Organizing clothing

Identifying clothing is a real challenge for many low vision patients. We had a patient who liked to wear white shirts to church. To help this patient identify his white shirts, we taught him to place a small safety pin behind the collar which he can feel. He could leave those safety pins in the collar even when he sent his white shirts to the cleaners. Another approach is to hang a complete outfit that goes together all on one hanger. We also teach patients to hang clothes in their closets according to categories such as dressiness, season of use, purpose, color, etc. Some of our patients prefer using an alternative strategy with safety pins. We teach them to use small safety pins in different numbers, patterns of placement and location of placement to help distinguish between clothing. As always, it is always helpful to keep a flashlight in the closet to make it easier to identify different clothing.