“I’m not lazy, Alison. I’m tired.”
My friend from church said it at my kitchen table one Saturday morning, and then she started to cry.
She’s 66, and she still works five days a week. She runs the front desk at a dentist’s office, and she’s on her feet most of the day.
That morning, she’d come over for coffee and a break from her own house.
Her dining table was covered in mail. A chair in her bedroom was piled high with clothes. And every weekend, she promised herself she’d fix it, and every weekend, she was too worn out to start.
“All my friends are retired,” she said. “Their houses look nice. I come home and I don’t even want to look at mine.”
I put my hand on hers. I remember those years. I worked for a long time, too. I know what it feels like to walk in the door at six, too tired to do one more thing.
So we made a plan together, right there at my table. This is that plan. It’s for every woman over 60 who still works and wants a calm home at the end of the day.
You’re Not Behind
Before we talked about a single drawer, I wanted her to hear this. She wasn’t doing anything wrong.
A lot of women our age still work. In 2025, about 1 in 6 women age 65 and older were working or looking for work, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says. For women 65 to 69, it was nearly 3 in 10.
Some work because they need the money. Some w