The envelope had a little blue window and big red letters on the front. “Important Medicare Information Enclosed.”
It was addressed to me. I’m not even 65 yet.
By the end of that week, there were six more just like it. Plan offers, booklets, postcards with smiling couples on them. I put them all in a pile on the kitchen table and just looked at it.
That pile made me think of my mother. In her 60s and 70s, her kitchen counter had a pile just like it, and it never went away.
Sixty-five is a big birthday. Medicare starts, and many of us stop working around this time. And the house we’ve filled for thirty or forty years starts to feel different.
So I made a list. These are the things I’m clearing as I get close to Medicare age, and the things I wish my mother had cleared at 65. If you’ve been looking for a place to start decluttering for women over 65, this is a good one.
Why 65 Is a Good Time to Clear
There’s something about this age that makes you look around your house with new eyes.
The kids have been grown for a long time. Some of us are working less, or not at all. And our bodies are starting to tell us what they will and won’t do anymore.
The CDC says about one in four adults 65 and older falls each year. A clear floor and a few less things to reach for can make a real difference.
But it’s not only about safety. At 65, I want my home to fit the life I have now. Not the life I had at 40, with three kids running in and out the back door.
These are nine things to clear at Medicare age. You don’t have to do them all at once. Pick one, and start there.