Laundry is
a never-ending task, but certainly there must be a way to reduce bending,
reaching, twisting, lifting and stooping.
Sharon Anne Waldrop (Arthritis Today, September/October 2010) came up
with some joint friendly laundry
tips that don’t require a whole house remodeling job.
If you still like hanging clothes
out to dry on a clothes line, she suggested using the old fashioned type
clothespins that you push rather than of the pinch ones. They might be hard to
find these days but if you have painful thumbs it might be worth the
search. Remember how we used to make
dolls out of those clothespins?
Put one load of laundry away
at a time instead of letting it stack up.
I am guilty of this, and by the time I am ready to carry the laundry
upstairs it is very heavy and awkward to manage. Not a good idea.
Why didn’t I think of this
one? Have each family member use a mesh
bag for dirty socks. Wash them in the
bag to cut sock-matching time in half.
Actually you could just give each person their own laundered bag and let
them sort and roll the socks themselves.
Use a wheeled hamper or cart
to make moving clothes to the laundry room easier, or install a laundry chute
if your washer and dryer are on a lower level.
Use good body mechanics when
lifting and transferring clothes. This means bend your knees and steer away
from using your fingers and redirect pressure using the palms of your hands or
forearms.
Set up a small table (waist
high) next to your machine to eliminate bending when separating or folding
clothes.
You can find grip-friendly
knob covers that can be placed over the existing ones, to make gripping and
twisting easier.
A front loading machine
(elevated if need be) cuts down on the stooping, bending and reaching.
The old way of doing things
is more of a habit than anything else. I
am sure that if we just took the times to think about we are doing things like
laundry we could come up with a lot of ideas.
Write them down and don’t forget to share.
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