the gentle art of swedish death cleaning book review

It is better to clear your things out and organise everything while you are still fit and have energy. You might want to move from a house to a flat, or perhaps in advanced age you’ll have the need to relocate to a nursing home or elderly community.

This makes it easy to be prepared to downsize your home later on when you go into retirement. Mrs Magnusson recommends starting the process in the second half of middle age.

It’s about making your life simpler, and living smaller. In its true intent and purpose, however, the objective of Swedish death cleaning is to make your estate manageable before you take off to the great beyond. Swedish death cleaning can be done at any age, for example when you are in your thirties and decide your closet is overflowing with things you never wear. No matter how much they love you, don’t leave this burden to them.” When to Start Death Cleaning “Do not ever imagine that anyone will wish – or be able – to schedule time off to take care of what you didn’t bother to take care of yourself. It’s done out of love and respect for the people who come to clean up after your death. Swedish death cleaning, in such, is not just something you do for yourself to have an organised home or live more minimally. Going through someone’s things and household after they pass away is heart wrenching enough without the additional burden of having to deal with decades’ worth of amassed clutter or awkward items. Her book aims to “make your loved ones’ memories of you affectionate, rather than upsetting” when you’re gone. Death Cleaning Is Not Just About YouĬonfronted with the deaths of her own parents, and later her husband, Mrs Magnusson set upon städning, or cleaning up after they passed. Swedish death cleaning is about cleaning up before yourself – before you die. And these people leave a mess after them. “Some people can’t wrap their heads around death. Stuff that other people will carry the burden of dealing with when you’re gone. Another truth – and this is the motivation behind the book – is that when you die, you leave a lot of stuff behind if you have not death cleaned. We must all talk about death, as the author says. That’s neither morbid, nor sad our mortality is a fact of life. It’s done incrementally, and thoughtfully, over time, in preparation for what awaits us all: dö, death in Swedish, is our universal, inevitable fate. Marie Kondo’s all-out approach of dumping all your belongings on the floor and making a gargantuan mess will truly disrupt your life and household for days (if not weeks), while death cleaning is gentle and slow. Swedish death cleaning feels to me like the polar opposite of the Konmari method of decluttering. “Death cleaning is not about dusting or mopping up it is a permanent form of organisation that makes your everyday life run more smoothly.” What the Heck Is Swedish Death Cleaning?.

The gentle art of swedish death cleaning book review