If age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects your sight, you may notice everyday tasks such as cooking and cleaning pose challenges they didn’t before. Once they become more of a chore, you may find yourself doing them less, which can affect your quality of life.
With fewer freshly prepared meals and less cleaning, your eating habits may become less healthy and more expensive (if you eat out more often as a result) and your living conditions less safe.
People who live with low vision mention struggles in the kitchen:
- Chopping, cutting, slicing, and dicing safely
- Reading recipes
- Checking for food freshness
- Measuring small amounts of liquid
- Setting dials on a stove or timers
- Cooking multiple foods at a time
- Telling if a dish is done cooking
- Handling hot dishes
- Food preparation taking extra time
While cleaning, it can be harder to:
- Organize laundry by color
- Read appliance settings
- Handle a hot iron
- See dirt and dust on surfaces
With some proactive practices and new habits, you can learn how to overcome these obstacles or modify your tasks so they’re easier to do with low vision.
You can also consult with a low vision specialist. These specialists can help you learn new ways to shop, label your kitchen, and prep and store food. They can visit your home and help you set up your space and recommend adaptive tools and aids you may need.
Tips for Safe and Smooth Cooking
As you think about your cooking area, consider organizing it to better suit your needs. These practices may help:
- If possible, create contrast in your kitchen. If your countertop is the same color as your cabinets, consider contact paper or other covering that makes it stand out as a separate surface. Do the same with cabinet handles, drawer pulls, appliance knobs, and light switches so they’re easier to see.
- Don’t store items you need while cooking over the stove. Instead, put them in a place where you won’t have to reach over the hot surface to get them.
- Use color-coded labels or stickers with large letters for different types of foods so you can easily identify them.
- Get large-print measuring spoons and cups, and a timer with large (or even raised) numbers.
- Keep a lamp on your counter you can move around to help brighten the area where you’re working.
Food preparation
Slicing, dicing, chopping, and peeling can feel risky when you can’t see well. Try these tips for extra safety:
- Use a vegetable peeler instead of a knife for peeling fruits and vegetables.
- A flexible-arm task lamp can help you better see what you’re cutting.
- Cutting boards with attached pivot knives promote safety. It’s best to use a cutting board that contrasts with the food you’re preparing so you know where to cut.
- Test to see if your knife is facing the right way for cutting by rocking it back and forth on your cutting surface. A curved edge (which many knives use for the sharp edge) will rock.
- Use a pizza cutter instead of a knife for cutting sandwiches.
Measuring and pouring
Often, measuring can present the most challenge for people living with low vision because of its precise nature. Pouring is also tricky when you can’t see the edge of the bowl or cup you’re aiming for. You may find it easiest to use adaptive tools, but you can also try these tips:
- If you’re measuring a dark liquid, powder, or grain, use a light measuring utensil or cup, and vice versa.
- Choose measuring spoons and cups with large, contrasting numbers.
- Use your hands to find the edge of a bowl, and rest the container you’re pouring from on top of it so you know the pour will enter correctly.
- Use other sensory clues to tell how much you’ve poured. You can hear the sound change and feel the weight get heavier as a container fills. Over time, you’ll become skilled at how these should sound and feel as you pour.
Using the stove
Working with heat or flame requires special caution for everyone, and especially people with low vision.
- Get familiar with your stove while it’s off. Learn where the knobs for different functions are and label them if needed.
- Set a timer to remind you when to turn off the stove when you’re done cooking.
- Don’t wear clothing with long, loose sleeves while cooking.
- Wear oven mitts to handle pots and pans.
- Always turn off the gas flame before you remove a pan from the burner, and put pans on burners before turning them on, too.
- Keep pot and pan handles turned inward so you don't bump into them.
Tools that can help
Modern technology is constantly creating new, useful gadgets to help people with low vision (and others) operate seamlessly around the house. These devices can be handy in the kitchen:
Liquid level indicator. This device hangs on the side of a cup and buzzes when your liquid is near the rim. You place the prongs inside the container you want to fill, and when the liquid reaches the prong, it buzzes, and you can stop pouring.
Chopping devices. Several options are out there, but they all have the same goal: They chop food inside a closed container so your hands aren’t near the blades. You either push down on a lever or pull a handle to create the chopping motion.
Salad shears. These special scissors cut greens so you don’t have to use a knife.
Finger tongs. These are brightly colored and can help you grab onto food more easily.
Palm peelers. Unlike typical peelers, palm peelers loop around a finger and nest in your palm so that there’s a lower chance of nicks and cuts.
If it’s in your budget, consider trying a meal delivery service for some of your meals. This can help supplement your weekly menu and ensure you’re getting fresh foods with plenty of nutrients.
Occupational therapists are also trained to help you modify tasks around the house and at work and can have helpful tips for navigating your kitchen.
Tips for Cleaning
While cleaning around your home is a task you can hire others to do, paying for a cleaning service isn’t an option for everyone. For some people, the cost is a barrier, and for others, caring for a home gives a sense of pride and ownership. Others find cleaning rituals soothing.
Whatever the reason you need to clean, there are ways to do it well even if your sight is impaired. These practices can help:
- Store your cleaning supplies in a bucket or basket and take it along as you go, or wear an apron with large pockets to stash your gear. This reduces the need for many trips through the house as you clean.
- Spray cleaners onto your cloth instead of the surface you’re wiping down. This will help make sure you don’t leave unwiped spots behind.
- Use a pattern to wipe flat surfaces. You can do it in a grid pattern: up and down first, and then left to right to be sure you cover the whole area.
- Instead of holding a cloth, try wearing soft cotton gloves or socks on your hands to clean.
Show Sources
Photo Credit: E+/Getty Images
SOURCES:
University of California, Davis: “Cooking and Eating with Low Vision.”
American Printing House for the Blind: “Organizing and Labeling Clothing, Laundering, and Housecleaning Tips When Blind or Low Vision,” “Your Kitchen,” “Safe Cooking Techniques if Blind or Low Vision.”
National Council on Aging: “Safe Cooking for People with Blindness or Low Vision.”
The Lighthouse for the Blind: “8 Tips for Adjusting to Household Tasks with Low Vision.”
Wisconsin Office for the Blind and Visually Impaired: “Tips for Successfully Living with Vision Loss.”
