Caring for an Aging Parent at Home

Caring for an aging parent can be both complicated and rewarding. Having a little extra help can make all the difference. It’s important to take care of yourself, as well. Being a family caregiver can be both emotionally and physically exhausting, so here are some tips for caring for an aging parent at home.

Cooking Simple Meals

Part of holding on to your dignity as you age is remaining as independent as possible. So even if your parent needs significant assistance with living by herself or himself at home, there are ways to make it so that they can do some of the everyday tasks themselves. For example, on weekly grocery trips, be sure to pick up food items that they may be able to prepare themselves. Prepping ingredients beforehand and labeling them in containers in the fridge is always a great way to lend some assistance without overstepping.

Laundry and Cleaning

Laundry and cleaning are chores that require physical exertion, so it is best to get help with these tasks as much as possible. This could mean taking certain items to and from the dry cleaners or signing up for laundry delivery service. Or just designate a certain day that you do your loved one’s laundry, even if it’s at your own home. Hiring a cleaning service is always an option. Or you could make sure your parent has easily accessible tools like brooms or dustbusters so they could still do some light cleaning themselves.

Getting the Necessary Medical Supplies

It’s imperative that your aging parent has the necessary meds and medical supplies such as walking canes, shower seats, and reaching aids. Check with your local pharmacy about automatic prescription refills. Delivery may always be an option as well. This kind of thing is where hiring a home care agency could come in hand. A home healthcare aide will be able to provide assistance not only with picking up prescriptions but also help with mobility and physical assistance.

Caring for an aging parent can be tricky, but with a little extra planning, it doesn’t have to disrupt your life. Your parent deserves to be able to live out their lives as independently and comfortable as possible, and so do you. Don’t forget to take a break every now and then. A respite care provider can provide the at home care assistance that your parent needs while you rest and recharge.

Disinfecting Laundry at Home

With the COVID-19 outbreak surging in Boston, we are all concerned with keeping our home and family safe from germs, bacteria and viruses, especially when you have seniors living at home. You know how to keep your floors and surfaces disinfected, but what about your clothes and linens? When someone in the household becomes ill, it’s even more important to disinfect laundry to keep the rest of the family safe. Here are some easy ways to disinfect your laundry.

Tips for Easy Disinfecting

When someone in your home is sick, try to have them use 100% cotton sheets and clothes in light colors. This makes them easier to disinfectant in the washing machine using the strongest possible disinfectants. Wash all contaminated items separately from other laundry and wear gloves while handling it if possible. Wash your hands after and avoid touching your face.

Safe Laundry Disinfectants to Use at Home

Although it’s great for regular stains and soiling, regular laundry detergent isn’t strong enough to kill bacteria and viruses. Fortunately, there are several easy to find add-ins you can add to your washer to disinfect laundry.

Pine Oil Disinfectants – These are the most readily available disinfectants to use on fabric. They work best when used with warm water added at the beginning of a wash cycle. Look for 80% pine oil products for maximum efficiency.

Bleach – Bleach can be used on almost all fabrics, even colors believe it or not. Look for color-safe bleach and use the special bleach dispenser in your washer if it has one. Hot or warm water cycles work best.

In addition, innovative green dry cleaners such as Utopia Cleaners in Boston use a special environmentally-friendly soap to remove germs from your laundry. This germ-free laundry service is a good alternative to trying to disinfecting your own laundry at home.

Disinfect Your Washing Machine

After washing contaminated laundry, it’s important to disinfect your washing machine as well. Run an empty cycle with hot water and 1/2 cup bleach to kill any lingering germs and bacteria.

If you’re concerned about keeping your family safe and healthy, remember you can always take your laundry to the dry cleaners nearby to be disinfected as well. Use separate bags for contaminated items and wash or dispose of afterwards. Be sure to tell your local dry cleaner what items need disinfected and be specific about stains and damage. During this unprecedented time, it is best to use a laundry pickup service.

Enjoying St Patrick’s Day in Boston

Canadian stand-up comedian, Russell Peters, once joked that everyone in Boston thinks they are Irish. Indeed, St Paddy’s Day Parade is a major event in the city of Boston, which is often called the capital of Irish America. The parade has been running since 1901 in South Boston, the most Irish neighborhood in Boston. It features marching bands and pipe bands from throughout North America, as well as colorful floats, music and plenty of Irish good cheer. The parade begins at the Broadway ‘T’ Station and ends at Farragut Road, South Boston. Stake out a spot somewhere on Broadway for a good view.

Kid dressed as a leprechaun — 3D render of a leprechaun leaning on an edge.

Whether you are Irish or not, it’s certainly worth sharing in the fun. Clearly, you need to dress the part – in green, preferably with Irish luck motifs like shamrock, or a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. You can even go all the way by dressing as a leprechaun, with green tall hat, red beard and even green hair! Be careful when you dye your hair and use other hair products. They can cause color loss to your clothing. When that happens, even your dry cleaner may not be able to save it. Kids often paint their faces, such as shamrocks on the cheeks, or a full-face Irish flag in green, white and orange.

How about Irish food? You will see these advertised on local supermarket flyers – cabbage, corned beef, soda bread and potatoes. Hop into an Irish bar for more festive beer and spirits, along with Irish music and dance! It’s easy to overeat or get drunk in big parties. If you do, you might need antacids, or gas relief and heartburn relief digestive aids from your local drug store. It’s better to control your appetite and save yourself the agony. Food spills are nearly unavoidable in parties, too. Don’t waste time trying to remove the stains yourself. Call the laundry delivery service and save your time for the more important things in your life!

How to Repurpose the Clothes in Your Closet

The New Year is right around the corner, so it’s time to unclutter your life. When was the last time you cleaned out your closet? Are there clothes that need washing, or even professional cleaning by a dry cleaner? Put them in a pile and if there are a lot of clothes that need cleaning, it is wise to use a laundry delivery service.

It’s a great idea to donate the clothes you no longer wear, but what about those pieces that aren’t quite in shape to donate? Or the pieces you want to hold onto but aren’t sure how to use them? Read on for some ideas on how to repurpose the clothes in your closet.

A T-Shirt Quilt

Have lots of old band or travel t-shirts sitting around? A t-shirt quilt is a super cute way to preserve your memories while repurposing those old shirts. If you’re not the crafty type, don’t worry. There are several different companies and services that do this sort of thing for you or, ask around for local artisans.

Turn Long Sleeve Shirts into Wrap Skirts

Most dress shirts last 6 months to a year, whether you use a shirt laundry service or not. Cotton shirts lose their shape after a while, but there’s no need to throw them out. By wearing the torso portion of the shirt and wrapping the sleeves around your waist into a bow in the front, you’ve got a comfortable wrap skirt you can wear over leggings or on its own. This works for solid colored shirts of course, but prints are even better!

Turn Tees into Cardigans

Have some old tees that are a bit too tight but you’d love to hang on to them? Turn them into cardigans! This awesome hack lets you hold on to your favorite old tees while repurposing them into your current wardrobe. And you don’t even need to know how to sew! Using a pair of scissors, simply cut a line straight down the middle of the tee. Then use hem tape, which you can find at any craft store, to straighten the cut edges. If I want to add buttons or fastens, I can simply ask the expert tailor at the Boston dry cleaner near me to do it for a small charge.

So time to go through your laundry piles and clean out that closet! After gathering up donations for your local organization or shelter, try some of these fun ideas to repurpose your clothes.

Surprising Items That Can Be Dry Cleaned

When most of us think about taking clothes to our Boston dry cleaner, we think of our work casual wardrobe, suits, dresses and maybe some of our fancier attire like gowns, dresses and delicate materials. But there is actually more items that are safe to be dry cleaned than you realize. Read on for some surprising items that can be taken to the dry cleaners nearby.

Designer Jeans

We all have at least one pair of designer jeans that we splurged on because they just fit so amazing. To keep them fitting so amazing, did you know you can take them to the dry cleaners? Dry cleaning services include denim garments like jeans and jackets. Premium denim can lose it’s shape and color in the laundry when you run them through the washer and dryer. So to get your money’s worth, take those fancy jeans to the dry cleaners.

Comforters

Depending on what material your comforter is made of, you may be able to get away with washing it at home. If you have a down comforter, you should avoid taking it to the dry cleaners since the products used could damage it. However, most non-down comforters dry cleaned once a year. This is a great way to freshen up your bedding and have it look like new again.

Don’t forget that you can take advantage of a laundry drop off service in Boston for these bulky items. If you have a senior adult at home with in home living assistance, the home health aide can do this as well.

Throw Pillows

If you have throw pillows made of delicate materials like wool or silk, it’s best to leave the cleaning to the professionals. Home washing machines can be too harsh for decorative pillows. I would take them to a dry cleaner near me to clean your throw pillows thoroughly while maintaining the shape of the material.

Shoes and Sneakers

Yes, you read that right. You can have your shoes and sneakers dry cleaned. Check with the dry cleaners nearby about your specific shoes, but most will take gyms shoes and dress shoes. Suede shoes, in particular, should always be professionally dry cleaned as opposed to washed at home.

If you have an item at home that you’re not sure is safe to be dry cleaned or not, don’t be afraid to ask the dry cleaners.

Condo Living in Boston

Condo prices have gone up again this year in downtown Boston, according to Boston Magazine. For example condos in the South End area cost nearly $1 million while in Back Bay they are over $1.2 million. As more and more businesses in the innovation economy move to Boston, mostly technology and life sciences companies, the demand for residential condo units go up. Most of these condo developments are in the high end category and concentrated in the Seaport District, Back Bay, West End and also across the river in Cambridge.

South End is one of the most desirable places to live in the City of Boston. There you’ll find interesting upscale specialty shops, coffee shops and restaurants, convenient services like dry cleaners, salons, and friendly community pharmacies. The brownstone lined streets are charming and relaxing with plenty of green public areas. It’s also a stone’s throw from major shopping centers in Copley where you can find major luxury brands. There is metered parking on major thoroughfares like Tremont Street and residential parking mostly in the side streets. Of course, it is also served by the T, which is Boston’s mass transit system.

If you want more floor space, you might want to move to the Boston suburbs instead. For example, in the city of Newton, there are many condos, old and new, as well. Newton is known as the Garden City with plenty of green spaces, parks as well as beautiful gardens in private houses. There are major shopping centers in Chestnut Hill with a variety of specialty shops, boutiques, restaurants, luxury brands as well as many medical offices, banks and schools. Parking is readily available in all the village centers (there are 13 villages in Newton). Finding a laundry and dry cleaner in Newton is easy, as is a local prescription pharmacy. Newton has many residential housing complexes for the elderly, including independent living, assisted living, nursing homes and other choices. There are also many home care agencies in Newton, offering in-home care services for elderly and disabled adults.

Boston is a great place to live and work. You’ll love it!

Preparing Clothes for Dry Cleaning in Boston

Do you want the best results from your Boston dry cleaner? Take a few minutes to prepare your clothes before bringing to the dry cleaner. A little preparation before sending your laundry to the dry cleaner helps make sure you get satisfactory results. Here are a few tips for preparing your clothes for the dry cleaner.

Read the Care Tags

Make sure you send the right clothes to the cleaner. Their tags will tell you whether or not an item can be dry cleaned. If the label says “machine wash or dry clean” or “dry clean only,” you’re good to go. Notice whether items have any additional special instructions for handling, and separate them from the rest so the dry cleaner in downtown Boston can easily identify clothing that requires special care.

Empty the Pockets

We all accumulate things in our pockets: pens, gum, makeup, and even small toys. Things like lipstick, gum, and ink pens can damage clothes if you leave them in the pockets. Cleaners do check clothes before cleaning, but it’s easy to miss something. Be kind to your dry cleaner in South End Boston and empty the pockets.

Mark Stains

Make sure that stains can be easily identified. Put a bit of masking tape around or on the stain so the cleaners can find it easily. You can also mark it with a safety pin and a piece of paper. Be sure to let the cleaners know what caused the stain so they can choose the appropriate method for that type of stain.

Get the item to the dry cleaners as soon as possible after the stain occurred.

Check for Worn or Weak Areas

Let your dry cleaner know about any loose buttons, broken zippers, or other wear and tear so they can take special care of those areas.

Preparing your clothes properly for the dry cleaner will help you look your best in clean clothes!

About Utopia Cleaners
Utopia Cleaners offers laundry and dry cleaning services in Boston from three stores in downtown Boston. Laundry pickup and delivery in Boston as well as same day dry cleaning service are available.

Why Shop Local?

When you shop at your local pharmacy or drycleaner, you’re not only building relationships but also strengthening the fabric of your entire community. Local business owners know you, and you know them.

When you see someone frequently at the coffee shop, dry cleaner, or hardware store, you build relationships with people who have similar needs and interests. Shopping at local businesses connects neighbors with each other. It’s social networking without the screen!

You get better customer service when you shop local. When you fill a prescription at a community pharmacy you are likely to be served by the owner or a long-time employee who knows your medical history and medication needs. Many local pharmacies also offer specialties such as compounded medications. A local laundry service or dress shop knows your preferences so you get more personalized service.

Local businesses are more likely to donate to community events, local non-profits, and sports teams. Studies have shown that they do so at over twice the rate of large chains. This kind of participation brings the community closer together.

Did you know that each dollar you spend at a local independent business can bring as much as $3.50 into the local economy? Local businesses are customers of local ad agencies, insurance brokers, accountants, printers, lawyers and other services and often buy locally-made goods too. This creates opportunities for entrepreneurs to start more local businesses.

Some studies have reported that local businesses employ more people directly per dollar of revenue than national chains thus creating higher-paying jobs for your neighbors. But it’s not just the jobs at the independent pharmacy, the laundry pickup service, or the boutique that get created. As the local economy strengthens, you’re helping create jobs for firefighters, police officers, teachers, and other public service employees as well!

Author: The WSI Touch is a digital marketing agency serving small and medium-sized businesses in Boston, Massachusetts.

Caring for an Aging Parent

Is your aging parent starting to need help with some of the everyday tasks at home? A change in functioning doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to move to assisted living or a nursing home. Sometimes all they need is a little help with chores or some extra support so they can continue to live in their home. Start by asking your loved one what they need help with, discuss your concerns with them, and coordinate with their primary care doctor. That way they’ll still feel like they’re in charge and you’ll get a good feel for what is really needed to keep them safe, comfortable, and happy.

Maybe a few modifications to the home, such as grab bars for the shower or a stair lift can make things safer for them and reduce the worry for you.

Maybe you can stop by once a week to do yard work or household chores and prepare some meals for them. If they have difficulty with bathing or dressing, you could stop by once a day to help. However, don’t be afraid to get some extra care giving help. Here are some ideas:

Use a laundry pickup and delivery service to take laundry day right off the chore list.
Set up a reminder schedule for medications using specially designed pill boxes or high-tech reminder devices.
To save time picking up the medications, choose a local pharmacy that offers prescription delivery service.
Hire a home health aide who can help with some of the household chores and meal preparation as well as some of the personal care tasks and medication reminders.
Use a grocery delivery or meal delivery service.
Take advantage of programs and services at the local senior center, especially for socialization and exercise.

For busy professionals living in cities like Boston, caring for an aging parent can be overwhelming. Don’t sweat it out all by yourself. A little extra help here and there can make all the difference in your quality of life, as well as your parent’s!

Taking a Walk in Nature

There is scientific research that shows walking a nature can do your body and mind a lot of good. It can decreased depression, improved well-being and mental health, and lower perceived stress. It can also bring about better cardiovascular health, healthy weight, and strengthened bones. In the city of Newton, MA, there are many places where you can walk in nature and enjoy its benefits. For example, Charles River Reservation, Cold Spring Park and Cutler Park are all well maintained and very popular spots for neighbors to enjoy a daily stroll or weekend hike.

Given the current concerns about EEE, it is important to take precautions when you take a walk a nature. It is wise to wearing long sleeves and pants and use insect repellent sprays. Mosquitoes are most active during dawn and dusk, so we should avoid being out in the woods during those hours. Of course, we should also bear in mind the usual warnings about ticks, mosquitoes, poison ivy, etc. On sunny days, sunscreens are a must.

You can get sunscreens and insect sprays from big stores like Target or CVS, but there are many advantages to shop local and go to a local pharmacy like Keyes Drug instead. You’ll get better service and the pharmacists will get to know you and your family really well. They can provide compounded medications to help you get the personalized health care that you need. Veterinary compounding services can make customized medicine for your pets as well.

Don’t forget that sunscreens and insect sprays can leave stains on your clothing. Here are some tips for removing sunscreen stains. For best results, bring the stained clothing to your local dry cleaner or use a laundry delivery service in Boston.

Summer is nearly over. Do take advantage of the beautiful Fall weather to enjoy walking in nature before Winter arrives!