It all started in Sweden. “If your family doesn’t want your stuff when you’re alive, they sure won’t want it when you’re dead.
That’s the blunt assessment of yet another self-help author from abroad who is trying to get Americans, who have an addiction to collecting and storage units, to clean up their acts.
The latest volley in the decluttering business comes from Stockholm, where 80-ish artist Margareta Magnusson has just published a slim yet sage volume, “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.” The book will be published in the United States in January.”
Americans are pack rats: Swedes have the solution: ‘Death cleaning’ (here is the article)
The idea that “death cleaning” needs to start not long after we are teenagers or I’ve heard suggestions of even younger or older. Truly it’s up to each individual to decide the appropriate age to start sorting things out & getting rid of as much as we can regularly. To have another person sort through your possessions when you die isn’t a concept the Swedes would agree with when it comes to “the gentle art of death cleaning.” The cleaning needed to have taken place long before death comes looking for us.
I’m not at this time “death cleaning” but what I do on a regular basis is look around to see what I’m not or haven’t used in a while & decide if I’d like to drop stuff off for donation. I have plenty of belongings & those are things that I love, use & give me great joy. I also have archival items that are containerized. These items may stay with me for a long time. Who can say right now. They won’t be “death cleaned” away. I look forward to learning more about this subject. It’s so interesting to me as a professional organizer, since it is a total opposite of how most of my clients would react to their belongings. Some might have a challenge parting with belongings on a regular basis, when other clients donate regularly like I do & don’t keep a lot of belongings around that they don’t love, use & give them great joy. So, watch the video below to introduce yourself to “death cleaning .”