Mobility Aids For Managing Fatigue - Life of Pippa (2025)

Living with an energy limiting condition is not easy. There’s often only so much we can do to help ourselves while living with long-term fatigue, which is why it’s crucial that we learn to pace ourselves and treasure the limited energy we have. Therefore, today’s post contains my top mobility aids for managing fatigue, some of which may not be on your radar yet…

If you’re new here, hello! I’m Pippa, and I’ve lived with my diagnosis for over 15 years now. You can find out more about me and my background through my blog posts and YouTube videos, and I’m proud to be the award-winning author of How To Do Life With A Chronic Illness, published in 2024. If you too are living with a long-term health condition, it’d be wonderful to welcome you to our thriving community on Instagram – nobody should have to go through this alone.

If you find audio information easier to process, you can watch the video version of this blog post on YouTube. If not, let us begin!

[ad]. This post contains some items that have previously been gifted, and some affiliate links, marked with *. This hasn’t influenced my decision of what to include and you can be assured that my recommendations are genuine, but I earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.

Mobility Aids For Personal Care

• Shower Seat*. An attachable or free-standing shower stool enables you to sit down while showering to avoid having to stand up for long periods. When my own free-standing one isn’t being used in the shower, I can helpfully use it to sit on while brushing my teeth too.

• Hair wrap towel*. If holding up a hairdryer is tiring for you, you can wrap these towels around wet hair to give it a gentle dry and also keep it out of your way while you’re resting. It’s quite the look, let me tell you, but it does the job.

• Body Wipes* are great for personal hygiene if you’re unable to shower or bath. FreshWipes* (gifted) produce biodegradable wipes suitable for sensitive skin, as well as shampoo caps, rinse-free body wash, and more.
  
• Mindfulness Apps. If practicing mindfulness helps you with pacing and rest, consider downloading a free or premium app so you can incorporate this into your daily routine.

• Shoehorns save you having to reach downwards to pull your shoes on, an especially risky game for those of us prone to spells of dizziness. CareCo also does a shoehorn combined with a ‘dressing stick’ that can help you to put clothes on or take them off if you have limited mobility in your arms and shoulders.

• Pill Holders*.Having your medication sorted into weekly pill boxes/holders can make your daily routine much easier, especially on the brain-foggy days. I love the one I use* (gifted) because the 7-day holder also separates out into individual days, meaning you can just chuck them into your bag if you’re out and about!

Disability Aids For Resting

• Noise-cancelling headphones. These are an investment, but mine have completely changed my life. If you’re noise-sensitive, they reduce background sounds and, in my experience, make your surroundings a lot less painful on a sore brain. Make sure the model you choose will be comfortable to lay down in – I can personally recommend the Bose QuietComfort SC* and Bose NC700*, though cheaper models are available.

• Earplugs are great for sleeping and for reducing noise as you go about your day. I use the Loop Quiet 2* for outdoors and the Loop Dream* for sleeping in. If you’re looking for a cheaper option, BioEars is great for short-term use.

• Profiling Bed. This is a bed where you can self-raise your head or legs with a remote control. Even when orthostatic intolerance means you can’t be up and about as much as you’d like to be, being able to raise yourself up in bed and distinguish that ‘up’ time from resting can make such a difference to your mood and wellbeing.

• Support pillows* can help improve your alignment while laid down and relieve pressure on certain areas, which in turn can help to give you a more restful sleep.

Mobility Aids For Around The House

• Perching Stool for the kitchen. It’s easy to get carried away with standing-up time when you’re in the middle of cooking, but having a perching stool to hand means you can sit down while preparing food or drink.

• Adapted kettle. I don’t personally use these, but there are lots of models available now – there’s kettle tippers, WiFi kettles controlled by your smartphone*, and plenty of easy-pour models where you can just tilt the kettle to pour the water rather than having to lift it.

• Handy grabbers* save you having to reach or bend to get hold of household items, especially if you’re prone to dropping things. Been there, my friend…

• Air Fryers are brilliant and can make cooking much more energy-friendly, especially when the compartments are dishwasher-safe. I have a Ninja DoubleStack and find the drawers are a little heavy to take out and carry on a tough fatigue day, but totally worth it.

• Cleaning wipes*:Antibacterial household wipes always come in useful, so you can give things a quick clean without messing about with dozens of products. I’ve linked some but they’ll probably be cheaper to buy in your local supermarket!

Disability Aids For Hobbies and Interests

• Book Page Holder*.If you’re a reader and a die-hard paperback fan like me, Book Page Holders can help you keep your place with less grip required from your arms and hands. It’s important you know that this one has a precious little sloth on it.

• Mobile Phone Stand*. If you find it difficult to hold up your phone when you’re lying down or it’s painful to raise it up to your ear when talking, specialist stands mean you can set your phone in a position that’s more comfortable and leave it there while you use it, without having to raise your arms.

• Soft Lap Tray.These give you a flat and comfortable surface for a laptop or for enjoying creative hobbies, even if you’re in bed or curled up on the sofa.

• Writing Slope. Using these can help you place your arms in a more comfortable position when you’re writing by hand, compared with flat out on a desk. If you’re using one for your job, you might be able to get funding through Access To Work!

• Using the timer on your phone can help you to pace yourself and manage your activity levels.If you’re prone to getting carried away in the middle of tasks or hobbies, the timer can be a useful way of keeping track and making a deliberate point of stopping and resting before you reach a crisis point. Again, been there.

Mobility Aids For Out And About

• Walking Aids. If standing or walking for prolonged periods is difficult or impossible for you, aids like these can be game-changing. There are videos about becoming a wheelchair user and my current Whill C2 powerchair on my YouTube channel, and more about how and why they’ve improved my quality of life in this blog post.

• Thermal Clothing.If you’re like me and really feel the cold, you can end up burning extra energy to try and keep yourself warm, often with little success. In my experience, wearing thermal clothing or layers under your outfit can make all the difference and I’ve been a loyal fan of HeatHolders* (gifted) for the last decade. Affiliate code ‘LIFEOFPIPPA’ will get you 10% off site-wide!

• Compression socks can really help if you have circulation issues, and there are so many funky designs available now – Not Your Grandma’s and Vim & Vigr are some of my favourites.

• BundleBean produce game-changing wheelchair cosies (gifted) designed to keep you nice and warm on chilly days. I honestly don’t know how I survived before I got mine. Affiliate code ‘lifeofpippa’ gets you 10% off!

• Not so much a mobility aid but if you too struggle with dizziness or postural hypotension, it’s always wise to carry salty snacks. You’ll rarely find me without a packet of salt and vinegar crisps on my person!

• Reusable Water Bottle. If you have to drink plenty of water for your condition management or you’re taking medication that makes you extra thirsty, a reusable water bottle means you never have to worry about finding or buying a drink when you’re out in public. I adore the Chilly’s ones because they keep hot drinks hot as well as cold drinks cold – an essential for us tea-guzzlers.

• Taxi Apps. If you hit a wall when you’re out and about, downloading local taxi apps on your phone in advance can save you the exertion of having to make a call or face a prolonged wait before you can get home to rest. Trust me, if you’ve had the foresight to do this in advance, your future self will thank you for it!

Hopefully there are plenty of suggestions in this post for you to browse through, but if you have the appetite for more, there are some bonus recommendations in the YouTube video below!

Really hope this post is helpful. If there are any other mobility aids for managing fatigue that help you but haven’t been mentioned here, please do share them in the comments!

[ad]. This post contains some items that have previously been gifted, marked with *, and some affiliate links, marked with **. This hasn’t influenced my decision of what to include and you can be assured that my recommendations are genuinely, but I earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.

Where To Next?

• Can You Have A Work-Life Balance With A Chronic Illness?
• How To Create A Personal Survival Budget
• The Turtle Of Overexertion – A Chronic Illness Metaphor
• Self-Employment And Chronic Illness: My Fourth Year As A Freelancer
• Moving From Moderate To ‘Milder’ ME/CFS – My Experiences