“Please don’t climb up there.”
My husband said it from the bedroom doorway. I was on my step stool, up on my toes, reaching for a box at the very back of the top shelf in our bedroom closet.
I wanted the warm blanket for our bed. The first cold night of fall had come, and that blanket was up where it always is, behind three other things.
I got it down. But my arms were shaking a little when I stepped back to the floor.
That night, I lay in bed under the warm blanket and thought about that shelf. What else was up there? And why was I still climbing to reach it?
The next morning, I found out. This is what I learned about clearing the top shelf, and how I made it a shelf I can live with now.
Why the Top Shelf Gets Harder After 60
When we’re younger, the top shelf is just a shelf. We reach up, grab what we need and go on with our day.
After 60, it changes. Our balance isn’t what it was. Our shoulders get stiff, and reaching up high can feel shaky.
The CDC says more than one out of four older adults falls each year. It also says that falling once doubles your chances of falling again.
That doesn’t mean we should be afraid of our own closets. It just means the top shelf deserves a little thought.
There’s another reason the top shelf is tricky. Things go up there and get forgotten.
We can’t see them, so we don’t think about them, sometimes for years. (Mine had things I hadn’t touched since before our youngest moved out.)