Move into care home - number of items of clothing

[Ali67]

My husband's aunt is moving into a care home next week. I'm busy stitching and clipping name labels into her clothing at the moment. However how much of each item of clothing do we need to take in? I know a lot of places say two weeks but i'd be useful to know how much of each.
Thank-you

 

[marionq]

It depends on how often she changes her clothes and whether or not she is continent. When John had two weeks respite I gave him six vests, pants, socks, shirts and three sweaters and three pairs of trousers. He had no continence issues then.

 

[angelface]

Two weeks worth is about right,there isn't always a lot of storage space.

A tip I was given was to pick a colour,and sew a bit of ribbon of that colour on each sock.Helped the ch recognise who the socks belonged to.

And label everything - even cushions,books,ornaments and pictures went walk-about.

 

[cragmaid]

For her clothes, Mum started off with 4 jumpers and 4 cardigans, 6 blouses and four pairs of trousers and two skirts, a couple of slips, 4 bras. 10 pairs of panties, 4 nighties or pairs of PJs, 4 vests, Dressing gown, tights and pop socks. two pairs of shoes and a pair of sandals. A raincoat, coat or Trouser suit, covered outer wear events, with a hat gloves and scarf in the drawer too.
All of this was supplemented, as and when new things came into the mix...because her laundry was done daily, I worked out that the minimum of anything could be 4. ........ ie. one on, one in the wash, one in the drawer.......and one just in case!!
Just in case of accidents or just in case she wanted to wear something different

I was fortunate that Mum's room had her wardrobe, and chest of drawers which was supplemented by another chest of drawers of her own. So she had enough space for the entire contents of her three wardrobes at home ( at home each blouse and jumper had it's own hanger!!!!!)

 

[Witzend]

I dare say you will know this already, but everything will almost certainly need to be machine washable and tumble-dry-able.
That is, unless you are prepared to do any hand washing or take things for dry cleaning, but unless you were particularly vigilant any such items would very likely be put in the wash anyway.

 

[Ali67]

I don't think aunt in law is into clothes that need to be dry cleaned and she's not incontinent so we're lucky there. Looks like we've judged number of items correctly so thanks everyone.
We took out her out there for a bbq last Sunday and we hadn't seen seen her so happy & content for a long time. Couldn't believe how quickly she settled in. She keeps also keeps asking everyone when can she go back and do they have rooms there so she can stay. Just have to keep our fingers crossed for Wednesday.
Anything that isn't clothing has got dymotape ready to be put on it! Any photographs we're going to scan so we always have a backup to hand.

 

[DaveM]

My Mother went into a nursing home with a rehabilitation wing for five weeks following her most recent stroke. it was her fourth time going through rehab at that home. It is a nice, small place, attached right to the end of a small town hospital. The staff is great and the Physical and Occupational therapists that work with her every day are the absolute best I have ever seen. (Really, the director of therapy is a young "Kid" with a Masters who works really hard, gets along very well with patients and families and understands how to motivate her patients to improve. Her attitude seems infectious, as everybody she works with is also really positive. She is also very understanding and really "gets" patients at different stages of dementia and manages to challenge them all appropriately.)

Even with a great staff, however, possessions wander off. The first time she was there, I brought six pair of pants (Trousers in British?), six shirts and six bras. I had to bring more clothes every week she was there, as the staff was calling me telling me she was out of clothes. She returned with two, three and one. Now, I just bring three of each. That's plenty, as they collect laundry every day except Sunday. I think when she runs out of clothes, it forces the staff to do a lookabout and find her clothes, where if she has plenty, they don't need to worry about it. Why should I go out and buy new stuff just so they can lose it? When they called me up to tell me she was running out of clothes all the time, I told them they needed to find her stuff and not lose it, or she was going to be naked! That seemed to work. I was always polite about it, and nobody ever got mad at me for not bringing more clothes. Most of the families were starting to do the same thing. (We pretty much emptied her closet of things that fit during her first two stays)

I have seen people move into nursing homes with full wardrobes, and three Months later, they had absolutely nothing. I think this is pretty universal and not just limited to the U.S. When you put a whole bunch of confused people together and expect a very small staff to keep them all safe and organized, clothing and possessions end up pretty low on the priority list.