In my Accidentally Adaptive series, I share products or services that aren’t specifically designed to be adaptive but have a particular use for me as a disabled woman.
I love candles year round, but there’s something especially cozy about them in the winter – the warmth and the flickering flame really set the mood. I already shared an Accidentally Adaptive post about my electric candle lighter, which helps me light the candle independently, but then there’s always the question of putting the candle out. Enter this candle snuffer from Hotel Lobby Candle – the solution to my problem.
One of the big things about SMA is a super reduced lung capacity. I don’t remember my exact percentage of lung capacity, but it’s somewhere in the 25% range. It feels normal to me – I don’t feel like I’m struggling to breathe on a daily basis or anything – but my version of a deep breath is a lot more shallow than a typical person’s. Once my birthday candles started getting into the double digits, I needed multiple breaths to blow them out!
Obviously, when I’m lighting a candle now, it’s only one, not multiple at the same time. But it still can be tricky for me to blow it out myself. While I do have the lung capacity to make it happen, it has to be exactly at the right height and distance for my breath to be able to reach it. And a candle sitting on an end table is definitely not at the right height or distance at all! With the height of the table, plus my wheelchair footrests, I can’t get that close. And if I try to lean forward too much, there’s a chance momentum will take over and I won’t be able to pull myself back up, which would be less than ideal.
So up until now, I’ve just asked someone else to blow the candle out for me. But there’s not always someone around when I’m ready to blow it out, and then sometimes by the time there is someone nearby, I’ve forgotten about the candle completely. Eventually, I (almost!) always remember, but it’s honestly a little scary, and I light candles less often than I’d like to because I’m so afraid I’m going to forget.
Which is why the candle snuffer from Hotel Lobby Candle is so great! It allows me to put the candle out myself, when I want to, without having to find the right time or find someone to help me. It’s not too heavy for me to lift and hold, and I love the little hinge on the actual snuffer part of it, because it makes it easy to get the right angle to put the candle out whether it’s fresh out of the box or has been burned many times before and is only a few inches high. Since I don’t necessarily have the strength of mobility to get things at the ideal angle otherwise, this is a huge plus!
Even if you don’t need to use a snuffer as an adaptive product, it’s still so great. When I use it to extinguish a candle, there’s so so much less smoke than when the candle would be blown out, which is so nice! And I also just love how chic and luxe it looks – the gold tones and the sleek design just looks so nice sitting out with my candle! So many adaptive (on purpose) products look so medical – this definitely does not. It’s basically a gorgeous piece of decor that actually has a purpose! I love the snuffer so much and am so happy that I can now enjoy a candle completely independently.
