My dad had diabetes and as he grew older, experienced many problems.  He never complained or stewed about things, but always came up with a way to make things easier on himself.  Below is a list of some of the problems my dad had and how he solved them.

Problem: His eyeglasses fell off when he bent over.
Solution: Wear an elastic band that holds them on.

Problem: Arthritis in fingers so he had a hard time pulling up zippers.
Solution: Attached a paper clip to the zipper to make it easier to hold.

Problem: He kept dropping things because lacked feeling in his finger tips and was hard to bend over due to stiffness.
Solution: He got a grabber gadget and hung it on his walker so he always had it with him if he needed it.

Problem: Hard to climb stairs with groceries after shopping.
Solution: Built a ramp on the back of the house and used a cart.

Problem: Legs weak so hard to get up off the toilet.
Solution: My mom had this same problem so he built a wooden contraption that fit around the toilet that had arms so he could push himself up.

Problem: He'd forget to pay bills sometimes.
Solution: He got a box with slats in it for 31 numbered spaces and put the bills in the numbered slat of the date he wanted to pay it.  (The hitch was that he still had to remember to look at it and to actually put the bills in it.)

Problem: It was difficult getting off the bed.
Solution: He removed the bed and replaced it with a recliner to sleep in!

Problem: Had a whole lot of tools that he wanted easy to grab.
Solution: He attached magnetic strips to the wall and many of his metal tools hung on those.  (Guys coming in the basement were very impressed with his wall of tools.)

Problem: It was too time-consuming to get dressed in morning and undressed at night.
Solution: He slept in his clothes.

Problem: He couldn't always remember if he took his pills or not (had so many).
Solution: He laid the pills out for the week in the little pill holders. Had 4, one for breakfast pills, lunch pills, dinner pills, and bedtime pills.

Problem: Hard to hear on the telephone.
Solution: Purchased a Miracle Phone--worked somewhat.

Problem: His hearing got so bad that his hearing aid didn't help; said it picked up Morse code.
Solution: He quit using them and had people write their message big so he could read it.

Problem: It was hard to tie shoes.
Solution: He got shoes that used velcro instead of laces.

Do you see anything funny about that?  I don’t.  Do you consolidate your garbage? 

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When my parents decided to rearrange furniture in our house growing up, Harry would pull out some graph paper and make a scale drawing of our room and then cut out pieces to scale of the furniture they would have in that room. I think the scale he used was one square on the paper equaled one foot in reality.

I remember my dad made a scale drawing of the rooms in my house and all our furniture to scale on little pieces of paper so I could try different arrangements before moving in. It really is a great way to make sure things fit without having to keep re-measuring and without wasting a lot of time and effort moving things back and forth. It was fun trying different arrangements on paper without any effort.

One thing to keep in mind when doing this though is to measure furniture with drawers open and mark on your room drawing where the windows, doors and outlets are located so you can see if your furniture pieces will cover them up or not. This also helps you get an idea of the walk space you will have between the pieces which especially comes into play for small rooms with lots of big pieces, like our bedroom.

I was reminded of this when I came across Housewife Eclectic: Rearrange Your House Virtually. It never ceases to amaze me what things one can find on the Internet. Somehow, I think dad would still get out his graph paper and make his own scaled drawing and furniture pieces. He just enjoyed doing that sort of thing. For me though, I think I’ll bookmark that site and use it the next time I do major furniture rearranging.

(I told you he was smart even though he did not graduate!)

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The best advice I ever got from my dad was to “Always pay off your credit cards every month. Don’t spend more than what you can pay off each month and save as much as you can.”

I am glad I listened to my dad and had enough wisdom to follow this advice on this! The only time I spent more than I had and borrowed money to do it was when Gerard and I bought a house after we were married. Even then though, it really bothered me that I had a house payment every month and we paid more than necessary each month to get it paid off faster. Gerard still had car payments when we got married, but once that car was finally all paid for, we never had a car payment since.

It is very tempting to blow money on things we don’t really need but it is not a wise thing to do. It’s always good to be prepared for unexpected expenses such as repairs, home improvements, medical bills and costly prescriptions. For years I have arranged for my bank to automatically transfer a certain amount from our checking account to our savings account each month. This way, money gets into savings each month.

When my dad retired, he did not work part-time as some people do. He lived on his Social Security check, a pension and his savings which served him well. However, the last few years of his life he was worried his money may run out before he died because he was spending more than he was getting in. It was during these years that he told me to “save as much as you can.” What I found funny was how he would still buy extra stuff. He always wanted plenty of tools and supplies on hand: scissors in every room, a thermometer in every room, an electric heater for every room, piles of post-its and flashlights all over his house too. It looked like a store!

What do you think of this advice? What good advice have your received?

This post was inspired by a prompt from Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop where you can find more.

To find out more about my book and why I wrote it, read the Foreword here.
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As my dad got arthritis in his fingers in his old age, it became harder and harder for him to button shirts and unzip zippers. I used to tell him to just leave his shirts buttoned except for the top couple and pull them over his head like I do (it saves time). He wouldn't hear of it. He had to have his shirts buttoned all the way to his neck. He always had to have long sleeved shirts--even in the summer, so t-shirts were out. I did find some shirts that zippers instead of buttons which were easier for him to use because he just hung a paper clip on to the zipper pull thing to make it easy for him to grab.


UPDATED 10/4/09: The day has come. It now belongs to my cats. Check out their post about it on their blog here.

Sorry this is a bit late for this year, but I just thought of it when I was handing candy out to our trick-or-treaters tonight. My mom and dad always loved seeing the kids' costumes on Halloween and were always generous with the candy. He always bought plenty to make sure he didn't run out and usually gave them more than one piece too! Any leftovers he gave to me so he would ask me what kind he should get.

Opening and closing the door to hand out the candy was very cumbersome because our door opened so close to the side railing on the porch, that you had to open it real wide to get the candy in the kids' bags and they usually were crowded up close because they were anxious for the candy. They always had to back up when he opened the door.

He came up with what I thought was a very good idea. He would wait until Halloween night to remove the screen door and then he could just hand the candy right through the door without having to open it. Pretty clever, huh? Then either at the end of the trick-or-treating or the next day, he would put in the storm door.

Hope you have a happy and safe Halloween! Maybe you could use this idea next year!