Helpful Apps and Tech

In dealing with several chronic illnesses I have come across apps and tech that help me manage life while dealing with my illnesses and make life a bit easier. I will share them here along with the estimated cost and which of my conditions the app/tech helps me with. Let me know if you try any of these and how they help you. Please also share things in the comments you have found to be helpful.

Each item will be tagged by type. Items I feel are exemplary will get a Gold Star Award.

TEXT LATER APP

Between the Lupus, chronic pain, etc. I often mean to get with people about something and forget…until the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning, if then. This app has helped me immensely with that problem. I can write out the text and choose the day & time to send it and then it’s done! I use this app a great deal and have found it to be a great tool.

Cost: Free
Helps: Keeping in touch with others even when I have an odd sleep schedule and they don’t.

Collectorz has apps and software you can download to your computer. I use the apps for our movie collection and our insanely large CD collection. I have not gotten the app yet for the books but that’s on the agenda at some point. One collection at a time! These apps have helped me get a handle on our large collections. Though no, it won’t tell you where in your home a particular item is. lol It will however keep me from buying any more duplicate or triplicates!

Collectorz allows me to use the bar code scanner on my phone to scan the movies/CDs into my database. The database is linked to IMDB for the movies and each title pulls up all the info on that particular title that IMDB has.

CLZ Music pulls up all of the album info including tracks.

I was able to catalogue our several hundred movie collection in just a couple hours with only five movies having to be added by hand (very obscure titles from Japan).  I was able to do 300 CDs in under an hour. These apps are well worth the money for me.

Cost: $14.95 per app or $49.95 for the software per type.
Helps: My Lupus causes me to not be able to retain the detail I once did and this keeps me from duplicating or triplicating purchases because I can’t remember.

iRobot Roomba 614 Robotic Vacuum

The Roomba has saved my sanity! With 3 cats, a dog and 3 humans and me with chronic pain vacuuming needs to happen at least a few times a week but I am lucky if I can do it once a month. So, enter the Roomba. This was an amazing gift from another friend with chronic illness who knew the value of my sanity. The Roomba is programmed to come on daily because if I don’t program it I will forget. So being able to program it for the same time daily or different times if you want is invaluable. If there are rooms I don’t want it to go into I can close a door or there are sensors that you can place that will tell it a room is off limits to it. The Roomba  has smart sensors that it around the house. The Roomba picks up dirt, pet & people hair, crumbs, dust, small bits of paper (great if you have a furry kid who chews up paper) and so forth. Though with 3 cats we have discovered the Roomba will pick up very small cat toys (such as the little mice with tails) but then it stops and calls out to us to come clean the jam. (Scared me half to death the first time it started talking from another room!

One con note for the Roomba is that if you have a lot of furniture against walls then there can be an accumulation that you will need to sweep or vacuum in the standard manner every few weeks. This is mostly cat & people fur that the Roomba can’t reach. So this could make it a not ideal solution if you want it to do ALL of your vacuuming and never have to sweep or use a standard vac again.

The roomba isn’t a cheap purchase but it is worth every penny! Most vacuums aren’t cheap these days anyway so I don’t think that this is any worse than a standard vac.

Cost: $200 (If you find a sale or refurbished) – $899 (this has ALL the bells, whistles, apps, etc.)
Helps: With maintaining basic house care even when I feel like I have been run over by a train and can’t afford a house keeper.