Most of what makes a home hearing-friendly costs very little and can take as little time as an afternoon.
AT A GLANCE
- Soften the Hard Surfaces First
- Rearrange Seating for Conversation
- Fix the Lighting Before Anything Else
- Quiet the Appliances You Stopped Noticing
- Set Up One Room as the Easy Listening Room
- Add Visual Alerts Where They Matter
- Handle the Phone Area Deliberately
- Small Projects Worth an Afternoon
Home modifications for better hearing start from a simple observation: home should be the easiest place for you to hear in. Sometimes open floor plans, hard flooring, large windows, appliances can work against clear conversations.
The good news is that most of the fixes are inexpensive, reversible, and can be easy to accomplish in an afternoon. Here are a few changes that can make the biggest difference in making your home hearing-friendly.
Soften the Hard Surfaces First
Sound bounces off hard surfaces and arrives at your ears multiple times a fraction of a second apart, which can make a room feel echoey and speech sound distorted. Adding soft material absorbs those reflections and helps clean up the sound considerably.
The highest-return additions are usually the largest: an area rug on a hard floor, curtains rather than blinds, and upholstered furniture rather than wood or leather. A single large rug in a living room can noticeably improve sound quality, and you should be able to hear the difference the day you put it down.
Smaller additions help too. Fabric wall hangings, bookshelves filled with books, throw pillows, and a tablecloth on a dining table all absorb sound. If a room echoes when you clap your hands in it, you may want to consider softening the surfaces to allow for better hearing.
Rearrange Seating for Conversation
Furniture placement affects hearing more than most people realize. Seating spread across a large room can force everyone to raise their voices, which reduces clarity rather than improving it.
Consider pulling chairs closer together, ideally within about six feet, and angling them toward each other rather than lining them up facing a television. A conversation area separate from the television area gives people somewhere to talk without competing with a screen.
Position seating away from open kitchen areas and hallways where noise travels. If you have a favorite chair, placing it with your back to a wall rather than to an open room reduces the amount of ambient sound arriving from behind you.
Fix the Lighting Before Anything Else
Lighting is often the most overlooked hearing modification in the home. A great deal of understanding is derived from seeing a speaker’s face, watching their lips and expressions, and picking up on other non-verbal cues. Dim or poorly placed light can reduce that information without anyone noticing.
Aim for even, bright light in the rooms where conversation happens. Add lamps rather than relying on a single overhead fixture, since layered light reduces shadows on faces. If possible, avoid seating anyone directly in front of a bright window, which turns their face into a silhouette and makes lipreading more difficult.
Higher-output light bulbs in existing fixtures is an easy and inexpensive improvement that actually helps make hearing easier for your family and guests.
Quiet the Appliances You Stopped Noticing
Every home has background noises that you have probably tuned out. Refrigerators, range hoods, forced air heating, ceiling fans, dehumidifiers, and older bathroom fans can all contribute to a noisy background.
Try standing in your living room and listening for thirty seconds without doing anything else. Whatever sounds you notice are competing with every conversation you have in that room.
Some of these noises are fixable. A refrigerator can often be leveled or have its coils cleaned to run more quietly. Ceiling fans can be balanced or turned off during conversations. Rubber pads under a washing machine reduce vibration. For noises that cannot be reduced, timing helps: running the dishwasher after dinner rather than during conversation time costs nothing at all.
Set Up One Room as the Easy Listening Room
Rather than modifying an entire house, many people find it works better to set aside one room or area specifically for conversation.
Pick the room with the most soft surfaces, the best lighting, and the least background noise, and treat it as the default setting for visits and phone calls. Add a rug, curtains, a couple of lamps, and seating arranged in a close circle. Keep the television in a different room if you can, or at least agree to turn the volume down or off when someone comes over.
Having one reliably easy-listening room takes pressure off every gathering, since you already know where to sit.
Add Visual Alerts Where They Matter
Conversation is only part of hearing at home. Doorbells, smoke alarms, telephone rings, kitchen timers, and dryer buzzers all carry information, and some of it matters a great deal. Take opportunities to convey this information in a way that does not rely on hearing.
For example, visual alerting systems convert those sounds into flashing lights or vibration. Smoke alarms with a strobe light and bed shakers address a real safety gap for anyone who removes their hearing aids overnight. Doorbell systems that flash a lamp are straightforward to install, and can work wirelessly for easy installation.
Our overview of different alert methods for people with hearing loss covers what is available and where each type works best.
Handle the Phone Area Deliberately
Wherever you take phone calls deserves the same attention as the conversation area. Set up the phone in a quiet spot away from the kitchen and the television, with good light and a comfortable chair. Having a notepad within reach means you can easily jot down information while also following the rest of the sentence.
A captioned telephone works well in these situations, since it displays written captions of what the caller says while you talk, so you can read along rather than relying on volume alone. Check that the spot you have chosen has both a power outlet and whatever connection the phone needs. Our guide to telephone devices for hard of hearing covers what to look for.
Small Projects Worth an Afternoon
If you want a short list to start with, these tend to give the most improvement for the least effort:
- Put an area rug in the main conversation room
- Swap in brighter bulbs and add a second lamp
- Hang curtains in place of blinds in one room
- Move two chairs closer together and angle them toward each other
- Add felt pads under dining chairs to prevent scraping
- Install a flashing doorbell alert
- Move the phone to a quiet, well-lit corner
These simple improvements don’t require a contractor, and in most cases cost less than a nice dinner out. A home that is easier to hear in is mostly a matter of soft surfaces, good light, and a little less background noise than you had yesterday.
Take the next step:
- Explore CapTel phone models to set up a phone area that works for you
- You or someone you know may be eligible to receive a CapTel phone at no cost
- Have questions? Call CapTel at 1-800-233-9130
Keep exploring: More on hearing health FAQs | Visit the CapTel blog | Share this article with a friend
An expert in telecommunications accessibility, John travels throughout the US educating consumers & businesses about telecom support for people with hearing loss. He’s served as President of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) Madison Chapter and spent eight years on the TDI Board of Directors advising on policy matters.
