How to Carry Anything from Luggage to Laundry with Crutches

March 6, 2019

Check Out These Awesome Tips That Make Life So Much Easier When You’re on Crutches

Have you ever tried to carry luggage while using crutches?

Crutches make everyday life just a bit more challenging than you’d like it to be, and heaven forbid you need to travel anywhere while you’re on crutches. If you’re not using a hands-free crutch like iWALK2.0, learning how to carry luggage with crutches can be brutal. Hopping through the airport and getting to your flight can seem more like climbing a mountain than going for a stroll.

Thankfully, there are some great tips on how to carry luggage with crutches, as well as other strategies for carrying out daily activities. Check out these awesome tips that make life so much easier when you’re on crutches.

1. Hauling Luggage

Rolling luggage may be great on a normal day, but when you’re on crutches it’s not the ideal method of transporting your precious clothes and deodorant. Learning how to carry luggage while on crutches is difficult and the best method for hauling luggage is don’t. Instead, find a travel backpack or convertible duffle bag that doubles as a backpack. Voila. Your hands are free to worry about balancing on crutches and your luggage is safely strapped to your back. Also, you can always get a ride in one of those cool golf carts that roll around the airport.

2. Grabbing Coffee

You need your morning fix, but spilling hot coffee down the front of your shirt will probably do more harm than good—although it will definitely wake you up in the morning. Instead, invest in a spill-proof coffee cup and use the three-finger grip you used to carry the rest of your breakfast. Alternatively, you can pour your coffee in a thermos and loop your finger through the handle on the top while you hop back to the couch.

3. Shopping

Grocery shopping is also a chore that requires quite a bit of hopping around and significant pain if you’re on crutches. With only a few different options to consider for getting groceries from point A to point B, your first option is simply to throw your crutches into your cart and use the cart like a makeshift walker. Alternatively, you can take advantage of a mobility scooter or opt for a hands-free crutch that eliminates pain and makes it easy to get your shopping done.

Finally, you can just forget the store altogether and get your groceries delivered to your home (or car). Lots of stores now offer curbside or home delivery for your groceries to save busy shoppers time and effort.

4. Carrying Dinner

Getting dinner to the table just became a lot more difficult with crutches.

Dropping plates, spilling food—it’s a messy endeavor. Unless you have a family member willing to wait on you, your best friend while you’re on crutches is Tupperware and takeout. Getting a sealed container to the table with your food in it is much easier than trying to carry a plate and balance said meal on it. You may also want to invest in a water bottle with a spill-proof lid or cap so you can also get any drinks to the table (or couch) with you as well.

5. Carrying Breakfast

It might not sound all that different from dinner, but hey, milk and cereal will probably have a pretty solid presence on your table if you’re on crutches for a while.

Getting a heavy milk jug or box of cereal to the table while on crutches presents its own set of challenges—enter, the three-finger hold.

The three finger hold is exactly what it sounds like. Use the thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger to pick things up while holding onto your crutches with your other fingers. This method really is great for picking up all sorts of small objects and transporting them around your home—including breakfast items.

6. Taking Out Trash

Letting trash pile up for weeks on end while you’re in a cast will get pretty nasty, pretty quick.

One of the most efficient ways to take out the trash is to use grip activated claws to pick up the garbage and put it in the garbage can. The tricky part is taking out the trash when it gets full. If you’ve kept your garbage bags small, you might be able to get away with looping the bag over a finger and taking it out. If you have a heavy bag, you might just have to move it bit by bit until you get it to the garbage bin.

7. Carrying an Umbrella

The best way to carry an umbrella while on crutches is to not carry an umbrella while on crutches. Instead get a raincoat or poncho to keep you dry. An umbrella is just not worth the hassle.

8. Doing the Dishes

This one is tricky and unless you’re simply standing in one spot and putting dishes in the cupboard right above your head, we’d probably suggest steering clear of carrying dishes around. While you’re off your feet and on crutches, paper plates, Tupperware, and anything else non-breakable are going to be your best friends. Plus, you won’t have to spend as much time on your feet trying to get everything washed up while you’re trying to recover, or risk slipping on puddles of water from dishwashing.

9. Laundry

Just because you can’t put weight on your leg and need to use crutches doesn’t mean the laundry pile looming in the corner is getting any smaller.

But what do you do if you need to move your laundry from the pile in the corner to the washer?

While it’s a little time-consuming, one of the safest ways to transport clothing, towels, and blankets around the house, is to hang it around your neck while using your crutches. This leaves your hands free to do other things—like keep you from falling flat on your face.

Getting Around Just Got Easier

If you know you’ll be on crutches and have time to plan for it, practicing these moves on your crutches before you can’t put weight on your foot is a great option.

How easily you get around also depends on what ambulatory aid you use. Underarm crutches, forearm crutches, and leg scooters can help you get around but don’t offer full use of your arms.

However, ambulatory aids like the iWALK2.0 allow for hands-free mobility so you can get around easier. If learning how to carry luggage with crutches and more is a pain, consider switching to a better ambulatory aid that leaves your hands free to carry luggage, or anything else.