Small Changes
One of the smallest changes I made in our home that has improved things on a daily basis, is the introduction of slide out shelving for our kitchen cabinets.
Honestly I felt like I was being ‘extra’ when I decided to order the first one, but it’s a tiny change that simply required a screw driver. (A drill made it easier!)
I purchased ours from ShopperPlus, a company I’ve been using for years for my office supplies. I’m a stickler for shopping with Canadian companies that have strong ethics in their supply chain.
I purchased the one pictured on their Cabinet & Pantry Organization page
Like most homes, we have one of those annoying corner cabinets where everything just goes to disappear. In it I installed one of the two tiered rotating kidney bean shaped shelves, and a motion sensor battery powered light. While not perfect, it does allow us to access everything easily. Virtually no digging for things buried in the back.
Between these two small adaptations I spent around $200, something I’m glad we could afford. Compared to a new cabinet it was really cheap!
The impact it has had for daily life has been huge, we placed our most used dishes on the top pull out shelf. My husband can easily access dishes from his chair and when my back goes out I’m not trying to squat or bend down to grab things, wondering how I’m going to stand back up.
What I experience is considered intermittent limited mobility. (Don’t fall off ladders kids!) So we have a small band of space where we can both easily access items, with my husband accessing things easily below 1.2 m or 4ft and me, above 0.6 m or 2ft to around 1.8 m or 6ft. So I plan for the reach overlap as much as I can.
I also have poor eyesight and when I’m not wearing my glasses, I struggle to see objects if they’re similar colours. High contrast in the floors, to the walls to assistive devices like our grab bars is important too. This can be done beautifully - it shouldn’t feel like a hospice.
Remember to consider everyone in the home, not only mobile device user needs. Colours and textures play a big part in making your home livable long-term!
We have adapted a lot of our furniture to be mobile. Adding castor wheels like those moving skateboards to storage trunks meant that we could easily move it out of the way of the wheelchair when not needed.
We also use wheeled trolleys like this one from ShopperPlus. They’re found at so many stores, from Ikea to Giant Tiger. Not only are they useful as mobile side tables, they also are great at helping to keep balance or move items from one room to the next when carrying capacity is limited or your dishes are too hot.
I have many more plans to make our home more accessible, some involve hiring skilled trades and permits, others I can tackle on my own.
But at the end of the day, it’s the little things that I’m most proud of. The things that make life a little bit easier, and a little more ‘normal’ as we navigate life with a wheelchair.
