How to make day-to-day care a bit easier with some DIY solutions
Hello KIRC family!
Here’s a question for you? When you hear anything related to DIY – Do It Yourself – do you instantly think of home improvement projects?
How can we not given the long list of great shows available teaching us how to do everything from patching small holes to retiling a roof?
For this newsletter update, I want to share with you a handful of DIY hacks I created during the thick of my caregiving duties.
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Despite the number of products out there designed to assist caregivers, I found ways to address some of the challenges unique to my mom and her care. They were solutions which were easy and made sense for me and her.
DIY caregiving hacks which saved our household
1. Medication Organizer
Many times during the caregiving journey I felt like a pharmacist. My mother battled diabetes, high blood pressure, Parkinson’s disease and heart disease.
Courtesy: Adobe Stock
That meant a variety of medications to treat those conditions and they had to be given at specific times throughout the day.
Keeping track of what I knew were literally ‘life saving’ pills was stressful. After all, a mistake could cause serious damage.
I thought about purchasing one of those plastic trays to separate pills. But then I thought:
What if I (or one of our health aids) accidentally put the wrong pills into the wrong day/time slots?
What if the tray falls and pills go scattering all over?
No. I needed to come up with something that intuitively made sense to me that was easy and self-explanatory.
DIY pill organizer
What did I do? I used plastic baggies and hand labeled them for the correct day and time for various pills. Each was then sealed so there could be no mistakes.
I’m a fan of duct tape so that was my choice for making sure labels stayed in place. I used a sharpie to write the day/time for pill administration onto the tape.
End result? An easy to follow and understand system for not just me, but also another family member or home aid who might be caring for my mother.
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2. Bathroom Clean-up
This is the Keeping It REAL Caregiving platform meaning we do just that- Keep It REAL!
As a family caregiver there will be times when you will be faced with the task of cleaning up your loved one. Trust me on this: bathroom accidents will happen!
Sometimes it is an easy clean and change. Other times, it may be a massive blow out in the middle of the night.
When that happens it can be important to have a way to safely, efficiently and quickly complete a full rinse, without coordinating a full shower.
My DIY hack? Bringing the shower to the commode.
DIY Shower System
Invest in the longest shower nozzle cord you can find; one that has an on/off water lever near the shower head.
Why? If your commode is anywhere near the shower or tub, you can bring the nozzle to your loved one.
Think of it as turning your regular toilet into a bidet. (Place a towel on the floor to soak up extra water). This hack allowed for full clean-up, an easy way to change clothing, and minimal fuss.
3. Crockpot Meals
KIRC shared this with you in a previous post, but I will say it again.
If you are caring for a loved one, finding ways to save time on every task is a must!
When it comes to food prep, I encourage you to invest in a good crockpot and maybe even more than just one.
Simply choose your loved one’s favorite food/flavors and dump it into the crockpot the night before or first thing in the morning and let in cook on ‘low.’
Having crockpots helped in several ways
I could quickly combine my mother’s favorite soups, salsa or sauces and slow cook chicken or beef (for protein) and easily have a hot, nutritious and easy-to-chew meal.
It makes for plenty of left-overs that can be adapted to additional meals.
Clean-up is a breeze!
Finally, give yourself some wiggle room to make mistakes along the way. Remember, ‘You don’t know what you don’t know,’ so much of your caregiving boils down to trial and error of figuring out what works in your household.
Do you have a DIY caregiving hack that has helped save your household? Let us hear from you – share your techniques that just might help someone else!
Drop your comment into the discussion or you can email: [email protected]
Until next time~
Julia
*Header Image: Courtesy – Getty Images/Credit:ProfessionalStudioImages
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