Life hacks!

Hi Everyone!

So, I want to share with you the tricks I have come across on this adaptive journey to help make my life a little easier or should I say to enable me to keep my Independence. It is such a precious thing your independence and I took it so much for granted even with the limited sight I had previous to my sight loss. Whilst pondering a lot these days, it has become clear that we don’t realise how much we can do without thought before you are faced with the concept of ‘thinking before doing’. 

This is my life nowadays. So, as I continue with adapting, I have come up with some hacks myself and found some through research. I want to share these with you so you can start to have an insight into the life of a person with sight loss. 

Also please feel free to share with anyone you may know who is going through the same journey.

1. My toothpaste, yes you wouldn’t think this would be a problem but I ended up with more on my hands then the toothbrush. So I decided there must be something I can scoop rather then squeeze. There was nothing on the market so I bought a small masonry jar , the type you clasp down to seal. It was small maybe 2 inches high so small enough to fit on the bathroom shelf. I just dip my brush into to the jar and then seal after, this keeps the toothpaste fresh. No more messy hands! 

• Bobbles, or as some might say hairbands! Well I cut my hair very short about 7 years ago so haven’t had them in the house for a while. Then when I was going away for the weekend and I had those mini bottles of shampoo and conditioner both the same shape, I had no way of knowing the difference and I didn’t really want to rely  on my husband to come into the shower every time I needed to know what was what. There was a bobble left in the bathroom left from one my sisters visits  …so ‘light bulb moment’. I now have bands that I bought from RNIB these have different raised shapes on them and can be used to put around jars, bottles, tubs etc. They are great, although a little pricey £10 for 6 and were too big to go round little bottles. So my ‘light bulb moment’, use a bobble around the shampoo and then I can tell which is the shampoo and I get some peace and quiet whilst in the shower. Lol!

• The washing up! So it is not my favourite job and I defiantly enjoyed. The time after my accident, no one would let me do anything but that had to change if I wanted to remain independent. So off I went washing up but after a while I realised I was using far too much washing up liquid and if anyone has seen the fairy liquid advert on the telly, the child didn’t get the bottle for ages to make the spaceship. Lol! Well my son was getting that bottle far too quickly. I thought I need something to control how much I am squeezing out, I thought about shot glasses, spirit pourer, teaspoon all seemed a lot of work. Then I felt the hand soap at the sink and another ‘light bulb moment’ so my husband or another family member will fill an empty handwash bottle with washing up liquid and hey presto!  I can now control how much liquid much to the dismay of my son.

• A pen friend! So I love herbal teas and they all seem to come in the same kind of boxes, so how do I know the difference? I use my wonderful gadget from the RNIB, it is a label maker with a difference. I stick a label onto the item then hover my pen over it and record into the device the name of the item (after playing around a while I got the hang of it – lol!) So every time my pen goes over the label it plays the recording of the item name. I have used this gadget for many other things, labelling spices, baking goods, washing products, sauces, tins, the list goes on and on. It is a wonderful item but again is quite pricey, it starts at around £180. The labels are around £15 a pack! So I was wracking my brain to think of a cheaper and quicker way of identifying items or products of the same shape. This is where my creative crafty knowledge comes in handy. Well worth of that student loan – lol! So in my Craft cafe we had general kids crafty bits as a free activity. In this we had them foam stickers in all different shapes and objects. These are perfect as they are not expensive and you can bulk buy on amazon. When stuck on something they are raised so the I can tell the difference between the contents. All I have to do is remember what shape represents what item content. 

• A hook! I know this sounds silly and you are probably thinking why on earth is she telling me she has a hook on her wall. Well here is why, I kept getting annoyed because every time I came back into the house, I would have to collapse my cane down. It is time consuming and when you have bags, your son etc. it is another thing, that you have to do. So I have put a hook near my back door next to the kitchen to just hang my cane on. This way I always know where it is.  When it was folded up it was too tempting to get tided away and not easy for me to locate. Simple but effective and like the brownies/cubs. I am ready to go.

I hope these few little hacks have inspired you to look at things and problems in a different way. 

Problems can always be solved, never give up! 

These are just some of the hacks I have come across and thought of and as my journey continues, I will share more with you.

See you soon

Lots of love 

Nina x