The person giving the class had been trained and was well perpared but those of us who deal with the days chewing is hard work had some tips that helped.
1. Use a cart of some kind, don't carry. My Aunt used a desk chair with wheels rather than buy something. Eventually I had two one a good size grocery cart I use for laundry, trash and recycling to the dumpster, normal shopping. I bought a folding luggage cart, I have seen them at the thrift stores too, for moving boxes (My lifting storage limit is banker boxes), taking broken down boxes for recycling.
2. When putting things away in other rooms from one room do not make multiple trips. Gather it first and then make one trip. When working on a room bring everything you need with you before you start ie trash bag, dust cloth or other cleaning cloths, cleaners, if you don't have a caddy reuse a plastic grocery bag.
3. Rest when you need to you will get more done. There are times when I worked 15 min on and 30 min off or only worked during TV commercials.
4. If you have health insurance of some kind you may be eligible for homemaking help until you are stronger. Your doctor orders it. Or use it to ask younger members of your family for a little help. My nieces were a great help when my Aunt who lives with me first suffered her stroke. We got to know each other a little better after they had disappeared into their peer groups as teenagers.
5. Look into doing some shopping online if you don't already. There is a grocery store here that offers online shopping and free delivery the last week of the month and often good sales that week. Places like Walgreens, Amazon and Drugstore.com have free shipping over $25.(I admit I have lost rack of who I am not supposed to buy from. Not working almost always reduces your income.).
6. Some communities have chore services where young people get paid minimum wage for chores. A healthy 14 year old can work circles around you. When my kids were young I expected them to volunteer to help elderly, pregnant or disabled temporarily or chronic. Originally I told them not to accept any money but after a while some of my neighbors told me that felt better if they gave my kids a nominal sum, a tip so we adjusted but they still did not help expecting to be paid nor did they discuss what others were doing if asked.
7. Use technology. Microfiber does a better faster job of dusting and can be thrown in the washer. When you are able to vacuum and mop don't try to do the whole house all of it at once. My Aunt and I both make use of a "grabber" stick to reach rather than climb. She only has the use of one arm and is in a wheel chair so she uses it to make her bed and sort her laundry, things she wants to continue to do herself. Squeegees are quicker and easier to use than cloths for windows. We put a lot of things like sturdy knickknacks in our little dishwasher rather than by hand. Before the dishwasher I used to let the dishes air dry rather than wiping them. I have a spray bottle with a very weak bleach solution that I spray on kitchen surfaces and then load the dishwasher before I wipe the surfaces. I don't have to scrub. For floor spots I use a rag and my foot.
8. If you are taking Tylenol or other pain medicine take it before you start working. Pain can weaken you and stiffen you up leading to more muscle strain and more pain.
PS. Our laundry room is quite a hike so I do not come back to the apartment until I have the loads dried. When I did laundry at my Mom's I used to sit in her basement rec room rather than climb the stairs many times during the cycles.
There is a hanging frame on wheels and I hang things up in the laundry room right out of the dryer and use that to pull the clothes back and hang them up in the closets saving the number of times I handle them along with pushing the grocery cart with folded sheets and towels, and unfolded underwear and wash cloths.
That is all I can think of right now. Hope there is something in there that could help you and glad you are recovering.
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