More Tried and True Tips

• One patient suggests using a “scrubbing bubbles” spray to clean the bathroom. She sprays it on every surface she plans to clean, wipes it off with an old towel, and crosses “Cleaning the bathroom” off her list.
  
  
• While you’re cleaning bathroom surfaces, you can use the tub to clean other items. If the wastebasket is dirty, put some liquid soap or other cleaning fluid in it, set it in the tub, and fill it with warm water. While you’re busy in the rest of the bathroom, the soap and water will wash the wastebasket. You can also make shower-time do double-duty: spray the interior surfaces of the shower with cleaning fluid, then turn the shower on, hop inside, rinse off the cleaner, and then take your shower.
  
  
• Make your own schedule! Patti Hutcheson came to terms with the fact that her pain is worse at night, and so she doesn’t struggle to sleep during the night anymore. She generally falls asleep between 4 and 5 a.m., and sleeps till close to noon. “This has also helped with not being so worn out and not able to do tasks that my family needs me to do—spending time with them in the early evening,” she says.
  
  
• Enlist help. That doesn’t mean you have to command your children to chop firewood or build an addition to the house! Helping with household tasks can be as easy as requiring each member of the family to rinse his or her dishes and place them directly in the dishwasher.
  
  
• Buy a folding metal cart on wheels, or a rolling backpack, to make transporting items easier. Marie Maier of Plymouth, Michigan, doesn’t mind when she can’t park near her apartment, because she knows she can count on her cart to help her transport purchases to her home. “I push the cart right into my kitchen to make unpacking the groceries easier. I also use the cart to take bags of trash out to the garbage dumpster near my apartment,” she says. “Also, when going on a trip, I can put suitcases or whatever in the cart and push them out to load my car.”