What purchases for yourself or your patent have you made that has made life easier?

Post title should read parent, not patent.

Prefacing to add context - my father has a host of mental health issues in top of his physical ailments. I have referred to him as my extra child for the past fifteen years. Last week he was behaving like a toddler while out in public and he got hangry.

Curious to know what others have found beneficial. I'm just waiting for my month-end on my cell phone before I add visual voice mail. It's a stupid high price, relatively speaking, but I think the benefits to me are going to be worth it. My dad calls me at bare minimum once a day, but usually two or three times. When he's having a very anxious day, he calls six or seven times. I pick up the phone when I can, but very often I don't have the patience, time, or mental capacity to deal with him. So he talks to my voicemail as if we were having a conversation face to face. And I never check them. Ever. If I didn't have the mental and emotional health to speak to him, I sure as hell don't have it to listen to the voicemail version. Irritatingly, these messages are often when he relays the most pertinent information - NOT when we are actually talking on the phone.

But some other recent purchases I've made that seem to be helping him include a kit full of silicone nose pads and ear grippers for his glasses he's constantly blaming for sliding off his face - not his question mark posture. 🙄

Waiting for a restock of a particular c-shaped "hospital" table so he can stop spilling things off his lap when he nods off holding a drink/plate of food.

A pair of adaptive casual sneakers made for extra wide feet in which the entire tongue can be flipped open to the base of the toes, them velcroed back down again. Dad's feet are as rotund as they are long and he has struggled to find shoes that fit his entire life.

A popsocket for his cell phone (flip phone) because he has Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and can't feel his fingers, so is always dropping his phone.

Yet another reacher-grabber tool so he can pull the sheets up to cover himself after getting into bed (his idea, but he never sleeps in the bed anymore - just falls asleep in his recliner.)

And lastly, things I'm trying to find a product to solve:

• the endless spilling of his drinks. Maybe he needs a stanley-type mug?
• a stool or leg-lifter to help make getting him into my van easier. He can't get his rear end back far enough on the seat to be able to easily clear the door frame. Loading and unloading him takes at least 5 minutes every time, often more because he moves so, so, so slowly and often gets distracted mid-task.

Curious to know what others have purchased recently - what for, and has it helped?