Make sure your heaters are operating safely. Contact your local gas or electricity supplier for tips.

Block the draughts under your doors with colourful door snakes.

Increase the wattage in your light bulbs and put extra lamps around to brighten up your house. You can buy energy-saving globes from your supermarket: the 18-watt globes are as bright as a normal 100-watt globe.

Make big pots of soup and freeze them for those nights when you can’t be bothered cooking, or keep a good supply of canned soup. Stock up on other nutritious convenience foods such as frozen meals.

Get some bright rugs or blankets to wrap yourself and your care receiver in.

Do a colour inventory of your home and wardrobe. Do you have every colour in the rainbow around you? Research shows it is good for your health to be exposed to every colour, so correct what’s missing with a new or second-hand item of clothing for yourself and the person you care for, a blanket or some flowers.

Check the batteries in your smoke alarms and change them as soon as you hear them ‘chirping’ (the warning that the battery is about to run out). If you don’t have smoke alarms, get them at the supermarket, and if you need help installing them, ask a friend or neighbour to put them up for you. If you qualify for one of the various home maintenance schemes or assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs, they may also be able to help. See our Fact Sheet on Home and Community Care for more information. Your local fire station can give you advice on the best place to put smoke detectors and evacuation techniques for if there is a fire, and if you are elderly, they have a free service to install the smoke detectors and to change batteries. Visual smoke detectors are available for people with hearing impairments from Deafness Resources Australia at www.deafnessresources.net.au/