I found this meaning of logistics, and it seemed to cover what I meant: the detailed coordination of a complex operation involving many people, facilities, or supplies. Synonyms: organization, planning, coordination, etc. Most people have no idea that caregiving involves all these things.
Around the first of the year, facing record-breaking cold temperatures and a major flu outbreak, I started ordering some of our necessities online. Now I'm wondering how I managed without doing this for all these years! I've ordered all those odds and ends that you wind up schlepping through miles of aisles to find, and I don't even have to leave the house. It's such a help, because when we do leave the house, I can concentrate on just getting those things that we can't have delivered. I'm not talking about "fun" shopping, but those things that make you have a shopping list that goes into the triple digits of items you need.
This made me start thinking: What other things could possibly make this easier? I don't mean the emotional part, because I think making that easier would take a miracle. But the day-to-day part of running a house and managing medical care and records and finances, etc. Does anyone have ideas to share about how to make the logistics easier?
I agree about the online shopping. It saves me so much time. A few things I have on automatic orders so I don’t have to worry about ordering them every month or two. HVAC filters, boxes of meat.
A DVR has been so helpful so I don’t have to watch TV when the programs show, but watch later.
I use my Mac’s calendars and reminders a lot. All synced with iPhone. All appointments go on them. One big advantage, when it was important a few years ago, was looking up the last time my wife had an appointment with particular doctors.
When I needed to journal my wife’s progress I used a journaling program that ran on and synced between my various devices. Being able to add something immediately and not wait until I got home was vital.
Ditto for ordering things on line. Amazon Prime is great for this--well worth the money in my opinion. When I was stuck home with DH and couldn't leave him to do much shopping, on line ordering of everything from sickroom supplies to the kind of tea I preferred (grocery store didn't carry) was a real help.
Everybody probably does this, but make sure you keep some kind of binder with all your spouse's medical information in it--a record of your appointments and with whom, a log of your phone calls--times, dates, brief summary--always get a name...a list of the meds that you always keep up to date...things like that. Make sure it is something portable that you can take with you to appointments, or refer to when you are on the phone.
This might sound stupid, but once he became incontinent, I kept all my clothing and towels separate from his. I kept my color scheme all darkish, so I did not need to sort my own laundry into different loads. i.e. all dark blues, blacks, grays, dark burgundies, purples , and greens--with gray towels--so it all could go into the wash together. He was making enough laundry as it was, so I tried to keep my own to an easy-peasy minimum.
I like ordering online but I don't like ordering something site unseen. I hate dealing with returning items. I do order online and pick up at the store.If I want something for the MH I usually do order online because there is no where around here to get what I want at the prices I want. I seem to find what I want with free shipping.