I have some good news!
In July of last year I posted about a nice little product called “Label Label Key Caps.” They’re small, stretchy, color-coded rubbery covers for all the keys on 
your key chain, and they come with nifty labels so if the colors aren’t enough to help you tell them apart, you can label ’em, too.
That’s all great, but the real reason I reviewed the key caps was because of their arthritis-friendly qualities. Because they make the top of the key a little bit larger, thicker, and softer, they’re easy to grasp with dodgy arthritis fingers. Keys can be hard enough to turn without also digging painfully into tender joints, and the key caps helped with that, as well.
I liked the Label Label Key Caps a lot, except for one thing. They were kind of hard to put on the key. It took some twisty maneuvering and a surprising amount of muscle to stretch them over the top of the key. On a bad-hands day I’d need to have someone who doesn’t have rheumatoid disease or osteoarthritis do it for me. It wasn’t a deal-killer, but it was something to consider.
Eight caps, 16 labels, both pre-printed and blank.
So what’s the good news? Label Label Key Caps has come out with a new and improved version of their product! I like them a lot better.
They’re still colorful, and there are still those nice, sticky little labels. The difference is in how stretchy and malleable the small, rubbery caps are now.
My hands are about the sorest and tenderest they’ve been in two years right now. Almost everything I do makes me mutter “ow” under my breath. Occasionally, the “ow” is accompanied by an explosive expletive.
But as I stretched one of the new key caps over a largish square-topped key, my “ows” remained soft and of the single-syllable persuasion. It took about
My pretty new pink Laundry/Gym key.
15 seconds to work it onto the key. (That’s about half the time as last time.) And not only that, the soft, rubbery material they’re made of is even softer than it was before. They make the key even easier to grip–and they stay on the key better, as well.
The packaging is still super-easy to get into. None of that awful, tough, clamshell plastic that you end up prying off with the help of scissors, muscle, and blood. The key caps are arranged on a small card, along with the labels. The plastic is formed over them, but merely folded over the edges of the card and fastened down with a single staple on each side. No pain. No blood.
It is to like.
There are still eight key caps and 16 labels. Eight of them are pre-printed with words like OFFICE and HOME, and the other eight are blank so you can fill
them in yourself. I labeled my test key WASH/GYM. You know. The laundry room and gym at my apartment complex.
If you’d like to try out some Label-Label Key Caps for yourself, visit www.LabelLabelKeyCaps.com. The 8-Pack in bright colors is just $8.99, and shipping is free. That’s a pretty decent value for something this arthritis-friendly. And they’ll last for years and years.
RheumaBlog 
Thanks for the information. I’m wondering if you have found anything to help with pull tab lids? Not so much soda cans but things like soup cans. I can’t for the life of me get that top pulled all the way back and off. I’m using pliers right now.
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Hi, Mary!
Oh, how I love the intertubes! Try this:
http://dailylivingaids.net.au/ring-pull-can-opener-great-for-arthritis-sufferers
for opening your soup cans. It has to be easier to use than pliers (but let’s not play down your ingenuity in using them!).
Wishing you a great weekend. Be well! 😀
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Thanks for the info, Wren. I’m ordering some today. I have a spot of pink nail polish on my house key but I still have to riffle through them to find it. This will do the trick nicely. As for soup can tabs, I use a butter knife to lift them up enough to grasp them. You know what they say about necessity.
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You’re so welcome, Irma. I think you’ll like them. As for those soup can lids, I always grab a teaspoon and bend the little loop up, then pull it the rest of the way back with my hands, myself. But the pulling back and off hurts, some times a lot. (I’m envisioning myself opening those tiny Fancy Feast cat food tins for my darlings at oh-dark-thirty in the morning, just when I’m at my toughest each day … not! I whine when I’m opening them…) So the gadget I googled up for Mary seems like it might be a good one.
Here’s another thought: I wonder if you can use a regular can opener on those perforated ring cans? An electric, hands-free opener might solve the problem if you can… hmmm…
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Thanks Wren, ordered the ring puller today.
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Great, Mary! Let me know how it works. 😉
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Wow, those look really neat. I think I will have to give them a try. My hands will no doubt thank me for it – they’ve been working too hard these days 🙂
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Hi, JG!
I think you’ll like these. We can all use all the help we can get. 🙂
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I just wanted to let you know that last time you posted about Label Label Key Caps you had mentioned to go to their fb page and comment on what color is your favorite and share it for a chance to win some. Well I had done that and I won some. They mailed me free Label Label Key Caps and I was so excited. The customer service from the company is so wonderful and their care and concern for me knowing I have RA is so sweet. They have even followed up with me to see how I like them. Which I love them! So just wanted to say thanks Wren and I enjoy reading your blog. 😊
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Hi, Joanne!
Wow! I’m so glad you liked the key caps! I really think a lot of this company, too. They bend over backwards to be positive and helpful, and really do seem to care about their customers. It’s nice in these times of huge, faceless, cold corporations who communicate only through phone buttons…
Thanks for stopping back by and commenting. It’s great to hear from you. 🙂
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