Adaptive Clothing for Seniors
As a hotspot for retirees, Scottsdale offers consistently warm weather and a host of amenities that make it a desirable place for a second home or a picture-perfect spot to live out life surrounded by beautiful desert scenery. However, as Scottsdale’s sizable number of seniors age, health conditions such as arthritis, strokes, diabetes, or any number of afflictions can make simple tasks, such as getting dressed, more challenging for seniors.
During Prestige Cleaners over 50 years in the Valley, we’ve seen many of our valued customers, many of whom have patronized our stores for decades, grapple with finding adaptive clothing that can help them continue to live more independently. For some, zipping zippers or buttoning buttons, tasks that may once have been simple, have turned into frustrating scenarios due to shakiness or lack of flexibility. Thankfully, there are clothing options that can ease these challenges and allow elderly individuals to continue everyday dressing tasks so that they can live more independently.
Here are some options that Prestige’s knowledgeable team of clothing professionals suggest:
No-Button Clothing
Buttoning pieces of clothing can prove to be one of the biggest areas of difficulty for seniors. Arthritis, muscle loss, loss of sensation, and poor eyesight can create problems and make grappling with small buttons impossible. Companies such as Buck & Buck (www.buckandbuck.com) make adaptive clothing for seniors that can help restore self-dressing independence with many different options, including Velcro pieces. Velcro can replace buttons, zippers, snaps, and laces.
Shoes without Laces
Tying shoes with laces can often be extremely difficult, even for the most flexible of seniors. A number of different companies over stylish solutions from comfortable slip-ons to orthopedic sneakers with Velcro. Among the companies offering a good selection for seniors: FootSmart (www.footsmart.com), Silverts (silverts.com), and Murray’s Shoes (murraysshoes.com).
Wheelchair Clothes
Easy to put on and take off without needing to stand and with minimal moving around, wheelchair clothes offer ease of use for those using a wheelchair during daily activities. Among companies offering stylish and functional clothing in this category: IZ Adaptive (www.izadaptive.com) and Adaptions by Adrian (www.adaptionsbyadrian.com).
For more alternatives, try searching for terms like senior adaptive clothing, arthritis clothing, clothing for seniors, or adaptive clothing. There are a number of different online stores dedicated to helping make dressing easier for seniors.
Doing Our Part
Meanwhile, at Prestige Cleaners, we try and aid our senior customers in many ways. We have customers that wish for their “traditional button down shirts” (aka business shirts) buttoned except for the top two buttons so they can slip the shirt over their head and have less buttons to button. Our tailors/seamstresses can also modify garments to assist or aid customers, like adding elastic waistbands. Additionally, our drive-thru allows for our senior customers to sit in their vehicles while we wait on them and load their orders in their car. We also offer FREE pickup and delivery service allows for laundry and dry cleaning so that a senior can have their clothing delivered right to their front door. At Prestige Cleaners, our customers come first.
