Design Challenge:
Judy Geigner, a 73-year old retired schoolteacher, has osteoarthritis and Parkinson’s disease, which impacts her ability to perform everyday tasks. These tasks that we do regularly, such as looking up for long periods of time, make her unable to utilize all areas of her closet. Our goal is to design a solution that uses all her closet space with limited mobility.
Our Solution:
Judy’s Closet Reliever has three components: an extended hanger, grabber, and a closet rearrangement.
The extended hanger is an extension on a plastic hanger that includes 2 barrel locks that attach to the bottom component of a hanger, and 2 strings of nylon rope. Once pressure is applied to one of the nylon ropes, one side of the hanger will drop, making it easier for Judy to grab her clothing items at high heights.
The grabber is a rod that has different end pieces, which makes it easy to grab various items at high heights. It is intended to grab clothing items on the highest shelves that were once inaccessible to Judy.
Our closet rearrangement includes the following components:
- Boxes rearranged to the ground level for easier access
- Placing thick jackets or clothing not used often on the top shelf
- Using the grabber to grab these items
- Adjusting the shelf heights so it is more accessible to grab clothing items at a higher height
Together, all our components of Judy’s Closet Reliever assists Judy with utilizing all areas of her closet. All components are lightweight, easy to use, and meet all our project requirements.
Future Development:
One recommendation for future improvements is to find a way to make a physical grabber device for Judy aside from our Hanger Helper. This way, Judy can receive more than just a proof of concept for our grabber tool.
Further, it would be ideal to automate the pulley system on the Hanger Helper so that Judy can control the movement of that pulley with little to no effort on her part.
Lastly, it would be beneficial to test our design for the Hanger Helper on different types of hangers other than the plastic ones purchased for the making of our final prototype (see Appendix I). This way, Judy can rest assured that the design offered to her can work harmoniously with any type of hanger currently in her closet or that she wants to incorporate into her closet in the future