retiring a 20+ year old piercing - how to do it well please?

anyone with experience or advice on retiring a long time piercing in terms of keeping it healthy?

i would like to retire a long time piercing and am mostly concerned about avoiding infections or other potential issues.

i am concerned about the opening not fully healing and leaving potential for infections: how do i keep an opening clean and clear?

my only other piercings are regular ones in the ear lobes and for some of those openings i could go 10 years without putting anything in and am able to use again easily (just a thin layer of skin grew over the opening- it didn't really take any effort to poke through with an earring, didn't hurt didn't bleed).

i am not worried about scarring or anything like that. i am honestly worried that the opening won't close in a way that i can keep clean/safe. other than a staph infection, i also have a nightmare in my head about it just always being a mini belly button that's harder to clean and could smell bad.

ps i don't know the gauge but it was whatever the default for a newbie i guess.

to cover the req'd questions from the auto-mod:

• How old is your piercing? 25+ years
• What’s the jewelry shape (for example, barbell, labret, screw, L shape, ring)? twisted barbell
• What’s the type of threading if your jewelry is not a ring (threadless, internally or externally threaded)? threadless
• What’s the jewelry material? surgical steel
• if not a ring, when was the jewelry downsized? n/a
• What’s your aftercare routine? Describe in detail please, including the exact products you use. these days it's just soap and water like any body part. when first done it was a lot of salt water submersion, vitamins and the recommendations from the piercer for cleanliness
• Any mishaps, accidents or unfortunate events? extremely uneventful life of piercing