Gares Senior Concierge Services

09/27/2026

There’s a big difference between staying at home and being able to live there safely, confidently, and with the right support in place.

On Tuesday, September 29, Megan Murphy will host The Sandwich Club in Ridgewood, bringing together a panel to talk about aging in place, home safety, decluttering, downsizing, and the decisions families face as needs begin to change.

Gares Senior Concierge co-founder Christine Muller Gares, OTR/L, will join Megan and Linda Chinman Po***ck for the discussion, bringing more than 30 years of Occupational Therapy experience along with the perspective Gares has gained working directly with older adults and their families in the community.

Christine’s focus will be on maintaining independence, recognizing where everyday life is becoming harder, and understanding how the right support can help someone remain at home longer and more successfully.

Linda will share practical home-safety solutions and products, while Megan will address decluttering, downsizing, and the decisions families face when staying at home is no longer the best option.

The evening is designed to give families practical information, useful resources, and a clearer understanding of the options available as needs change.

Tuesday, September 29
6:00–7:30 PM
74 Godwin Ave., Ridgewood, NJ
RSVP: [email protected]

09/19/2026

Proud to have Gares Senior Concierge serve as one of the sponsors of the Golden Connection Elder Care Resource Fair in Closter.

It was a great turnout, but the best part was the conversations — with older adults, family members, caregivers, and other professionals about the everyday challenges that can make aging at home more complicated than it needs to be.

Transportation, errands, help around the house, technology, safety, and having a trusted person to call all came up again and again. Those are exactly the kinds of practical needs Gares was built to help with.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our table, asked questions, shared a story, and connected with us. We were glad to be part of an event that brought so many local resources together in one place.

09/18/2026

She didn’t fall. So nobody worried.

She caught herself on the counter.
He stumbled getting out of the car.
She missed the last step but grabbed the railing.
He lost his balance carrying something upstairs.

We tend to count the falls. The near misses may tell us more.

September is Fall Prevention Awareness Month, a good reminder to pay attention to the moments that end with “I’m fine.”

A near miss can be an early sign that something has changed—balance, strength, vision, the environment, or simply how someone is managing an everyday task.

Recognizing those small moments gives us an opportunity to make changes before a fall leads to injury, an ER visit, or a loss of confidence.

Sometimes prevention starts by noticing what almost happened.

Gares Senior Concierge
Helping Families Navigate Aging with Confidence

09/13/2026

The influence of a grandparent can last a lifetime.

Grandparents hold a unique place in a family. When grandchildren are young, they can be teachers, storytellers, cheerleaders, sounding boards, and a steady source of love and reassurance. They pass along traditions, family history, life lessons—and often a perspective that only comes from having lived through a few more chapters.

But the value of that relationship doesn’t end when grandchildren grow up.

Grandparents connect us to where we came from. Their stories give context to our own, and their experiences can influence how we approach family, relationships, parenthood, work, and the challenges of our own adult lives.

As the years pass, the relationship can become even richer. Adult grandchildren have the opportunity to know their grandparents not simply as “Grandma” or “Grandpa,” but as whole people—with histories, accomplishments, mistakes, adventures, humor, opinions, and stories we may never have heard.

There is tremendous value in keeping generations connected.

At Gares Senior Concierge, we believe growing older doesn’t diminish a person’s place in a family. The years add to what they have to share.

Today, we celebrate the grandparents who help shape generations—not just during childhood, but for a lifetime.

Happy Grandparents Day from Gares Senior Concierge. ❤️

09/10/2026

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/excited-to-be-a-part-of-this-event-for-the-share-7503881522647605248-Scat?utm_medium=ios_app&rcm=ACoAAARkylkBprRxq7h0Tf9EXFXE52Op2D0-xS0&utm_source=social_share_send&utm_campaign=facebook

09/10/2026

How many did you find? 👀

When we think about home safety, we tend to think about the obvious things. But many of the hazards we see in homes every day don’t look particularly dangerous.

Take another look at the picture. Did you notice:

• The extension cord running across the walking path
• The shoe left on the floor
• The curled edge of the area rug
• The small item on the rug
• The large bag hanging into the walking path
• The bar stools pulled out into the walkway
• Clothing draped over chairs and stools
• The open step stool in the kitchen
• The open upper cabinet
• The frying pan handle pointing outward from the stove
• Shoes and a bag near frequently traveled areas
• The long hallway runner
• Dining chairs narrowing the walking path
• The low coffee table that’s easy to miss when you’re moving through the room

And here’s an important one that isn’t shown as clearly in the picture: avoid storing frequently used items over the stovetop. Reaching across a hot burner or cookware significantly increases the risk of a burn.

Not every rug, chair or piece of furniture is automatically a hazard.

That’s where the OT lens matters.

A home safety assessment isn’t just a checklist. We look at the person, the environment and how everyday tasks are actually being performed. Something that works perfectly well for one person may create a significant risk for someone else.

Sometimes the solution is as simple as moving a cord, changing where something is stored, improving lighting or rearranging a frequently traveled area.

Gares Senior Concierge offers in-home safety assessments by an occupational therapist to help identify potential concerns and practical ways to make the home safer while maintaining independence.

Because aging in place doesn’t mean changing everything about your home. Sometimes it means changing the right things.

Gares Senior Concierge

📞 551-244-4699

🌐 www.garesconcierge.com

How many did you spot before reading the list?

09/09/2026

Senior living communities do an incredible job supporting their residents. But there will always be needs that fall outside of what their teams are designed to provide.

For one of our clients, that need was her cat.

She needed help with the everyday things that allowed her to keep her cat with her — supplies, litter box care, vet visits and medication pickups. Her assisted living community was providing her care; we simply filled a gap that was outside of their scope.

As time went on, her needs changed. After some medical issues caused a temporary decline, she stopped participating in many of the activities available within her community. Because we already knew her, our role naturally expanded to spending one-on-one time with her and helping her stay engaged.

This is exactly where we see Gares fitting into senior living communities.

Transportation. Personal errands. Pet care. Shopping. Outside appointments. Companionship. The things residents and families need that don’t always fall within a community’s services.

We aren’t there to duplicate what a community already does. We’re there to handle the things that fall in between.

If you’re a senior living leader and recognize some of these gaps in your own community, we’d love to talk.

Sometimes a partnership really does start with a cat.

Gares Senior Concierge
🌐 garesconcierge.com
📞 [phone number]

09/04/2026

Labor Day is a funny holiday when you really think about it. We celebrate work by not working.

But maybe that isn’t a contradiction at all.

Labor Day grew out of a time when workers were fighting for better wages and safer working conditions, but they were also fighting for something much simpler: time. Time away from work, time with their families, time for recreation and, ultimately, time to have a life that wasn’t completely defined by a job.

More than a century later, the way we work has changed enormously, but I’m not sure that part of the conversation has changed nearly as much.

Work matters. It provides for us and our families, gives many of us a sense of purpose and accomplishment, and allows us to contribute to something beyond ourselves. If we’re fortunate, we may even genuinely love the work we do. But work was never supposed to be the entirety of a life.

Maybe that’s worth remembering this weekend. Labor Day isn’t really a celebration of not working. It’s a celebration of the idea that our lives should contain something besides work.

So spend some time with your family or friends. Go somewhere. Stay home. Grill something. Read a book. Watch terrible television. Sit outside and do absolutely nothing useful for a while. Whatever a life outside of work looks like for you, make a little room for it.

Don’t just enjoy the day off. Remember what the day off is protecting.

Happy Labor Day.

08/21/2026