Organization

Today he says he wants to hang the calendar by the light hanging over the kitchen table so he can access it better. I said, “Isn’t there a calendar sitting beside the phone?” “Yes, but you have to lay the phone down to get to it and then you’ve lost contact with the person you’re talking to.”

He uses a small (6” x 6”) calendar that came in the mail. It has one month per page and a square for each day. The calendar is folded and stapled so he has to open it to the month he wants each time. Of course, there are better calendars for him to use, but this is the one he wants to use. I buy my mother a daily journal calendar each Christmas as well as making a hanging calendar with family pictures for her. She seems to do well with these.

Another organization problem area is that he uses the kitchen table for a desk although there’s a desk sitting next to the table. The phone is on the table and it has the volume control on the handset so it’s easy for  him to adjust the volume (since he’s hard of hearing). So, he uses the phone at the table and needs a calendar and notepaper there to schedule doctor appointments and make notes. That’s why the table has become the desk. And it gets more and more cluttered with each visit I make. But so does the desk even though it is used only for offloading the table clutter.

Mom has told me that she has asked him to clear some of the desk clutter before I’ve visited which he has done. I know if I suggested he move the phone to the desk and clear off some table clutter that he would get mad. So that probably won’t happen.

Meanwhile, my dad seems to think the solution to making his calendar more accessible is to hang it from the ceiling light fixture.