Lovely senior life

[Handmade Assistive Devices] DIY assistive tools made from 100-yen shop materials. Packed with simple ideas.

Social worker / Care workermoko
My name is Moko, a mother of three who admired my mother and worked in the care industry as a care worker and as a medical social worker (MSW) in a hospital. I will be drawing on my previous experience to write mainly about caregiving. Thank you in advance.
Editor-in-Chief, RAG MUSICHane Keisuke
Editor-in-chief of RAG MUSIC. JFC-certified fact-checker. After working in a music studio and handling wedding sound, joined the RAG MUSIC editorial team in 2016. Experienced with a variety of instruments: marching band in elementary school, clarinet in junior high school wind ensemble, and drums in a band from high school onward. Drawing on my own musical activities and the experience gained through my work, I produce daily articles, including various song introductions, features on music festivals around the country, and live reports. In music, I enjoy not only rock from Japan and abroad but, lately, a wide range of J-pop as well.

Assistive devices are tools that help people whose daily lives are affected by paralysis or reduced physical function due to illness or aging.

A wide range of items are available, from tableware like chopsticks and plates to devices that support everyday activities and even leisure.

In this article, however, we will intentionally focus on assistive devices you can make by hand.

What’s more, all the ideas here use materials you can find at 100-yen shops, making them easy to try.

Use the ideas introduced here as a reference, and consider customizing them to better suit the physical condition of the person who will actually use the assistive device.

[Handmade Assistive Devices] DIY assistive tools made from 100-yen shop materials. Packed with simple ideas (21–30)

Cutting board usable with one hand

One-Handed Cooking: Cutting Board with Pegs – Onion Cutting Edition

Cutting board usable with one hand

When you try to cut ingredients with only one hand, they tend to roll around and it doesn’t go well, right? This cutting board adds a small tweak so ingredients won’t roll even when using one hand.

All you need are nails: you hammer nails into the board and skewer the ingredients onto them to hold them in place.

Since it’s for handling food, choose stainless steel nails that are resistant to rust.

Adjust the positions and number of nails to suit the user.

It’s also a good idea to have nail covers to store the cutting board safely.

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one-handed nail clipper

How to Trim Nails on the Unaffected Side: Introduction to Creating Assistive Devices

one-handed nail clipper

If you have hemiplegia, you can’t trim the nails on your mobile hand by yourself, even though you can cut the nails on the paralyzed hand.

So let’s make this one-handed nail clipper so you can trim your nails independently.

The materials are a storage rack with X-shaped legs combined with fabric and a wooden board.

These days, 100-yen shops sell various sizes of wooden boards for DIY users, so buy a board that matches the width of the rack’s legs.

To make it, remove the rack’s fabric, fix the wooden board to the rack’s legs, then attach a nail clipper to the board, and you’re done.

The steps are a bit involved, so if it doesn’t go smoothly, ask someone skilled at woodworking to help.

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In conclusion

We introduced many assistive devices you can make with materials from 100-yen shops. From items related to daily living—food, clothing, and housing—to things you can use for leisure, there were all sorts of assistive devices. It’s even better if you customize them to be easier to use according to the user’s physical condition. Please feel free to use this article as a reference when making your own assistive devices.