Morning. I am officially overwhelmed. I have said it before: my life is cluttered. My house is cluttered. Sometimes even my mind is cluttered. On one level I realize this is not good for someone with visual impairment. It means I lose things. Lots of things. More things that I ever used to lose.
On another level, dealing with the mess can be just plain overwhelming. I don’t feel like tackling it. Sometimes it is a lot easier to buy new or do without.
Generally, the mess wins no matter what I do.
This morning things reached critical mass – again – and I figured I had better do something about it before it blew up. Parts of my half-hearted effort were to sort laundry and get rid of articles I had printed out but never written a page on.
Laundry and vision loss articles…they may not be two great things that go great together, but one of the printed out articles I found from VisionAware was about blind people doing laundry.
Does that freak you out a bit when things come together like that? That cosmic convergence stuff? Does me.
Anyway, laundry is not that hard for me. I keep the setting the same (except for delicates) and stick a finger in the measuring cup to make sure I don’t run the cup over with detergent. Then I wipe my hand on a piece of clothing so I am not all detergent-y. If I have to change the setting, I use a light to make sure it is right. My handheld reader has a light and that works well.
What I liked were the suggestions they made for ironing. I admire you people who are organized enough to get things out of the dryer and hang them instantly. I know this avoids a lot of wrinkles. I am great for leaving the house with the dryer running or going to bed with it on. Clothes have sat in the dryer for days. Meaning? I iron every morning.
VisionAware has some really good ideas. Since we all know contrast is a good thing when you are low vision, having a solid color ironing board cover is good. They also suggest you get a heat-treated pad to set your iron on when you are moving the clothing, etc. That will allow the hot part to be down and you don’t burn yourself when you reach for it.
Those are the two things you might have to purchase. Ideas that involve things you probably would not have to purchase include using a funnel or a turkey baster to put water in the iron. Personally, I just use an old Febreze bottle and squirt things. Marking the proper setting so you don’t scorch things can be done with that raised marking stuff or even nail polish. [Lin/Linda: When Sue says ‘raised marking stuff’ she means using tactile pens.]
The last idea I liked was finding the iron by grabbing the cord first. If the contrast of the cord with everything else is poor, tie a ribbon on it! After all, safety first.
OK, back to the fight. Personally, I think I am going to lose again.
Written August 6th, 2017