Functional Friday: Weak Eyes? Organize!
Fun fact about me? I LOVE watching Food Network. My husband always jokes with me, saying as much as I watch cooking shows, I should be able to cook better!....Rude, right?! As I mentioned in my “About” section, I really don’t like to cook. Don’t get me wrong, I can follow a recipe but I’ve also been known to forget the soup in a chicken casserole, I’ve burned a grilled cheese (to the point where Matt got it out of the trashcan to take a picture of the char on it), and I’ve cooked shrimp until it was rubber; none of which were vision related errors. Thankfully, I married a man who can cook, bake, and grill…you name it, he’s adding some sort of spice to it and I’m cleaning up the dishes after. We make a pretty good team.
It’s honestly surprising that I don’t enjoy cooking because you’d think it would be in my blood. My Grandma Kathleen, who also had Retinitis Pigmentosa, was an amazing cook. She and my grandfather owned a restaurant/bar for 10 years, called Kirk’s Place. Kirk’s Pace was famous for my grandma’s Maryland crab cake platter, soups of the day, and countless other homemade dishes. She made the BEST biscuits and gravy (my personal favorite), and was also famous for her lemon and butternut pound cakes. Y’all, this woman could do it all. I miss her and her cooking so incredibly much.
Now, my mom on the other hand, says she doesn’t like to cook but every time we visit her, she puts out quite the spread. She makes the best macaroni salad, awesome barbeque, and almost has my Grandma’s cheese ball to a “T”. Even with her progressive vision loss, she continues to amaze me with her ability to navigate the kitchen efficiently, and most importantly, safely.
Being able to master the kitchen with vision loss can be extremely difficult and dangerous. One of the most important strategies for my mom’s success in the kitchen is keeping her workspace organized and clutter free. Check out some of these tips below!
Kitchen Organization:
Below are tips to help keep your kitchen space organized for optimal performance!
Pantry/Refrigerator:
Keep things organized by shape/size/products, using baskets and containers to group similar items together.
Throw away extras to eliminate clutter.
Keep most frequently used items in the most accessible locations.
Aim for no more than two rows deep.
Photo Descriptions:
Photo of my mom's cluttered pantry. (Side note: I LOVE her pantry- It has pull out shelves for easy access so we were able to go more than two rows deep!)
Photo of my mom's organized pantry with items arranged with a system that made sense for her.
Photo of a stocked refrigerator, organized by like items (compliment's of my super organized friend, Samantha).
Drawers:
Throw away extras to eliminate clutter; simplicity is best.
Use drawer organizers to group similar items.
Consider contrast to increase visibility of your items.
Use a knife block to prevent accidental cuts when reaching in drawers.
Photo Descriptions:
Photo of an unorganized kitchen drawer, making it difficult to locate needed items.
Photo of an organized kitchen drawer with use of drawer organizers.
Cupboards:
Group similar items together.
Place most frequently used items between shoulder and knee height.
If able, store your pots and pans with lids on them (Lazy Susan’s are great for this).
Photo Descriptions:
Photo of organized cupboard with white plates and bowls.
Labeling Your Items:
Labeling items will help increase efficiency and accuracy with distinguishing between items. The following are tips to help label and organize canned goods, spices, and/or jars.
Use sharpies to label lids for relative size magnification.
Use large print labels for item names and/or expiration dates. (Seeing AI reads these more efficiently than the writing on a can)
Use rubber bands to distinguish between items.
Tactile markers: Use hi-mark, puffy paint, or hot glue guns to make letters, dots or lines to distinguish between foods. (Personally, we use hot glue for my mom because she uses it for tactile input only).
Photo Descriptions:
Photo of two cans of beans with Sharpie letters "BB" for baked beans and "CB" for chili beans
Photo of two cans with large print labels reading "baked beans" and "chili beans."
Photo of two cans of soup. Cream of celery soup has one rubber band, cream of mushroom has two rubber bands.
Reading Labels:
When your vision fails, there are great options out there to assist with spot-reading. Some of those options include:
Magnification- low and high tech options available. (A low vision optometrist can prescribe you a specific device. See a low vision Occupational Therapist for specific training!)
Talking wands/barcode readers
Seeing AI App (I’ll talk more about specific applications for low vision in a later blog post)
The MOST important concepts to remember:
Consistency is KEY! (Educate loved ones living in the same house to put objects back in the same spot). Nothing is worse than putting chili powder in your oatmeal instead of cinnamon...unless you're into that sort of thing).
Make sure the one with vision loss is involved in the organization process- this organization must be realistic to the person that will be using it!
Thank you so much for following along and checking out another Functional Friday post! I hope your cabinets are filled with food and your heart is filled with love.
See you next week for another Functional Friday!
Disclaimer: Please remember that while I am an Occupational Therapist, I am not your Occupational Therapist. Please keep in mind, these recommendations are meant to be extremely generalized and are merely strategies that have worked for my loved ones with vision loss. Additionally, I have no affiliation or connection to any product or brand mentioned in my post.
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