Every fall, when the weather turns cool, I switch my summer clothes out for my winter ones. Last month I caught myself doing something new.
I held up each blouse, and I looked at the buttons before I looked at the color.
That came from a friend at church. She’s 76, and she has arthritis in her hands.
A few weeks ago she told me she wears the same blue cardigan almost every Sunday. “It’s the only one I can button on a bad day,” she said.
It made me think of my mother’s closet. When we emptied it, it was full of nice blouses with tiny buttons. But in her last years, she wore the same three soft pull-on tops, over and over.
So here are the clothes to get rid of after 70, the ones that pinch, itch or take two hands to button. I learned most of this from my mother and my friend. I’m 64, and I’m starting to sort my own closet with them in mind.