4 Clever Caregiver Tricks You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner

By Jamie Shapiro | July 22, 2019 | Comments Off on 4 Clever Caregiver Tricks You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner

As a caregiver, you probably encounter new challenges all the time. Sometimes, you’ll be able to devise tricks that make the task easier. Other times, you may struggle with a particular task for a long time until you learn a trick from someone else, like another caregiver. When you do learn a new trick, you probably wish you had known it a long time ago. Well, below are 4 more clever caregiver tricks you’ll be glad to know and wish you had known sooner.

 

#1: Make Clothes Easier to Reach

Caregiver Northbrook, IL: Caregiver Tricks

Seniors who are in wheelchairs may have trouble reaching the clothes hanging in their closet. Instead of taking on a DIY project you probably don’t have time for to lower the closet bar, try this cool trick. Hang empty hangers on the bar, then hook hangers with clothes on them on the empty hanger. The empty hanger will tilt, lowering the one with clothes on it so that the senior can reach it. This allows them to choose their own clothes, giving them a little more independence and saving caregivers some time.

#2: Make Med Times Easier
If your older family member takes care of their own medicines, you can make it easier for them to determine which pills to take at certain times of the day. Take a permanent marker and write AM, PM, or NOON on the caps of each medicine bottle. To make it even easier, use different color markers for each time of the day.

#3: Use Pie Tins
Older adults whose hands don’t work as well as they once did can sometimes have trouble eating because food gets pushed off the side of the plate. To remedy this, use pie tins instead of plates. The walls of the tin will keep food inside and off the table. If you want to make the tins more pleasant to eat from, consider purchasing some colored ceramic ones and reserving them only for meals so they seem more like plates.

#4: Grocery Shop for Two
If you grocery shop for your aging relative, you can avoid making two trips to the grocery store each week by combining your own grocery shopping with theirs. Of course, needing to stay with your older family member after grocery shopping to put food away or make a meal can mean your own groceries sit in the car for hours. To get around that problem, bring a cooler and ice packs with you to the store. Place your own groceries in the cooler so they stay fresh until you can get home.

 

If you or an aging loved one are considering a Caregiver Northbrook, IL, contact the caring staff at Companion Services of America today at (847) 943-3786. Our home care service area includes Northbrook, Highland Park, Deerfield, Glenview, Buffalo Grove, Evanston, Des Plaines, Skokie, Lake Forest, Wilmette and the surrounding areas.

 

Sources
https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/tips-hacks/daily-tasks/easy-to-reach-clothing/
https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/tips-hacks/personal-care/manage-meds-with-markers/

Jamie Shapiro
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