Laundry Day

Hello! Hope everyone is having an amazing week. I love the sunshine and heat, it’s the only thing that really gets deep into my joints and makes me go ‘ahhh’.  Well, that and a Hot Stone Massage, but those are expensive and sunshine is free. Today, I’d like to talk about one of those things we all, admitted or not, avoid to some extent. Laundry.

Now, laundry is a chore for everyone, but more so when you are a finicky tree hugger in a wheelchair. I love to hang my clothes on the line. Always have, just haven’t always had the space or the time.  Now I have both, sort of.  A traditional clothes line was pretty much out of the running as there was no real practical way to make it work for/with my chair. Not to be defeated, I pushed on, searching for a solution.

This is a 40 foot long retractable indoor/outdoor clothesline. I recycled an old pole to bolt it to and used zip ties to strap it onto the deck rail. At the other end I looped a zip tie around the support pole, for the height, and put a clip on it that fits neatly into the little plastic bit on the end of the cord.  It did require support in the middle, so I repurposed an old curtain rod, tacked a hook to it and ran the cord through it before using.  That made it not sag nearly as much, and put less pressure on the zip ties holding the ends in place. For less than $40, I had a nice long clothesline, on my deck, that I could hide away when not in use.  I confess, I did the happy dance while daydreaming of sheets fresh off the line and shirts that do not need ironing.

The clothesline, installed and in use on the back deck.

So, I try to keep myself on a schedule of doing things, mainly because it gives me a sense of goals and duty. This includes laundry, which is assigned to Friday, that way the clothes are clean for the weekend. Except David’s uniforms, which we do on Sunday evening. This gives me all day to let the stuff dry on the line, at least on good weather days. A problem soon presented itself. Transporting the laundry basket to the line and then down the line as I hung them up. Taking the basket out on my lap is passable, if a little awkward, but trying to manipulate the basket, the wet clothes, and the clothespins was very awkward. The only option I could make work was to put the basket down, hang the item, pick the basket up, move the chair and basket down a little, and repeat. Repeat in reverse to take down the dry items.   Okay, not a big issue really, for one or maybe two loads, but ten? Bending while using my ‘inside’ wheelchair is a bit like a normal person sitting on a bar stool and reaching down to get the laundry, it’s a long way. Yes, I’m extra bendy, but even being that way it still becomes a back ache when done repeatedly.

Then one afternoon I hit upon an idea.  It’s not a fix all, by any means, but it’s a lot better than picking it up and moving it each time!

This is a plant stand with casters I picked up last fall on clearance from Hobby Lobby. It was the winter home of the pineapple tree, but now the tree is out on the deck soaking up sunshine.  So, I used it.  It’s a heavier duty one, as the pineapple tree has gotten larger and it’s pot along with it.

Plop the laundry basket on top and Bingo! Now I can just shove it with just the foot part of the wheelchair. Totally eliminates the pick up and move between every item. As you can see from the picture, the basket is still a long way down, but this actually did raise it up a few inches.  Since I don’t have to bend, lift, bend, set down, repeatedly it has saved my back and shoulders a lot of soreness.

So there you go, another way to adapt.  I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this, but it sure made me happy!

I’m sure many of you have your own solutions, and I would love to hear them!

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You never know when your idea might be just the thing someone was looking for!

Thanks for reading and please come back!

TH