Making Handling the Laundry Easier for Your Parents’ Referred Caregiver

Elder Care in Brooklyn, NY

Handling light housekeeping and tidying tasks can be one of the most useful and beneficial services of a referred caregiver, and one of the primary ways in-home care can dramatically improve the quality of life for elderly adults who face cognitive, physical, mobility, or medical limitations and challenges that make it difficult or even impossible for them to keep up with the daily tasks of running a home.

Among the tasks referred caregivers can handle is laundry. Tending to your elderly parents’ basic laundry needs helps keep their home neat, tidy, and smelling fresh, and ensures your aging loved ones are comfortable and healthy in clean clothing and linens. As with any task she handles, however, the time the referred caregiver takes to wash, dry, fold, and otherwise manage laundry is not spent doing other things, such as spending time directly with your parents. By making the tasks of handling your aging parents’ laundry easier, you ensure it get done properly and efficiently so your seniors can enjoy the highest quality of personal care possible.

Some of the ways you can make it easier and more efficient for your elder loved ones’ in home caregiver to keep up with their laundry include:

• Separate loads with dedicated hampers. Nobody wants to dig through one large hamper trying to separate colors or fabrics. Make it easy to differentiate loads by specifying hampers for each color, such as colors, darks, and whites, and each type of wash, such as heavy duty, permanent press, and cold water wash. This makes it faster to throw in a load and helps eliminate laundry damage caused by washing the wrong colors or fabrics together.
• Use convenient supplies. Equip your elderly parents’ laundry room with fast, effective, and convenient laundry supplies such as pre-measured detergent packs, stain removal sticks, and softener sheets. This lets the referred caregiver go through the steps of washing and drying more quickly. Encourage her to hang as much of your parents’ clothing as space and style allow to eliminate the time investment of folding.
• Contribute to the upkeep. While doing a load of clothing or washing linens and towels that get soiled during the day is a normal part of providing home care for seniors, it should not be expected that the referred caregiver should handle all of the laundry, particularly if your elderly parents live in the home with you. The referred caregiver should only ever do laundry for the senior adults in their care and it should not be something they need to do for a large amount of time each week. Be prepared to contribute to the laundry tasks by setting aside a day each week to do several loads of laundry and reorganize the closet and drawers.

If your elderly parents are showing signs of having difficulty keeping up with their daily tasks, consider a referred caregiver to assist them on a regular basis. A referred caregiver can offer support, companionship, and assistance that make your parents’ home more comfortable and their lifestyle safer, healthier, and more enjoyable.