Senior Woman In An Ideal Retirement Home

Found in Aging & elderly care • Family Wellness

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Choosing an ideal retirement home for your loved one (or even yourself) can be stressful. There are a multitude of retirement homes and assisted living communities out there for older people who are looking for a comfortable place to live.

What to look for in an ideal retirement home? How to choose the best option?

In this article, we’re taking a look at 4 important factors that make or break an ideal retirement home. We chose a real-world example to nit-pick too.

The city of Greenville in South Carolina has its share of locations that fit the bill, and we chose Kempton as our case example. We’ll talk about the main features and services that are essential for an informed decision, and why exactly they’re important.

4 Tips For Choosing an Ideal Retirement Home

1. An Ideal Retirement Home Should Have Excellent Amenities

It should go without saying, but you need to find a location that goes above and beyond in terms of the on-site amenities that are available.

Let’s take a look at our example, Kempton of Greenville. Here, on-site amenities are a box you can tick off.

Each resident benefits from access to a laundry and linen service which ensures their clothing and bedding are kept in tip-top condition, without them needing to lift a finger.
There’s a dining room, which provides three meals daily, each one of which is offered in a restaurant-style setup, with healthy foods served by friendly staff.
There’s room cleaning.
Seniors have regular entertainment and off-site events;
Amenities also include transport, to raise the bar further.

Why it’s important? When your loved one has a clean room, clothes, access to healthy food three times per day & regularly has fun, you can rest assured that the basic needs are already covered.

2. An Ideal Retirement Home Should Have Different Tiers Of Care

Some people prefer to grow old at home, while others decide and move to a retirement complex sooner rather than later.

You want your ideal retirement home to be able to support you and your unique needs, as they can be quite different from other people.

Let’s get back to our example, Kempton of Greenville. Here, as well as being able to live with independence, you can also be a part of a community that combats loneliness and isolation.

There’s also memory care for those with dementia and respite care offered to those who want to stay on a temporary basis. In this case, family caregivers can take time off.

Why it’s important? People have different preferences, and the amount of social interaction is an extremely important thing to take into account. Introverted seniors will not feel great in a place that pushes them to participate in the community. Their ideal retirement home would be a place where they can choose how much they want to do in terms of social interaction.

3. Look For a Place With a Variety Of Living Spaces

This criterion can’t always be met, but since we’re looking for an ideal retirement home, let’s take a look at it too.

Seniors love to choose the amount and quality of space they will have around them. One of the reasons why we chose assisted living in Greenville as our example is because there’s a variety of rooms to choose from.

In an ideal retirement home, both one and two-bedroom (even three-room) apartments should be available. This means that whatever your or your loved one’s needs and expectations are, there are spaces to accommodate them.

Regardless of the apartment option you pick, each one should include:

a private bathroom including accessible facilities;
kitchen area with a refrigerator;
comprehensive temperature control so that you can manage the climate as you see fit.

Why it’s important? The amount of rooms is significant if you want the retirement home to resemble a real home. In most cases, senior people prefer to keep living and sleeping areas separate. This makes the experience feel far more like home without sacrificing the on-site support that’s integral in an ideal retirement home.

4. Beautiful Surroundings Matter, a Lot

An ideal retirement home should never be a place you’ll occupy in isolation. Rather, it should be a facility that is intimately linked with the region around it.

In the case of Greenville, you’ve got a glorious South Carolina location that benefits from warm weather conditions most of the year. There’s also a multitude of nearby attractions and amenities which can either be reached by walking or by hopping in a car for a few minutes.

There are museums, golf courses, farmer’s markets, and much more besides.

Why it’s important? If you don’t just want to be cooped up in the retirement home day in and day out, it’s vital to have lots of reasons to get out and explore the world. If you can take visitors with you on your adventures, it’s even more fun for everyone.

Key takeaways

It makes sense to have your own set of requirements in place before you start looking for an ideal retirement home. There are nursing homes that are ready to match your criteria. Whether it’s for you or your loved one, you should set the standard for what you’d want to see from this type of facility.