Labelling things for care home

[CareHomeQuestions]

MIL is moving into residential care soon, and I've offered to help label things. I'm pretty good at labelling my children's things for cub camps etc: but this is different.

Any tips / products / tools / techniques / dos & don'ts / good ideas are really welcome, please. What are the things I haven't thought of?

A warning. Sadly from our family's experience I would say that it's often not worth sending good quality clothes- by necessity they all get washed together at high temperatures and tumble dried so ruining anything like merino wool sweaters/cashmere cardigans and even when labelled, clothes go missing or you will see another resident wearing something and think"I'm sure that's mums best cardigan"! Embrace easy care fabrics and clothes you aren't going to care about so much unless you're going to take them home and wash them yourself. Our relatives home lost their false teeth twice, hearing aids, glasses. It's not from lack of care from the staff,just that they are so rushed.

I got some Mason Cash labels for my aunt's clothes, as requested by the home. Sewed them into everything including bras and pants. We gave her a couple of cuddly toys and they also got labels.

Everything else got written on, eg the backs of photo frames. I put her initials on the bottom of a couple of vases with nail varnish.

In her home the staff were lovely but very busy so it helped them keep things in the right place.

Make sure your MIL has lots of photos as it gives the staff something to start a conversation about. If your MIL is likely to forget who is in the photos, write their names on the back. My aunt's key carer asked for that as it saves frustration. The home had a "getting to know you" folder to fill in and that was useful too.

I would second easily washable clothing that won't be damaged by high temp washing. I would also say easy on and off things too. So not too many tricky fastenings or trousers and skirts without buttons. Elastic waistbands are much easier too as they are quicker for urgent toilet calls etc.
Patterned tops are good if she's likely to spill things so she's not walking around noticeably having spilt things! And a decent number of clothes too. She would need at least one full change of clothes per day. Sometimes the laundry takes longer so it's good for her to have plenty of options. Ditto nightwear one full set per day. Comfortable well fitting but easy to wash shoes too and at least two pairs of shoes plus slippers. Ideally all should be Machiene washable!
Dressing gown and perhaps a short bed coat. Also a reasonable number of jumpers and fleeces. It's good to be able to layer people up.
Make sure she has a washable waterproof coat for trips out and hat, gloves etc too.
Plenty of underwear!

Photo books are always a good idea. Then you can label the photos in detail about who's in them and where they were taken. Brilliant for staff to flick through too as it's often useful for us to have as conversation starters or to have a rough idea of who someone is talking about. In my experience most people love sitting down and sharing stories.
In my 13 years as a carer I have heard so many stories. Some wonderful others heartbreaking but I have learnt so much that I would never have known.

An ink stamp can be really useful for labelling - much quicker than sewing in labels and easier to read than a laundry marker. I use stamptastic.

Nothing to add as regards labelling but when my brother-in-law had to go into residential care, with dementia, a lot of his clothes (all labelled) ended up being worn by other residents. So don't spend a fortune on clothing, perhaps raid charity shops for things you need to add to existing possessions.

I got some of these button tags which were great. Lots of different makes out there.

@sorryiasked and I are on same page. We use a version of those too

We have a labelling machine, originally for garden labels but used for all sorts of things. Basically it has a little keyboard, and it then prints out onto a peel off sticky label. Obviously no good for clothes ( I used sew in labels for my mother but as PP have said, not worth the effort) but could label her other possessions.

side note: when DH went into hospital for a major op which meant he would be out of it for a few days , I used the label to label everything : toothbrush, glasses even both his slippers. I was a bit worried in case it was OTT until the ward sister thanked me and said it saved so much trouble when they moved him from high to lower dependency beds, when he couldn’t look after his own stuff.

i use the labeller to label plugs, light switches ie side light, hall light as well as jars and canisters. It is brilliant

i do not work for this company!

I'd recommend Stickins. You can use these on spectacles, shoes, everything really.

Dont send anything expensive, delicate or precious as they get washed on hot.

Don't forget to label walking aids. glasses and hearing aids. Mum's home were really good on returning the right clothes to the right people, MIL's appears to be more of a lucky dip.

What to label:

All clothes
Glasses and case
Hearing aid case
Handbag
Toiletries bag

We got iron on labels from My Nametags. Agree with PP who say clothes go missing regularly and a lovely jumper got shrunk.

So many useful comments - thank you very much.

And thank you for the suggestions about photos / photo-books with good labels: that would be brilliant.

As someone who worked in a care home, you can't have too many clothes. Like a PP said, everything is washed and tumble dried together so don't expect any individual care for items. And also it can be in the laundry for up to a week before it gets brought back........longer if the laundry assistant is on leave.

We always put a clean nightie/pj's on daily, and possibly one or two outfits depending on if the home uses bibs at meal times. And label everything including tights, pants, bras, socks, slippers and shoes.

You can buy laundry fabric markers to put their initials/name on the labels in every piece of clothing. That's what we do with DGM - full name in larger items and initials on pants and bras etc.
She lives in a decent enough care home but the odd thing has been ruined by hot washing.

Every detachable part needs labelling, eg mobile phone AND charger.

walking stick. Flower vases.

Where my dad is in residential care, we just put any new clothes on the bed and let them know and they do all the labelling.

In all the time he has been in there, over 14 months now, he has never worn anyone else's clothes and I've not seen anyone wearing his.

I think that all the residents clothes are individually washed in bags so that they are all washed, dried and ironed if necessary and returned to their room in one lot.

Label her glasses and her dentures if she wears them.
My grandma didn't have hers labelled and one day she was sick whilst in her armchair and the carer went and washed her teeth out put them on the table next to her as she had fallen asleep and the gentleman next to her put them in his mouth and walked off with them.
It was a right faff to get them back.
And another time a new care assistant took multipe sets of teeth to clean and didn't keep them seperate, next time we saw her she looked like bugs bunny with someone elses massive teeth in.

The home my mum is in told me not to label the clothes as they would do it when making an inventory. I made sure not to take anything precious or irreplaceable. My kids send mum the big Moonpig photo cards with photos of themselves and she has a couple of photo blankets with their pictures on. The photo blankets make great conversation pieces and because they have a photo of her they don't go wandering and end up with someone else like other blankets do

Provide underwear but bear in mind they are often not allowed to wear it - too much trouble to help them dress.

Washable, two labels per garment (one hidden). Expect anything and everything to be stolen (it's not just 'rush' or mistake) including incontinence pads. Watch like a hawk. And take lots of photos.

My situation must be a bit different because I have never seen mum wearing anyone else's clothes. She doesn't wear underwear and the home supplies all the incontinence products and toiletries. Her clothes are all cheap from Amazon - half a dozen skirts/long sleeved t shirts/short sleeved t shirts and cardigans that she had from home. When I have been up to her room (we usually meet in the dining room) all her things are in place and the wardrobe and drawers only have her clothes in them.

I agree about easy wash clothes but it is also good to bring in/ buy for birthdays ext some more special things which can be taken home by family to wash. Old people who have taken pride in their appearance will still want their 'spevisl' clothes for when they are taken out for lunch ext

Another recommendation here. I’ve used than on all sorts of items.

I work in a care home.

Each person’s washing is washed by their link worker (probably twice a week) when their washing basket is full. It’s returned that day or the day after.

No one has their washing mixed with other people’s - I imagine that would be against infection control regulations.

We do tumble dry sometimes, though. So agree about not sending anything too fancy.

Never had anyone wearing some else’s clothes. I can’t even imagine how that would happen.