Most families size a caregiver by hours and tasks. The house sets the rest. A caregiver who carries laundry down a flight of stairs, walks the length of a hallway between the bedroom and the kitchen several times a shift, or parks three blocks away will spend part of every hour on that before any care happens. This guide walks the house one room at a time so the arrangement fits the building you actually have. Write on paper, and bring the sheet to the assessment visit or the first call.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

Step 1: Draw the house on one sheet

Sketch each floor in pencil. Scale does not matter. Mark the front door, the back door, the garage or driveway, and every staircase. Then label what happens in each room.

  1. Mark the room where the parent sleeps and the nearest bathroom.
  2. Mark the room where the parent spends most of the day.
  3. Mark the kitchen, the laundry, and the trash and recycling path to the curb or bin.
  4. Mark where the mail, phone, and chargers sit.

Write here: Floors in the house: ____ Rooms used every day: ____ Bathroom nearest the bedroom: ____

Step 2: Mark what the caregiver must be able to see

Stand where the caregiver will usually sit. From that spot, can you see the parent's room door, the bathroom door, and the front door? Mark every room that is out of sight. Do not decide yet what to do about those rooms. Ask the provider what its written policy says about them, and write the answer down.

Write here: Rooms out of sight from the usual sitting spot: ____

Step 3: Count the trips

Walk the routes the caregiver will take most often: bedroom to bathroom, bedroom to kitchen, kitchen to laundry, house to car. Count steps or time each walk. Multiply by the number of times the route is used in a typical shift. The total is the trip load, and it is a sizing fact, not an opinion.

Write here: Route / Steps or minutes one way / Times per shift ____ / ____ / ____

Step 4: Check stairs, thresholds, and the floor the parent uses

Note every step, landing, and threshold that a walker, wheelchair, or bag would have to cross. Note whether the parent's bed, bathroom, and main room are on the same level. If the parent cannot manage stairs, say so plainly. The provider needs that before it quotes, because it changes which tasks sit inside the arrangement and which ones belong to someone else.

Write here: Stairs between the parent and the bathroom: ____ Level changes in the main route: ____

Step 5: Check parking, entry, and access

Where does the caregiver park, and is there a legal spot without a permit? How far is the walk from the car to the door, and what is the walk like in bad weather? Does the caregiver need a key, a code, or a lockbox? Write the answers here and keep key handling on its own sheet.

Write here: Parking spot: ____ Walk from car to door: ____ Entry method: ____

Step 6: Give the caregiver a place that is not the parent's space

Decide where the caregiver can put a bag, eat, and step out of sight during quiet hours. If the house has no such place, write that down too. Medicine storage stays outside the caregiver's work area because medicine stays with the family, the doctor, and the pharmacist. Do not list the medicine shelf as part of any caregiver station.

Write here: Caregiver's bag and rest spot: ____

Step 7: Lay the floor plan against the written duties

Take each task from the duties list the provider gives you, and write beside it the room it happens in and the trip load from Step 3. A task with no room, or a trip load that alone fills a large part of a shift, is a sizing problem. Fix it by changing the hours, the task split, or the layout, not by hoping the caregiver will cover it. The Start Here: Five Steps to Hiring page lists the order of the remaining steps.

Write here: Task / Room / Trips per shift / Minutes it takes ____ / ____ / ____ / ____

Step 8: Name who fixes what the house cannot

Some fit problems belong to the family: a cleared path, a chair placed for rest, a shower seat, a bed moved closer to the bathroom. Write each fix and the family member who will own it and finish it before the first shift.

Write here: Fix / Owner / Done before shift one? ____ / ____ / ____

Questions to ask before you agree to hours

  1. Will you visit the house before you quote, or will you quote from my sketch?
  2. How many trips per shift are you assuming for this house, and where did that number come from?
  3. Does your quote change if the parent moves to a different floor or room?
  4. When a route is blocked or a set of stairs is unsafe for the task, who decides, and who calls me?
  5. Where does your caregiver park, and who pays for parking or a permit?
  6. Where does your caregiver keep a bag and take a break inside this house?

Answers to listen for

The provider asks for the sketch and counts the trips out loud with you. It ties a change in the layout to a change in the written duties and the hours. It names the person who will call you when the layout blocks a task, and it gives you that answer in writing.

Signs to walk away

  • The provider quotes hours before it asks which rooms and floors are used.
  • It says every house is basically the same.
  • It expects heavy loads carried from a car, basement, or upper floor with no written limit you can read.
  • Its answer on parking or entry is that the caregiver will figure it out on the first day.

What to write down

Keep the sketch, the trip counts, the parking and entry answers, and the list of family fixes together in one folder. Write the provider's answer next to each question, along with the day you asked it. Those notes are the record you will compare against the agreement before you sign. The Sources page lists where the hiring checks on this site come from.