how would you.....

Well, now that I'm about halfway through the weekly house-cleaning I have an
idea of something which we might talk about here......

If you were going to be without the use of one arm [your dominant one, no
less!] for up to twelve weeks, and your partner/spouse was going to be
dealing with lifting restrictions for at least the first few weeks of that
period.....what tasks related to homecare [in and outdoor] would you try to
get done before hand, what would you try to delegate, what do you think you
would continue to do one handed and what else would you take into
considerations? Postulate children/no children/younger children or
whatever. While I'm looking for ideas I might miss, I am also intrigued
with how others might approach a situation like what I'm going to be dealing

Sidheag McCormack...

1) I'd book cleaners, weekly or fortnightly, for at least the overlap
period and if budget allowed for the whole 12 week period. That way I
wouldn't have to worry about the cleaning at all. (Easiest way is to use
one of the agencies, where they come along with 2 or 3 people and all the
cleaning gear they need, and go round like a whirlwind.)

2) I'd think hard about food, because during the overlap period, sounds as
though casseroles, large saucepans, possibly grillpans, would be out of the
question (I'm not sure I could safely manage any of those, especially when
hot, with my non-dominant hand alone; at any rate, I wouldn't want to feel
I had to). I could imagine cutting bread would also be a problem, as might
opening cans, etc., so this definitely calls for some practice in advance
to see what you can do with your non-dominant hand only! If your husband
would be around when you needed that kind of thing done, he could do the
latter things, but maybe not the casseroles etc., depending how serious the
lifting restrictions were.

3) Given our setup, I'm pretty sure I could do laundry with my non-dominant
hand only.

For us, that covers everything essential I think - we don't drive or have
pets or a garden.

Hope it goes smoothly for you both!

Sidheag
DS Colin Oct 27 2003

with.

[for you misc.kidders, I'm going to have surgery for a large rotator cuff
tear and husband is about to undergo hernia repair, neither of which can be
put off, but my surgery will be about four weeks post-op for him]

-Aula, off to teach DS 10 how to make the bed from the mattress up [he can
make it in the a.m. daily, but I've not taught him the weekly making YET].

just me...

Guess I should catch you up a tad on our family odyssey: moved from FL to
VT in fall 2004. Short story: tired of the exponential growth in FL so,
after loads of research decided that if we were moving it would be nice to
be near [my] family. We now live on the edge of a village where DS runs and
plays in the woods. Florida native husband and son have shown positive
adjustment to the climate and life style changes so far. :-)

As to plans related to the subject: I'm starting to sort things out. Your
suggestions and thoughts are very helpful and parallel what I've been
pondering. While I drive a standard, husband's automatic will do, although
I'm not fond of the vehicle. Husband took over the cooking a couple years
ago, but we will have to team some things while he is also recuperating.
From today's research I think husband and DS will have to team making our
bed after sheets stripping, but I can handle the bathroom cleaning and a
reasonable amount of dusting and kitchen straightening. Deep cleaning is
another matter, as well as vacuuming [DS can do it fine], sweeping [I'll
live with DS' performance], and pulling laundry from washer to drier.
Folding laundry may also be problematic. The other things I'm wrestling
with include hair care/styling, ironing, and typing [I touch type and do
data entry at work]. Of all of those, my hair is the one I'll probably have
to really wrestle with. After growing it out from a short style it is now
about mid-back length. Husband could brush it, but styling is a different
discussion. I am going to experiment for the next few days before I decide
if a shorter length will be more manageable.

Thank you [all] for your thoughts. The more you share the more I can try to
come to grips with aspects of this little series of events that have not yet
come to mind. We will make it through, dust kitties and all ;-)