Hi, I’m so glad you’re here.

Six years ago, I moved both of my parents in with me. My dad had already been living with dementia for six years by that point, so I thought I knew what I was walking into. I didn’t — not really. Within the first year, my mom, his primary caregiver up until then, started having serious medical issues of her own. Almost overnight, I went from “helping out” to running a household that needed to work for two aging parents with two very different sets of needs, in a house that wasn’t built for either of them.

That’s when the real changes started. Enough space to get a wheelchair through a doorway. Handrails in places I never would’ve thought to put them. Even something as small as the shower mat — swapping it for a color you could actually see against the tile. None of it was complicated once I knew what to look for. Finding out what to look for, though? That was the hard part. Most of what was out there was either written for a hospital or for a magazine, and never both.

Later on, when Mom was on hospice care, we needed even more room — for the medical equipment, for the people helping us, for the simple ability to move around a bed that now had to stay in one place. That’s really where my whole philosophy on minimal, clutter-free spaces comes from. It’s not about a clean aesthetic for its own sake. It’s about the fact that every extra side table or stack of magazines is one more thing in the way when you need to move fast, or move carefully, or just move at all.

So that’s really the whole reason Gentle Spaces exists. I’m not a doctor, an occupational therapist, or a designer with letters after my name, I’m someone who figured this out room by room, mistake by mistake, while also just trying to keep two people I love safe and comfortable. I started writing it down so the next person doing this doesn’t have to start from zero the way I did.

If you’re here because you’re caring for a parent, a spouse, or anyone else you love who’s living with dementia, I’m really glad you found this. This space is for the practical stuff (which rug actually prevents falls, which clock actually helps with sundowning) and the harder stuff too (the days you feel like you’re not doing enough, even when you’re doing everything).

A couple of things you should know about me: I believe color and warmth belong in a safe home just as much as grab bars do. I think “aging in place” shouldn’t mean “beige and sad.” And I will never recommend something here that I wouldn’t actually put in my own home, because most of what you’ll find on this site, I already have.

So, pull up a chair. Look around. And if you ever want to tell me what’s working (or not working) for you, I’d love to hear it. I read every message.

With love, Annette