Bearing Disability Duvet, Pegs and One Hand

I’ve not hidden that I have cerebral palsy. As you can probably imagine, it does bring challenges to my life. They are usually around tasks that are typically done with two hands. So I have to be very creative to be independence. That includes changing a bed.

Most of my creativity takes place in the kitchen as you may have seen last week when I cooked a roast dinner one-handed, this week I am going to show you how to do something that many people with the use of two hands find challenging – put a duvet cover on to a double-sized duvet. And I do it with one hand.

So where to start?

Please note that when you start doing this, it will take around thirty to forty minutes but as soon as you have gotten used to it and completed it a few times, the overall time is halved. 

1. Make sure that the duvet cover is inside out. It helps if you get the duvet on the bed lying flat and put the inside out cover next to it, with both the cover’s (sealed-side) and the duvet’s  bottom corners lying next to each other.
2. Next, put your arm into one side of the cover and find the sealed-side corner. Use the corner as a glove and pick up the duvet corner.
   

3. Shake your hand until that side of the cover is no longer inside out.

4. Gently put the corner down so that it doesn’t move then peg the cover and duvet together.

5. Repeat steps 2-4 for the other side.

6. Peg all the way across the sealed end of the cover, making sure the duvet is at the top and pegged as well. You may need to adjust the pegs as you go along. You can also put two or so pegs on the sides for extra support.

7. Grab hold of the pegged side and begin to shake. It will move some of the covers to the open-side bottom. The cover is most likely going to get stuck, so stuff the rest of the duvet into it.

8. Give it another shake by picking up the pegged side. It would have straightened itself out. Ready for you to put onto the bed.

9. Finally, do up the buttons at the bottom and don’t forget to remove the pegs.

Hope this was helpful. For the pillows, it is the same as the duvet, but you do not need as many pegs and it much easier because there is less of it.

As you can see, Berg has been watching me do this, although he did try and eat the pegs (or was it the pillow) at one point so I think he might be a bit hungry.

To any able-bodied person, you are free to give this a go, see whether you can do it without the use of both hands. If not, nominate your friends – although I think this one would be much easier than the Roast dinner one.

Come back on Wednesday for Berg’s Book Club. Berg and I are going to be reviewing Phillip Pullman’s new book, La Belle Sauvage – the first book in the trilogy of The Book of Dust. We’re both really excited (and Berg is insistent that he is my Dæmon. I think he’s right.

And why not follow Little Sea Bear on Facebook, Twitter or in my group?