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These home cleaning tips for people with hypermobility will help you to stay on top of your home’s cleanliness without causing you excessive pain or fatigue.
If you’re anything like the average American, you’ll spend 23 hours and 36 minutes every month making your home look spick and span. But, the problem with working away like this is that it can play havoc with a hypermobile body.
So, if you want to live in a clean and hygienic home without your body paying the price for it, read on.
Why does my body hurt when I clean?
It’s common for people’s bodies to hurt when they clean, regardless of whether they’re hypermobile or not. But hypermobile people are at greater risk of a sore body when cleaning. Some reasons for this include:
- Increased Joint Mobility: Hypermobility is characterized by excessive joint mobility, which can lead to joint instability. Cleaning often involves repetitive movements and joint stress, such as bending, reaching, and scrubbing, which can exacerbate joint instability and cause pain.
- Muscle Fatigue: Hypermobile individuals often have to work harder to stabilize their joints during physical activities. This increased muscle effort to compensate for joint instability can lead to muscle fatigue and pain when performing cleaning tasks.
- Joint Strain: Cleaning tasks often require awkward body positions and repetitive movements that can strain the joints, especially in areas like the wrists, shoulders, hips, and knees, which are commonly affected by hypermobility.
- Repetitive Stress Injuries: Cleaning can involve repetitive motions, like scrubbing or vacuuming, which can lead to repetitive stress injuries. The stress placed on the joints and muscles during these tasks can be particularly painful for hypermobile individuals.
- Overuse Injuries: Hypermobile people may be more prone to overuse injuries due to their joints being more susceptible to wear and tear. Cleaning can involve a lot of bending, lifting, and reaching, which can strain the joints over time.
- Fatigue and Energy Depletion: Hypermobile individuals may experience more fatigue and energy depletion when cleaning due to the additional effort required to stabilize their joints. This fatigue can lead to increased pain and discomfort.
- Pain Sensitivity: Many hypermobile individuals are more sensitive to pain due to the way their bodies process sensory information. This heightened pain sensitivity can make cleaning tasks more uncomfortable and painful.
- Risk of Accidents: Due to joint instability and the potential for muscle weakness, hypermobile individuals may be at a higher risk of accidents or falls while cleaning, which can lead to injuries and pain.
Top Home Cleaning Tips for People With Hypermobility
Now you understand the risk of home cleaning for people with hypermobility, let’s take a look at how to keep on top of your household cleaning while protecting your joints.
Little & often
It’s common for people to set aside a day a week to do all their household cleaning and chores. Sadly, this doesn’t work well when you’re hypermobile as it increases your risk of injury and fatigue.
While it’s tempting to blitz your house in one go, you’re sure to pay for it for days afterward. To prevent this, you should clean little and often. One way to do this is to focus on cleaning one room of your home per day. Or, you could do all the dusting one day, disinfecting the next, vacuuming the following day, and so on.
Use natural cleaning products
Research has found that the chemicals in commercial cleaning products cause chronic inflammation. The last thing you want is to increase the inflammation in your body while you’re cleaning. For this reason, use natural cleaning products instead. You can buy these or make them yourself.
Buy a second vacuum cleaner
If you live in a multi-story house, investing in a second vacuum cleaner is an invaluable tip. This means you won’t have to carry your current vacuum up and down the stairs when you need to clean the floors. Carrying heavy objects like this puts excess stress on your body and tires it out. It also increases your risk of injury as you may lose your balance, drop it, or pull a muscle.
Use ergonomic tools
Ergonomic cleaning tools are designed to make cleaning your home easier. They also help to protect your health and hypermobility symptoms.
Brushes with ergonomic handles, height-adjustable mops, and electric scrubbers are just a few examples of ergonomic cleaning equipment to consider.
Ask for help
One of my top home cleaning tips for people with hypermobility is to ask for help. Too often, people with chronic illnesses pretend they’re ok and get on with things, such as cleaning, that they know will hurt them and tire them out.
Try not to be this person. If you need help from a friend or family member, ask for it. You may even want to consider hiring a professional cleaner so that you can put your feet up and forget about the cleaning altogether.
Utilize cleaning materials
Do you have a habit of spraying a cleaner on to a stain and then scrubbing right away? This is a sure fire way to injure your wrist joints. Most cleaners should be left on stubborn stains for few minutes to work their magic before you wipe over them. Make sure you do this to avoid excessive use of your joints and over-exertion.
Stay hydrated
Most people work up a sweat while cleaning. But hypermobility causes excessive sweating which can cause dehydration. Make sure you drink plenty of water throughout your cleaning spree to stay as healthy as possible.
Take frequent breaks
People with hypermobility must pace themselves when doing any activity, including cleaning. This could be vacuuming one room then sitting down for 10 minutes before tackling another room. You’ll need to do a bit of trial and error to see what works best for you.
These home cleaning tips for people with hypermobility will improve the way you clean your home. Plus, your body and your energy levels will thank you for making these adaptations.
