ihurttoo
05-23-2006, 05:11 AM
http://www.ic-network.com/images/presidentsaward2006.jpg
June 9, 2006 Amy, I LOVE this post. It embodies the best part of being in a support group, helping patients find ways to live a more comfortable life and manage their condition. Bravo!!! Well done! Love it! Love it! Love it! - Jill O.
Hi guys! I wanted to start this thread for everyone to share their helpful hints on things they do to make life in general or life with IC easier. Please add your tips to this thread. It can be anything, from cooking with a crock pot, to helpful cleaning tips, anything at all, except health related things (like using the heating pad or other things, as the health related IC things are on other threads elsewhere on the boards.
I'll start. These are some of mine:
1) Just a helpful hint for everyone who was taught to "hover" over public toilets to urinate instead of sitting them. Get some of those cleaning/disinfecting wipes and some disposable latex gloves and keep some in your purse when you leave the house. That way, you can clean the seat so you can sit without worry, and then just toss your gloves and used wipes.
2) Buy a crockpot and use it! You can throw in meats and vegtables in the morning, and come home to a home cooked dinner. It is also great for those who dont work, because if your meds make you drowsy, you dont have to worry about falling asleep with the stove turned on.
3) Try to double or triple recipes when you cook, and freeze the extra meals. Then, on days you dont feel well enough to cook dinner, you have already have one on hand. It is also nice to have something cooked in case you have to take a meal to a friend who is ill, or if someone dies and you need to take food to the family.
4) Make use of the public library. Try to go weekly and check out lots of movies for each family member. Our library lets us check out 10 movies or dvds per person and we are allowed to keep them for 2 weeks. It is great to have these on hand for the kids, in case you feel bad and need some peace and quiet. You can surprise the kids with your secret stash of videos, and you are pretty well guarenteed a few hours of peace and quiet. All for free!
5) Go get a few bottles of "The Works" bathroom cleaner from the dollar store. Ours sells it for $1 a bottle. Squirt down the shower enclosure and bathtub at bedtime. Let the cleaner do the work while you sleep. Then, tell whoever showers first, to rinse it off before they get in. Also, put the toilet cleaner in at bedtime to let it work while you sleep. When you get up, the bathroom will be clean!
6) Go buy an extra shower curtain rod. Layer it behind the other shower curtain rod. Assign a differant colors of towels to each member of the family. Then, after showers or baths, tell each person to hang their towels on that shower curtain rod. It keeps the used towels out of site to dry, and cuts down on doing laundry, since the towels can be reused.
7) If you enjoy reading magazines, this tip is for you! Go to a few local beauty shops and ask if you can have their old mags at the end of the month, when they throw them away. I have 3 shops that save theirs for me. I get Redbook, Cosmo, Glamour, People, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Womans Day, Readers Digest, Parenting, and many more every month, all for free this way. So, I always have mags on hand for days that I dont feel well and just want to lay around. Plus, I always have reading material for the bathroom, for free! Then when I finish reading them, I take them to ladies in our community that are homebound. (Some are on bed rest due to high risk pregnancies, others are sick with cancer or other things, and others are just old.) They always love them, and if I have an extra meal in the freezer that I have made ahead, I take them one of those occasionly too. It costs me next to nothing to do, and they are so appreciative.
8) When you are in the hosptial and someone sends you fresh cut flowers, wouldnt it be nice to keep them forever? Well, now you can! All you do, is go to Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot (most any store with a garden center), and get something called Root Growth Hormone Stimulator. Then, take the flowers that you want to grow, (roses and carnations do well!), and dip the bottom of the stem in the root growth hormone stimulator and then put it in sterilized potting soil. (You can buy this in the garden center too.) If you start a single rose in the spring, it will be the size of a rose bush, ready to plant by fall. I did this with the flowers in my wedding bouquet, and every other occasion that I am given flowers. We now have flowers, and rose bushes all over our property, just from flowers that were given to me!
9) The next time you paint a room, go buy a bottle of shoe polish with a sponge tip applicator. Then empty out the polish and wash the bottle well. Then fill the bottle with the same paint that you painted the walls. Now, you have a convient touch up bottle on hand for touching up scratches or marks on the walls.
10) Put fabric softner sheets between the blanket and sheets on the bed in a hide-away bed or on the bed in the guest bedroom. It will keep the sheets smelling fresh until you have company again.
11) Want a tv in the bathroom (since you spend so much time there), but dont think you have room? Get a wall mounted tv holder from Lowes like the hospitals have. No more missing the end of a movie you have watched the whole way thru, just b/c of another restroom visit!
12) For dusty silk plants or flowers, put them in the tub, and spray with a hand held shower. It rinses the dirt and dust right off! Then, leave them in tub to drip dry.
13) Do you have alot of dusty knick knacks? Or dusty light fixtures? Put them in the dishwasher. (Just make sure they are dishwasher safe!) It will clean them right up and make them shine!
14) Place a layer of newspapers or paper towels in the bottoms of your vegtable bins in the refrigerator. If something ruins, rots, or leaks, then you wont have that slimy mess!
15) If you have long hair or shoulder length or longer hair with layers and want wavy or curly hair, just wad up damp hair and secure with a terry cloth, pony tail holder and sleep on it. You will awaken to hair that looks like it has been hot rolled.
16) If you dont have chemical sensitivites, self tanner can be your best friend. With the right product, (I like Neutrogena), you wont even need foundation. It will even out skin tones and give you a healthy looking glow!
17) For a fresh smelling house, buy one of those scented oil refills for plug in air fresheners. Just take a toothpick, or pointed object and push the wick down into the bottle. Then drizzle a few drops of the oil on your vaccum cleaner bag. The whole house will smell clean and fresh for days!
18) Speaking of vaccuming, while you have it out, vaccum ALL the floors, even the kitchen and bathroom floors. Why go to the effort of sweeping and dragging out the dustpan, when the vaccum will do the same thing, only better.
19) Does your gift wrapping supplies have a designated home? If not, go to Goodwill and keep an eye out for hanging garment bags. You can usually find them there for a dollar or two. Place tape, scissors, ribbons and bows in the zippered compartments, and hang the wrapping paper in the following manner: Take the leg off of an old pair of pantyhose and slide the gift wrap into the leg. Tie a knot in the top, and slip a coat hanger into the knot. When you need gift wrap, it wont be wrinkled! All you do to use it is, cut the bottom off. Because the pantyhose stretch, you can tie it again when you finish. It will keep stretching almost indefinately!
20) To limit dust in the house, get filters to go between the air conditoning vent ducts and the vent covers. They arent noticable, but really cut WAY down on the dust in the house. When I did this, I went from having to dust twice a week to only having to dust every 8 days! Also, you can put a fabric softner sheet on top of the filter to give the air a soft, clean scent.
21) Suck up the embarrassment, and use the motorized chairs at the grocery store and Walmart. This is what they are there for...people like you! It will help you to conserve your limited energy for something else later in the day.
22) When you are sick or post surgical, have your husband put a cooler beside your bed stocked with drinks, a sandwich and snacks. You are already going to be up alot going to the bathroom, so this helps you to keep from having to get up any more than necessary, while your body is healing.
23) An ironing board makes a great bedside table in a pinch, while you are sick. It is height adjustable, and can hold your meds, snacks, a drink, pitcher of water, and reading materials.
24) If you can afford Tivo, it is awesome for the IC patient. Before I got mine, I was forever missing the crucial parts of movies or tv programs when I had to go to the restroom multiple times.
25) If your house is really messy and you cant manage to get everything done, just invite your mother over, and she will insist that it be cleaned. Then, act completely incompetant on the first task she assigns you, and she will insist that you let her do everything else! :) LOL!!
June 9, 2006 Amy, I LOVE this post. It embodies the best part of being in a support group, helping patients find ways to live a more comfortable life and manage their condition. Bravo!!! Well done! Love it! Love it! Love it! - Jill O.
Hi guys! I wanted to start this thread for everyone to share their helpful hints on things they do to make life in general or life with IC easier. Please add your tips to this thread. It can be anything, from cooking with a crock pot, to helpful cleaning tips, anything at all, except health related things (like using the heating pad or other things, as the health related IC things are on other threads elsewhere on the boards.
I'll start. These are some of mine:
1) Just a helpful hint for everyone who was taught to "hover" over public toilets to urinate instead of sitting them. Get some of those cleaning/disinfecting wipes and some disposable latex gloves and keep some in your purse when you leave the house. That way, you can clean the seat so you can sit without worry, and then just toss your gloves and used wipes.
2) Buy a crockpot and use it! You can throw in meats and vegtables in the morning, and come home to a home cooked dinner. It is also great for those who dont work, because if your meds make you drowsy, you dont have to worry about falling asleep with the stove turned on.
3) Try to double or triple recipes when you cook, and freeze the extra meals. Then, on days you dont feel well enough to cook dinner, you have already have one on hand. It is also nice to have something cooked in case you have to take a meal to a friend who is ill, or if someone dies and you need to take food to the family.
4) Make use of the public library. Try to go weekly and check out lots of movies for each family member. Our library lets us check out 10 movies or dvds per person and we are allowed to keep them for 2 weeks. It is great to have these on hand for the kids, in case you feel bad and need some peace and quiet. You can surprise the kids with your secret stash of videos, and you are pretty well guarenteed a few hours of peace and quiet. All for free!
5) Go get a few bottles of "The Works" bathroom cleaner from the dollar store. Ours sells it for $1 a bottle. Squirt down the shower enclosure and bathtub at bedtime. Let the cleaner do the work while you sleep. Then, tell whoever showers first, to rinse it off before they get in. Also, put the toilet cleaner in at bedtime to let it work while you sleep. When you get up, the bathroom will be clean!
6) Go buy an extra shower curtain rod. Layer it behind the other shower curtain rod. Assign a differant colors of towels to each member of the family. Then, after showers or baths, tell each person to hang their towels on that shower curtain rod. It keeps the used towels out of site to dry, and cuts down on doing laundry, since the towels can be reused.
7) If you enjoy reading magazines, this tip is for you! Go to a few local beauty shops and ask if you can have their old mags at the end of the month, when they throw them away. I have 3 shops that save theirs for me. I get Redbook, Cosmo, Glamour, People, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Womans Day, Readers Digest, Parenting, and many more every month, all for free this way. So, I always have mags on hand for days that I dont feel well and just want to lay around. Plus, I always have reading material for the bathroom, for free! Then when I finish reading them, I take them to ladies in our community that are homebound. (Some are on bed rest due to high risk pregnancies, others are sick with cancer or other things, and others are just old.) They always love them, and if I have an extra meal in the freezer that I have made ahead, I take them one of those occasionly too. It costs me next to nothing to do, and they are so appreciative.
8) When you are in the hosptial and someone sends you fresh cut flowers, wouldnt it be nice to keep them forever? Well, now you can! All you do, is go to Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot (most any store with a garden center), and get something called Root Growth Hormone Stimulator. Then, take the flowers that you want to grow, (roses and carnations do well!), and dip the bottom of the stem in the root growth hormone stimulator and then put it in sterilized potting soil. (You can buy this in the garden center too.) If you start a single rose in the spring, it will be the size of a rose bush, ready to plant by fall. I did this with the flowers in my wedding bouquet, and every other occasion that I am given flowers. We now have flowers, and rose bushes all over our property, just from flowers that were given to me!
9) The next time you paint a room, go buy a bottle of shoe polish with a sponge tip applicator. Then empty out the polish and wash the bottle well. Then fill the bottle with the same paint that you painted the walls. Now, you have a convient touch up bottle on hand for touching up scratches or marks on the walls.
10) Put fabric softner sheets between the blanket and sheets on the bed in a hide-away bed or on the bed in the guest bedroom. It will keep the sheets smelling fresh until you have company again.
11) Want a tv in the bathroom (since you spend so much time there), but dont think you have room? Get a wall mounted tv holder from Lowes like the hospitals have. No more missing the end of a movie you have watched the whole way thru, just b/c of another restroom visit!
12) For dusty silk plants or flowers, put them in the tub, and spray with a hand held shower. It rinses the dirt and dust right off! Then, leave them in tub to drip dry.
13) Do you have alot of dusty knick knacks? Or dusty light fixtures? Put them in the dishwasher. (Just make sure they are dishwasher safe!) It will clean them right up and make them shine!
14) Place a layer of newspapers or paper towels in the bottoms of your vegtable bins in the refrigerator. If something ruins, rots, or leaks, then you wont have that slimy mess!
15) If you have long hair or shoulder length or longer hair with layers and want wavy or curly hair, just wad up damp hair and secure with a terry cloth, pony tail holder and sleep on it. You will awaken to hair that looks like it has been hot rolled.
16) If you dont have chemical sensitivites, self tanner can be your best friend. With the right product, (I like Neutrogena), you wont even need foundation. It will even out skin tones and give you a healthy looking glow!
17) For a fresh smelling house, buy one of those scented oil refills for plug in air fresheners. Just take a toothpick, or pointed object and push the wick down into the bottle. Then drizzle a few drops of the oil on your vaccum cleaner bag. The whole house will smell clean and fresh for days!
18) Speaking of vaccuming, while you have it out, vaccum ALL the floors, even the kitchen and bathroom floors. Why go to the effort of sweeping and dragging out the dustpan, when the vaccum will do the same thing, only better.
19) Does your gift wrapping supplies have a designated home? If not, go to Goodwill and keep an eye out for hanging garment bags. You can usually find them there for a dollar or two. Place tape, scissors, ribbons and bows in the zippered compartments, and hang the wrapping paper in the following manner: Take the leg off of an old pair of pantyhose and slide the gift wrap into the leg. Tie a knot in the top, and slip a coat hanger into the knot. When you need gift wrap, it wont be wrinkled! All you do to use it is, cut the bottom off. Because the pantyhose stretch, you can tie it again when you finish. It will keep stretching almost indefinately!
20) To limit dust in the house, get filters to go between the air conditoning vent ducts and the vent covers. They arent noticable, but really cut WAY down on the dust in the house. When I did this, I went from having to dust twice a week to only having to dust every 8 days! Also, you can put a fabric softner sheet on top of the filter to give the air a soft, clean scent.
21) Suck up the embarrassment, and use the motorized chairs at the grocery store and Walmart. This is what they are there for...people like you! It will help you to conserve your limited energy for something else later in the day.
22) When you are sick or post surgical, have your husband put a cooler beside your bed stocked with drinks, a sandwich and snacks. You are already going to be up alot going to the bathroom, so this helps you to keep from having to get up any more than necessary, while your body is healing.
23) An ironing board makes a great bedside table in a pinch, while you are sick. It is height adjustable, and can hold your meds, snacks, a drink, pitcher of water, and reading materials.
24) If you can afford Tivo, it is awesome for the IC patient. Before I got mine, I was forever missing the crucial parts of movies or tv programs when I had to go to the restroom multiple times.
25) If your house is really messy and you cant manage to get everything done, just invite your mother over, and she will insist that it be cleaned. Then, act completely incompetant on the first task she assigns you, and she will insist that you let her do everything else! :) LOL!!