The laundry trolley - the improved way to do your washing with CFS!
Muscle weakness is one of the sucky things about CFS, and quite frankly one of the most annoying things (for me at least)! We have to put triple, or even quadruple the amount of effort into doing the simplest tasks compared to able-bodied people, and doing the laundry is no exception. The lifting, the hanging, it can do a number on you.
I'll be honest, I didn't know laundry trolleys existed until I got desperate enough to do some googling. After my shower stool, it was the next purchase I made to improve my life and man, I could never live without it now! I use it everyday.
I bought mine from the local hardware store for around $20 NZD. Its simple and plain in design but it does the job wonderfully! An added benefit is that it can fold up partially, as well as flat for storage when not in use. There are fancier, bigger and more expensive laundry trolleys out there, but this one suits me and my compact house better.
I wheel it into our laundry room when a wash load is finished, fill it up with our clothes, and wheel it outside to the line. Its the perfect height that there's no bending to get laundry out of the basket.
Its also made washing our bedsheets a whole lot easier too! We all know how much damp bedsheets can weigh, and its exhausting to hold them up while we hang them on the line. When I hang out our bedsheets, I can spread the weight by leaving a majority of the sheet in the basket while picking up one part at a time to hang. I then wheel the trolley along while picking up more of the bedsheet until its all hung up.
The trolley has the added benefit that I can use it to move other things around the house and in the garden - just plop the items in the basket and wheel it away!
Its really worth it to invest in a laundry trolley, there's no need to exhaust yourself lifting the washing again!