I’m not sure if, at the age of 63, I am early or late to the Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. The hyper-organised will have been doing it all their lives while the cluttered collectors among us will likely continue to look the other way. I have decided to embrace it and have begun the process slowly.
In a nutshell, for those uninitiated into the practice, Swedish Death Cleaning is the process of decluttering life of old and unnecessary items. It can be clothing, souvenirs, books, photographs, anything that you have collected over the years but now has no meaning to you or has served its function and is taking up space. Unlike other organisational methods, Death Cleaning is ultimately about saving our loved ones the task of clearing out our belongings after we die. Having had to clear out my parents’ home it is part sorrowful honour and part dreadful chore, part grief-wrenching and part joyous memory-bringing but mostly it is constantly yelling into the void, ‘What the hell do you want me to do with this?’ It is something I would like to spare my loved ones when I pop off in my viking burial ship. (That’s a whole other post).
When I mention my plan to others there is a certain horrified look that comes across their faces so I will say here that I have not been informed of a life-limiting condition and neither do I have an intention of shuffling off this mortal coil any time soon. If I do die during or shortly after my Year of Swedish Death Cleaning know that I have no premonition of my demise and I forbid anyone suggesting I did! Thankfully, we are mostly unaware of when Death will visit and in the meantime I will enjoy every minute I have while also, hopefully, making it easier for those I love the most.
So far, several boxes and bags of clothing and books have made their way to charity shops. Clothes that I have been saving for ‘when they will fit again’ (never) and books that moved from the TBR (to be read) pile to the DNF (did not finish) pile. Having been a life-long ‘I must finish every book I start’, I am a recent and happy convert to the ‘Nope, not reading more of this’ bibliophile. Another liberation of old(er) age, perhaps.
However, Death Cleaning is not only about getting rid of things. I have recently completed a catalogue of all our DVDs, Blurays and CDs. Older technology that I still want to keep around but in the event of my death will be easier to find, sort, and chuck/take/give to new home. Photographs have all been labelled, too. People we know and love will not necessarily be familiar to younger generations and once we are gone so too is the ability to know what our friends and ancestors looked like. If only one task is performed in the process of cleaning, let it be labelling photographs for the next generation. You never know which one of our descendents will become interested in the family tree.
I will also be able to leave notes about items that mean something to me and why. A silly souvenir from a holiday will mean nothing to anyone cleaning up after me but in this way they will at least know why it is there, what it meant, perhaps giving a tiny insight into my life of which they may have been unaware. It doesn’t mean they have to preserve it but they will understand why it has been left.
Swedish Death Cleaning may not be to everyone’s taste and that is absolutely fine. However, I do urge everyone to at least make a will. Grief at the passing of a loved one does not need a companion in despair of doing the ‘right thing’ or second guessing what you really want to happen.
Besides, How would I have wiled away an hour finding out about how the internet worked in 2000!
Significantly Different 