Caregiver guide
A Kitchen That Makes Sense
A kitchen that makes sense to you can stop making sense to someone living with dementia. The white plate disappears into the table. The dish soap looks like a drink. The mugs aren’t where they’ve always been.
Most of the fixes are in the room: what you put out and where you keep it. Small changes help her see, find and do more for herself. The 3D guide shows each moment twice: first from her side, then with one change.
What She Might Notice
Even when the eyes are healthy, dementia can change how the brain reads what they see. The picture that reaches her can be harder to make sense of.
Similar colors blend
Judging color and contrast can get harder. Things surrounded by similar colors are hard to pick out, like a white plate on a white tablecloth.
A shape, then a guess
What she sees can be the brain’s best guess from what it catches. A dark mat can look like a hole, and a TV remote like a phone.
Light and clutter matter
Dark areas and shadows can be confusing. Good light and fewer things on the counter leave less to misread.
Her guess makes sense to her
Reaching for the wrong thing isn’t carelessness: she’s acting on what she sees. Being corrected can shake her confidence.
Rule out the fixable first: glasses on, clean and working, and regular eye tests.
Make It Stand Out
Contrast helps her find what she’s looking for, starting with the plate. In one small study, men with advanced Alzheimer’s ate 25% more food and drank 84% more when their tableware was a bold, high-contrast red.
- Use plates that contrast with the food and the table: a bold color under pale food, on a plain cloth.
- Say what’s on the plate and where: “Chicken and potatoes, on your red plate.”
- Make everyday things stand out: bright tea towels and cloths against the counter, and light switches that contrast with the wall.
- Keep the light good and the counters clear, so there’s less to misread.
Keep Look-Alikes Apart
Dementia can make it easy to mistake a cleaning product for something to eat or drink. A bottle the size and color of a drink, standing where her drink usually is, invites the wrong guess.
- Shut cleaners away in a closed or locked cupboard, away from food, drinks and medicines. Don’t leave them out.
- Keep her cup in its spot: the same cup, in the same place, every day.
- Choose cleaners that don’t look like food or drink, different in size and shape.
- If she reaches for the wrong thing, stay calm. Hand her the right one and gently say what it is, without making a point of the mistake.
Where Things Live
Her map of the kitchen may be decades old. In Alzheimer’s, older memories tend to hold up better than recent ones, and newly learned things are often the first to slip. A new home for the mugs may never stick, so she goes where they’ve always been.
- Keep things where they’ve always been. If you tidy or clean, put them back.
- If something has to move, move one thing, and label the new spot with a picture and a word.
- Let her see inside: clear cupboard fronts, or doors taken off where it’s safe, and see-through containers for food.
- Keep everyday things within reach, and clear away what isn’t used.
- Agree on one map with every helper, so things go back to the same places. The card below helps.
Let Her Help
Feeling useful matters. People living with dementia describe feeling useful and having a clear role as part of what makes an activity meaningful. Many still have the energy and the wish to do things, but need help to start, plan or finish. And learning by doing often still works, so showing can help more than explaining.
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| “I’ll do it, you sit down.” | “Thank you! You fill the kettle, and I’ll pour.” |
| “Let me, it’s quicker.” | “Let’s do it together.” Show the first step, then hand it over. |
| “Not like that.” | “That works.” It doesn’t have to be done your way. |
| “Careful, that’s hot!” | “I’ll do the hot part.” Take the hard or risky step yourself. |
- Give one step at a time, and help her get started.
- Say thank you. Feeling useful is the point, more than a perfect result.
Our Kitchen Map
Write down where everyday things have always been kept in her kitchen. Share it with everyone who helps, so things go back to the same place. It’s kept only while this page stays open.
Where things live
Please put things back where they live.
Talk to the doctor if mix-ups with what she sees happen often or upset her. If she may have swallowed a cleaning product, call your local poison control center or emergency number right away.
This guide offers general tips. Every person is different, and what helps can change over time. Your loved one’s doctor or care team can help you decide what is right for them.
Sources: Alzheimer’s Society, Changes in perception · Alzheimer’s Society, Keeping safe and independent at home · Alzheimer’s Association, 10 early signs and symptoms · Alzheimer’s Association, Activities · VisionAware, Dementia, Alzheimer’s and visual perception · Dunne and others, 2004, contrast and eating · Stramba-Badiale and others, 2025, older and recent memories · De Wit and others, 2021, learning by doing · Strick and others, 2021, meaningful occupation