Best Outdoor Kitchen Perks For Seniors in 2023
For most people, cooking is an indoor endeavor done in a kitchen that is inside your home. This has been the accepted norm for a long time now. But, does it have to be? Should it be? Perhaps if you can’t take the heat in the kitchen – you shouldn’t have to.
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If you have a home with large outside space available, you have the option to add an outdoor kitchen to your home. This can be a supplemental kitchen to the one you already have, or even an upgraded replacement main kitchen for your home. While usually it is possible to re-do and improve your existing indoor kitchen, doing an outdoor one allows you much more flexibility and possible features. Also, while having an outdoor kitchen added to your home, you can often incorporate extra living area into the same project in a cost and time effective manner.
An outdoor kitchen brings many advantages and benefits for almost any kind of homeowner, but there are some perks of having an outdoor kitchen that are very beneficial for seniors. The best of these perks available in 2023 are discussed below.
A Better Senior Friendly Kitchen
A “dream kitchen” for most seniors would be one that is senior friendly. This means where the appliances, cabinets, power outlets, lighting and other essential parts of a kitchen are accessible and beneficial for seniors to use. While you can buy senior friendly appliances like refrigerators and ovens, they may not properly fit into your existing kitchen. What about cabinets and other storage spaces? And counter tops and other work surfaces, and even the sink. With a new outdoor kitchen, all of these can be properly designed and installed to provide you with a truly senior friendly kitchen. Plus, making this kind of kitchen wheelchair accessible is no problem.
Health Benefits of Being Outside
Spending more time outdoors can be beneficial for your overall health – both physical and mental. Studies have shown that:
• Sunlight provides vitamin D a very important nutrient for overall health.
• Aromatherapy sessions have been shown to relieve stress. Experiencing the smells of nature like freshly cut grass, pine trees, and flowers does the
exact same thing.
• Being outside more boosts your immune system.
• The outdoors helps calm your mind and restore your focus, which makes you more creative.
Higher Enjoyment and Utilization of Your Property
By adding an outdoor kitchen and associated extra living space outside (such as decks and patios), you will expand the size of your house. Having this extra usable and functional space will lead to greater enjoyment and use of your home. For many seniors, having an outdoor kitchen and dining area will be like having their own cafe restaurant. Plus, you will then have plenty of room to entertain family (including grandchildren) and friends – from the convenience of your own yard.
Healthier Eating
The center piece of most outdoor kitchens is a grill – something which is very difficult or impossible to incorporate into a regular indoor kitchen. A real grill allows you to cook a variety of foods, including meats, poultry, fish and vegetables, in a healthy way. With the outdoor grill, most people reduce the amount of fried food they consume. This is healthy because it reduces the amounts of fats and bad oils in the diet and promotes the eating of fresh meat and vegetables over processed “convenience” foods. That means less junk in your diet and a healthier senior.
Cuts Costs and Improves Home Cleanliness
A busy kitchen is usually a hot kitchen and thus a hotter house. By doing the cooking outside, you don’t heat up your house. Thus, your need for air conditioning should be reduced – and your electric bill will be lower. Also, you won’t need to run those noisy and electric using exhaust fans anymore. In addition to the heat being kept out of the house, so will smoke and fumes. This in turn results in a cleaner and fresher interior of your home.
An Easier Home Improvement
Doing an interior kitchen remodeling, especially a major one, necessitates an often drawn out time of noise, dirt, clutter and inconvenience – as you usually will not be able to use the kitchen while the work is ongoing. However, adding an outside kitchen all but eliminates all of these problems. Also, seniors can have the extra security of not needing a bunch of workers to be inside their home.
Increased Home Value
Adding a nice outside kitchen can add monetary value to your house. People of all ages are looking for homes with outdoor amenities and are paying to get them. There have been many reports of an outdoor kitchen adding twice of the cost of the kitchen to the value of the house – meaning if you spend $10,000 on the outside kitchen, your home value will increase by $20,000. This means in many cases the adding of an outdoor kitchen will more than pay for itself. Also, it will usually make your home more attractive so it may sell faster.
