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Things a Single Woman Should Be Able to Do for Herself

Unless you can afford to pay to have everything done for you

Wendy Cohan
5 min readMar 22, 2023
Photo by Elena Rouame on Unsplash

Not all of us are partnered with big, strong men who can take care of all of our problems. Even if we had long, happy marriages, women still outlive men, most of the time. As my friends have grown older, I’m often the one called upon to help. And I wonder, when I’m older and less physically capable, who will help me? The best thing to do is stay ahead of maintenance issues and know when it’s time to downsize. For me, that time is fast approaching. Here are ten things that I’ve found essential to master:

Manage trash and recycling, including glass.

Some municipalities make this easy, and some don’t. It took me months to find the glass recycling near me, but I finally did. And now my garage no longer looks like a wino lives here.

Find a good mechanic who is reliable, and available on short notice.

Is this an oxymoron? Maybe. But it’s difficult to show up to work on time without 100 percent reliable transportation. If you have a partner, you can sometimes carpool or ask to borrow their car. Without a partner, you’re stuck with Uber or Lyft, which don’t operate in every area.

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Wendy Cohan
Wendy Cohan

Written by Wendy Cohan

Author of character-driven women's fiction, short stories, and essays. Her contemporary romance, The Renaissance Sisters, debuted May 23, 2023.

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