Organising and cleaning clothes and footwear

Keeping your clothes and footwear clean and finding the right outfit can be difficult when you're living with sight loss, but if you're organised it doesn't have to be. Here are some tips to help you feel more confident when getting dressed or doing your laundry.

An organised drawer with a section for white socks, a section for black socks and a section for coloured t-shirts

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Clothes labelling

Use these aids and tips to identify your clothes and create stylish outfits.

Wrap ordinary elastic bands around items such as bags, belts, scarves and even watches to help you find what you're looking for. For example, use two elastic bands on a brown belt and one band on a black belt so you can tell what colour the belt is.

You can use elastic bands of various sizes to identify clothes in your wardrobe by putting them on hangers. For example, thin bands on blue t-shirts and thick bands on red t-shirts.
If you have some remaining vision, you can use different coloured pipe cleaners to bend around items such as clothes hangers, pegs or drawer handles so you can find what you're looking for more easily.

If you need to use touch to identify the pipe cleaner, you can bend it into various shapes for different types of clothing. For example, bend it into a circle and loop onto a hanger for jeans or bend it into a triangle for dresses.
You can use a Braille labeller to create adhesive labels describing each item of clothing. You could stick them to the clothes hanger, or to a hole-punched piece of card that hooks over the hanger.

Alternatively, you could attach the label to items of clothing using either a clothes peg or safety pin. You may need help from a friend or family member to do this.
PenFriend is an audio labelling device that records your voice onto washable labels (sold separately), which you can attach to clothes and accessories. With help from a friend or family member, record yourself describing what the item looks like, what other clothes you can pair with it and the care instructions, then when you place the PenFriend onto the label it'll play you the recording.
To help you identify what colour a piece of clothing is, you can use a talking colour detector. Hold the detector against the clothing item and it will tell you what colour it is. The detector is more accurate when the garment is flat on a surface. The device is small enough to easily fit in a pocket or handbag, so you can take it with you on shopping trips. You can also use it with headphones if you prefer.

There are colour identification apps you can use, such as Color Inspector for iPhone users or Color Grab for Android users. You can also use the colour identification part of the Seeing AI app.

I love clothes, and shopping for them! I label all the hangers in Braille and I make a note in Braille of what goes with what separately from the hangers. That way I can always put the finished outfit together.

Andrea, guide dog owner

Organising your clothes

When putting away your clean laundry, be organised and systematic so it’s easier for you to find and coordinate your clothes. Here are some tips for organising your wardrobe and drawers.

Organise your wardrobe into sections so the same type of clothing is together. For example, hang all your t-shirts in the same place, then create a divider by hooking a piece of card on a hanger. In the next section hang another type of clothing that's obviously different, such as trousers or jackets. Continue this system, each time trying to keep the clothing items different from the section next to it.

On drawers or shelving, either write in large print or use Braille on a label to identify what clothing is there. If you have some remaining vision, you may want to stick on a photo of the clothing type instead.

Sort your drawers so that each type of clothing has its own space. You can use drawer dividers or small boxes within the drawers to separate items such as underwear, socks and tights. This will make it easier to identify and find later.

You may prefer to keep clothing items of the same colour together in a drawer or on the same shelf. Make sure you label each drawer or shelf, for example, white long sleeve shirts.

You can use elastic bands to gather items such as scarves, belts, hats and watches so they're all in the same place and easy to find.

Create a clothing bundle to keep clothes that go well together in the same place. Take the largest item first, for example, a pair of trousers, place the other clothes you wear with the trousers on top, and then fold them together to make a bundle.

If you don’t want to use the bundle method, you can hang the clothes that go together in the same area of your hanging space, for example, a blue jumper next to a pair of dark jeans. Alternatively, use a system of labelling that works for you and make a note on the label of the blue jumper that it goes well with the dark jeans, and then do the same for the dark jeans.

Labelled storage boxes are a good way of separating different clothes that are on the same shelf. Or you could dedicate each shelf to only one type of clothing.

To keep your gloves in pairs, use a clothes peg or clip. You could also write the colour of the gloves onto the peg or on a piece of paper clipped together with the gloves.
When packing for a trip, use the same methods to pack your suitcase as you do for organising your wardrobe and drawers. Divide the case into sections, use your preferred method of labelling and if you have low vision, use colour and contrast to help you arrange your clothes.

Put items that are harder for you to find inside one of your shoes. This works well for shampoo bottles which have been wrapped in a plastic bag, containing any potential spills. Alternatively, put smaller items such as cosmetics or jewellery inside rolled up clothing.
Keep your socks in matching pairs either by folding the top ends together to form a ball, or by using sock locks or SockSnaps. These rubber discs have a star-shaped slot in the middle so you can push a pair of socks through, making sure they stay together.

To help you identify sock colours, use drawer dividers to make separate sections for different coloured socks, or plain and patterned socks.

To make sure your socks always match, you could buy the same coloured socks.

Buy socks with a tactile logo or pattern so that you can find a matching pair by feeling them.

Keeping trainer socks and dress socks in the same drawer may make them easier to identify as they're different sizes.
Separate nude, opaque and coloured tights by using drawer dividers.

Identify high or low denier tights by feeling the thickness of the material. Low denier tights or stockings will feel much thinner than thicker high denier tights.

Feel the difference in material to find out what type they are, for example, woollen, nylon, cotton-blend, and so on.

For patterned tights, if you have some remaining vision, stretch the tights up to a light to see the pattern more easily. If the light causes glare, you might find it helps to hold the stretched tights against a contrasting colour instead.

Alternatively, store the tights in their original packaging and label using your preferred labelling method. This will also prevent the tights from getting snagged.

Apps to help with matching your clothes

Seeing AI: reads the text of clothes labels, describes clothes and colours.
Be My Eyes: connects you with a sighted volunteer via a video call.

Washing your clothes

Our blind hack for washing your clothes.

Here are some suggestions for keeping your clothes organised whilst washing them:

Separate your clothes by type or colour and place them into a pillowcase or netting bag before putting them in the washing machine. This will keep the items together when you take them out of the washing machine, making them easier to sort.
When washing socks, fold the top ends of the pair together and wash them as a pair.
Alternatively, use sock locks or SockSnaps to keep your socks paired together in the washing machine, tumble dryer, and your sock drawer.
To help with setting the washing machine controls, use bump-ons or Tacti-mark on your preferred settings.

Tips for reading washing instructions on clothes

If you have some remaining vision, read the clothes label with a magnifier or other low vision aid.
Alternatively, take a photo of the label with your smartphone and zoom in by placing two fingers in the centre of the image and moving them apart. There are also apps you can download to make your phone work as a low vision aid, such as, weZoom for Android users and Brighter and Bigger for Android and iPhone users.

Organising and cleaning your shoes

Choose shoes that look and feel very different. That way they'll be easier to identify and you'll be less likely to wear odd shoes.
Store the shoes you wear less often in shoeboxes with your preferred type of labels on them.
Keep shoes that you wear regularly on a shoe rack near the front door or in the wardrobe. They’ll be easier to identify if you don’t keep them with lots of other shoes.
Organise the shoe rack so that other members of the household keep their shoes on different levels.
Keep shoes together by tying the laces from both shoes into a loop knot.
Store shoes that don’t have laces in a drawstring bag or use large elastic bands to secure them together if you’re not using them regularly.
Apart from leather and suede shoes, clean dirty shoes by putting them into a small mesh washing bag and washing them in the washing machine with your other laundry.
Use wet wipes or a damp cloth to wipe down shoes, apart from suede, when you get home before any dirt or mud dries.
For suede shoes, wait for any dirt to dry and then use a suede brush to clean it off.
Protect suede or leather shoes with a protective spray before you first wear them. It will make cleaning them easier and prevents tough stains.

No-tie shoelaces

Velcro fasteners or slip-on elasticated shoes may be easier than tying shoelaces if you have reduced dexterity or struggle to reach your shoes.
Lock laces are elastic laces with an eyelet lock at the end. They can replace regular laces and fit any lace-up shoes. After you first adjust the tension, you can leave it locked and treat your shoes like slip-ons.

After your clothes have dried, read our tips for ironing safely