We make exactly one thing, and it solves exactly one problem. This page is about everything else — the difficulties we do not fix, and who genuinely does. None of it is ours and none of it pays us anything.
Every product and every shop named on this page is somebody else's. There are no affiliate links, no commission, no paid placements and no arrangement of any kind — we are not paid a penny if you buy any of it. It is listed because it is the honest answer to the problem, and a recommendation that pays the recommender is worth less than one that does not.
On this page
The one problem we do solve is a soap pump you cannot press. What we make for it is a 62 mm disc that clips onto the pump you already own in a couple of seconds, moves between bottles, goes in a bag, and does not make your bathroom look like a clinic. It does not make the pump lighter to press.
Even there we are one option out of six. The comparison is on its own page, including where somebody else's is the better buy.
Not sure yet which difficulty is the one to fix? Start with what gets harder when your hands hurt.
By problem
Deliberately organised by the difficulty rather than by the product, because the useful question is "what is hard" and not "what is for sale". We have named the kind of thing that helps, and makers or shops where it can be found. We have not published prices for other people's products: they move, and a stale price on somebody else's item is unfair to them and useless to you.
Opening jars
Three levels, and it is worth trying them in order. A rubber grip mat costs a pound or two and solves a surprising share of cases by removing the slip rather than adding force. A manual jar opener — the clamp or cone kind — adds leverage. An electric jar opener sits on the lid and does the whole thing, and is the answer when twisting is not available at all. Stocked by Complete Care Shop, Essential Aids and Ability Superstore, and the mats are in most supermarkets.
Turning taps
Tap turners clip over the taps you already have and give you a long lever, so no plumbing is involved. They come in shapes for cross-head, crystal and knob taps and the shape has to match, which is the usual reason one does not work. If you are replacing taps anyway, a lever mixer removes the problem permanently and can be worked with a forearm. Manage At Home lists a range by tap type.
Lifting a full kettle
A kettle tipper is a cradle the kettle sits in, so pouring is a tilt rather than a lift — the weight never leaves the worktop. A one-cup boiler removes the lift entirely and is often cheaper. Filling from a jug rather than under the tap is free and helps immediately.
Dressing — buttons, zips, socks, shoes
A buttonhook and a zip pull are small, cheap and among the most effective aids there are. A long-handled shoehorn and a sock aid remove the bend as well as the grip. Elastic shoelaces turn lace-ups into slip-ons for a couple of pounds and are the single best value item on this page. All widely stocked by the shops above.
Cutting, chopping and cooking
Angled and thick-handled kitchen tools keep the wrist neutral. Peta (UK) makes the Easi-Grip range — kitchen tools, scissors, nail care and garden equipment, with the handle turned to the angle the hand actually wants. The range is British designed, though not everything in it is made in the UK. Etac makes chopping boards with spikes and corner guards that hold food so one hand can do the work of two. OXO Good Grips is not disability equipment and is in every kitchen shop, and its fat, soft handles are frequently what an OT suggests first.
Doors, keys and plugs
Key turners clip onto a key and triple the leverage — a few pounds, and one of the most effective things on this page. Plug pulls give a plug a handle. Lever door handles instead of round knobs can be worked with an elbow, a wrist or a hip.
Carrying, and hands that get cold
A bag handle spreads a carrier bag across your palm instead of letting it cut into your fingers.
Some people lose the use of their hands in the cold. Heated gloves and hand warmers change what is possible. Warming your hands under the tap before a job is free. The NHS page on Raynaud's is a good plain start.
UK makers and shops worth knowing
Named because they exist and are easy to reach from the UK, not because we have any relationship with them. We have not tested their whole ranges and we are not reviewing them.
- Peta (UK) — the Easi-Grip range of angled kitchen tools, scissors, nail care and garden equipment. Purpose-made daily living aids. The range is British designed, though not everything in it is made in the UK.
- Croydex — UK bathroom fittings, including wall-mounted lever soap dispensers of the kind used in clinics.
- Etac — Scandinavian design for daily living; kitchen, dressing and bathing equipment, widely stocked here.
- Active Hands — gripping aids for people with limited hand function: straps and cuffs that hold an object to the hand rather than asking the hand to hold it. Their palm peeler is the one people are usually pointed at when a kitchen peeler is the problem.
- Essential Aids, Complete Care Shop, Ability Superstore and Manage At Home — UK retailers carrying most of the categories above.
And the one to start at rather than finish at: Living Made Easy, run by the Disabled Living Foundation. It is an impartial database rather than a shop, it lists products from everyone, and it has no reason to sell you anything.
The two free routes almost nobody knows about
A needs assessment from your council
In England you can ask your council's adult social care team yourself. You do not need to go through a GP first.
An occupational therapist then looks at your actual home, not a catalogue. Equipment they recommend is often provided free. The NHS page on help from social services explains how to ask.
REMAP — when the thing that would help does not exist
REMAP is a UK charity. Its volunteers are engineers, makers and retired designers. They design and build one-off equipment for one disabled person at a time, free of charge, from around 65 branches.
They are the answer to “nothing on the market does what I need”.
Here is one of their own examples. A woman's arthritis meant she could not work a pump spray without her partner's help. So they built her a sprung plate, and she could do it herself. That is the same problem this shop exists for — solved for one person, for nothing, by volunteers.
If no product suits you, email them before you spend anything. (Registered charity 1137666 in England and Wales, SC050584 in Scotland.)
How to choose without wasting money
- Name the movement, not the task. "I cannot twist" and "I cannot pinch" and "I cannot lift" lead to completely different aids. A jar opener is useless if the difficulty is actually the weight of the jar.
- Try the free change first. A grip mat, a corner of the worktop, a lighter bottle, warming your hands. A surprising number of problems dissolve without buying anything.
- Buy one thing and live with it for a fortnight before buying the next. Drawers full of unused aids are the normal outcome of buying six at once.
- Ask an occupational therapist before a big purchase. They will often name something cheaper.
- Check it can be returned. Fit is individual, and the thing that works for somebody in a review may not suit your hands.
Everything above is somebody else’s, and we earn nothing from any of it. The one thing we do make is a disc that clips onto a pump bottle you already own, so you can press it with a palm, a fist or a forearm instead of a fingertip.
Where to get proper help
A pharmacist will talk to you about hand pain with no appointment and no referral. An occupational therapist looks at your hands and your kitchen rather than at a category page, and in England you can ask your council for an assessment. Both are free. Living Made Easy, run by the Disabled Living Foundation, is an impartial database of daily-living equipment that lists our competitors alongside us. The fuller list adds the charity helplines.
PALM is a daily-living aid, not a medical device. It does not treat, prevent or improve any condition, and nothing here is medical advice.