Tools and Tricks for Those With Arthritis or Limited Dexterity
Do you or someone you care about deal with chronic pain? Or any condition that makes dexterity, mobility, and simply living life at times impossibly difficult? I have inflammatory erosive arthritis (sometimes called seronegative rheumatoid arthritis). I have joint erosion in my hands - and probably other places as well - and there are a few tricks I’ve learned over the years to help make living easier. Some of these are obvious, some less so, and almost all of them I have discovered myself or, more frequently, found through online chronic illness communities. (If you are new to Sick Life, the best resource is not a doctor or an OT or a medical advice website. It’s Twitter. i only discovered #NEISVoid a little over a year ago, and it is already the most invaluable resource in my life.)
Toothpaste With a Flip Lid
One of the big shocks of developing a disability is the sheer amount of things you realize are just casually inaccessible. I had zero feelings about toothpaste caps until my hands took a sharp turn into arthritis, and now? I could rant all day about toothpaste. I will ONLY buy toothpaste with flip cap lids, like this:
PS: If you are a Costco shopper, the only toothpaste they sell with this cap is Colgate. Wait for it to be on sale for an even better deal.
PPS: If squeezing a tube is hard on your hands, I HIGHLY recommend a tube wringer, like the one I reviewed here (featuring my favorite toothpaste).
Rocker Light Switches and Lever Door Handles
This one takes some investment, both in terms of money and time, but it’s worth it. The kind of light switches I think of as typical, are actually terrible. Who thought of this?? Certainly not someone with the slightest dexterity issues. All my light switches are rocker switches, which are nice a big, and easy to flip with the side of your hand, an elbow, or even a book (you know when your hands are full and you’re entering a dark room and want to see where you’re going? Just me?), if you can’t use your fingers. You don’t need to be exact, so if your hands are shaky or weak or just not cooperating that day for whatever reason, you can still use light switches.
Doorknobs are just as terrible as light switches. Sometimes my hands are just NOT in a gripping mood, so grasping a round doorknob is just… not happening. Lever handles are better for anyone with mobility issues, but also children (this may be a good or bad thing, depending on the kid). Lever door handles are great for any time you don’t have full use of your hands, whether it’s because your hands are full, dirty, or even nonexistent (there are people without hands. They also use doors!). I don’t have lever door handles for all the doors in my house yet, but it’s a goal I’m working toward.
Pill Organizer with Push Buttons
A pill organizer is a vital tool for anyone who takes multiple pills a day. I have used a weekly pill organizer for so long, it’s shocking to me that there are people who open pill bottles each and every time they need to take medication. That’s no way to live! There are lots of different kinds of pill organizers, from weekly, once a day, three times a day, or even monthly. But my favorite is weekly, twice a day (because I take pills twice a day, ymmv) and push to open.
Opening things (any things, all things!) is sometimes difficult, and frustrating, and when the thing you can’t open is the thing that holds the pills you need to be better able to open things?! It makes you want to SCREAM. But a pill organizer with a little button that you push, that pops open the lid with ease? GENIUS. I will never go back.
Bench Scraper
This is one that everyone should have, disabled or not. A bench scraper is endlessly useful, and you’ll only find more uses once you get one in your life. I personally like to use my bench scraper to cut things or break things into smaller pieces that would be difficult to do with a knife. Take, for example, butter. I buy butter in bulk, because the best butter is Kerrygold and the best deal is at Costco and it’s a Not Small amount of butter, so I keep it in the freezer (you can freeze butter virtually forever, this in itself is a hack). Sometimes I forget to move butter from the freezer to the fridge, or I need more than I thought, and I have to use frozen butter. If you take a bench scraper, set it atop the frozen butter monolith, and just lean on it (like, really lean on it) it cuts. It’s not a perfect cut, it’s not pretty, but it gets the job done and isn’t hard on your joints.
I have used the Lean on Bench Scraper method on lots of things. A bench scraper isn’t a knife, but the lack of sharpness is a blessing in this case - if your dexterity is iffy and you’re using a knife, you have more chances to cut yourself. This method is not to be used if you want the thing you’re turning into smaller things to be nice looking. You’re going to get a jagged edge, and you might even need to rip the last bit apart with your hands. I’d also advice that there are a wide variety of bench scrapers out there. Some are super bendy and will not work for this purpose, but I use the OXO Bench Scraper and it’s never folded in half or broken on me.
Jar Key
Another kitchen tool that will prove invaluable is a jar key. Jars are hard to open for lots of people, not just those with limited mobility and dexterity. Because jars are engineered to be airtight and keep food fresh, they’re also super hard to open for the first time. But a jar key will make opening fresh jars a breeze.
It’s a simple idea: This piece of plastic allows you to release the vacuum seal of the jar. Once that seal is broken, the jar is easy to open. Another way of doing this is to stab the lid of the jar with a knife, but while that makes you look incredibly cool, it ruins the jar (and possibly the contents inside).
I don’t use my jar key every time I open a jar, but when I do, I always think, “That is SO cool and easy, why do I ever try to open jars any other way?”
All these tools are relatively small changes (I mean changing every door handle isn’t a small job, but it’s not that difficult) but they will make a big difference to someone who has mobility or dexterity issues. Any of these would be a thoughtful way to show someone in your life that you’re thinking of them, and how you understand that sometimes the most simple tasks are the most frustrating. Do you have any tools or tricks that you find invaluable? I want to hear them!
