Your parents may insist they’ve lived in their house for 30 years without a problem, but familiarity can make small safety hazards remarkably easy to stop noticing. Fall is an especially useful time to take another look because daylight disappears earlier, leaves and rain can make entrances slippery, and heating equipment is returning to service.
The CDC reports that falls among adults 65 and older caused more than 43,000 deaths in 2024 and resulted in about 4.5 million emergency-department visits, while new CMS data shows 24% of Medicare beneficiaries living in the community experienced at least one fall that year. You don’t need to walk into Mom and Dad’s house carrying a clipboard or announce that you’re conducting an inspection; simply pay attention while you’re visiting. These eight home-safety risks are worth noticing before winter makes some of them even more troublesome and potentially more expensive.
