Lots of families never speak to one another again over Moms favorite ring or who took the china without asking. No email, documents, photos, anything. Maybe you already know that your parents house full of clutter will be your problem one day. This book is a simple and wise description of how and why to do dstdning, told with the honesty and wry humor of Magnussons 80100 years. Are there items you want them to keep? That way your family can blame you instead of each other. Batch removal errands: Once a thing is staged for removal, schedule the errand. Her funereal play list may change between now and the next 60 years, but for now she knows she has planned well for where she is in life.
There was a problem. And if you gift wrap them prettily, they'll be even happier.
In an early New Years resolution, I started Swedish death cleaning two months ago, in 15 minutes a day increments. If you're looking for more tips on decluttering, check out our guides on, Magnusson, Margareta. Other items can be donated en masse to a local charity. Consider using the guides to take Magnussons rather high-level conceptual book to a more actionable step by step level. We follow a strict editorial process to provide you with the best content possible. 
Now you can focus on leaving a legacy instead of a mess. You can also let them go through your closets and cupboards and take a few things off your hands right away. I very much wish that my mother had done her dstdning. Imagine what you want family members to do with your belongings when youre gone. The personal items mentioned above can include everything from love letters to, er, sex toys, and that's not something that Magnusson is shy of confronting: 'Save your favorite dildo but throw away the other 15!' Immersing yourself in the project will help you keep going. The only things you hold onto will be things you use regularly. See to the rest of your affairs: This is also the time to get or print out your will and put a copies in a fire safe or safe deposit box, along with your life insurance policy and bank account numbers and passwords. Create a box of items you want to give to your daughter and one for your nephew. This will help you identify which items are truly meaningful, and which you can give away right now. Create one for birthday gifts and one for housewarming gifts. Through Swedish death cleaning, you can rid your home of unnecessary clutter that might be weighing you down, both physically and spiritually. According to Margareta Magnusson, the author of the book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter, it is time to think of mortality. If youre keeping mixed plastic non-recyclable empty compacts because you might make your own DIY makeup, keep one and get rid of the rest. Because its fun to think about mortality, but in a wholesome, New Years resolution kind of way. Go to The Source: The primary resource for learning about Swedish death cleaning is Margareta Magnussons book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. Rank all your possession types from easiest to let go of to the hardest. This is not something to do in isolation. death cleaningisnt something you do after someone has died. Dstdningmakes sense for everyone, even young people. or update your current end-of-life planto let your family know what to do with the rest of your stuff. My clothes are already decluttered, so I started with bathroom cabinets. And if it does get you a bit down, make sure to reward yourself afterwards by doing something life-affirming, such as walking, baking, or going to the cinema just not another shopping trip. After youve finished the death cleaning method, your house will be streamlined, clean, and decluttered. Enjoy knowing where everything is, and congratulate yourself for responsibly taking care of your stuff. advice. My mom didnt clear the house but she did decide and communicate her funeral wishes, which helped a lot. Today Im a sort-of empty nester with four generations worth of stuff stuffing my house full to the brim.
Its hella hard, which one isnt supposed to say on the internet. Try going around the room slowly: If other systems have failed you, try going around a room systematically instead of decluttering by type of thing. Most of us acquire clutter large and small over a long lifetime. In Swedish, d means death, and stdning means cleaning. But dstdningdeath cleaningisnt something you do after someone has died. This includes taking care of repairs and upgrades weve been meaning to do but havent done. Some people have commented that Swedish Death Cleaning is the opposite of Marie Kondo's decluttering method, since one is focused on your family, while the other on your own preferences. Get a Guide: As Swedish death cleaning takes its place in the lexicon of decluttering and organizing strategies, helpful guides, workbooks and examples have become available. Required fields are marked *, Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Affiliate Disclosure. Your email address will not be published. Its a permanent form of managing a household. For most people, clothes are fairly easy to sort through it's no wonder Marie Kondo also advocates beginning with clothing so it's a great category to start with. Facebook. Unlike Marie Kondo, though, Magnusson advocates thinking about your things not only in terms of how they make you feel but also how they make your loved ones feel. And don't worry: you don't need to be a cleaning obsessive to use this method. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Find out more about different tidying and decluttering approaches at our cleaning hub page. Manage your digital life the way you do your physical diaries. Heres why you can trust us. And its a method of decluttering thats sweeping across Scandinavia and the United States, alike. You can even give family and friends meaningful belongings for birthdays, housewarming parties, and holidays. Unlike regular decluttering for its own sake, the dstdning perspective has made it easier to let go of things. Swedish death cleaning is a great way to honor your family and give them a more peaceful mourning process. Based on Swedish artist and writer Margareta Magnusson's book the Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (opens in new tab), this method for clearing and organising your living space is useful for anyone struggling with clutter and letting go of things. 9 tips to love your home again, How to pick a perfect sustainable resolution this year, Sustainable gifts? All rights reserved. form. The fees for the advice of an attorney should not be compared to the fees of do-it-yourself online
Declutter by category where it makes sense: It makes sense to declutter all my art supplies when I get to that room. Anna is Content Editor at Real Homes. You can't beat the approach. Swedish death cleaning is for anyone who has tried other decluttering methods and stopped partway or anyone on the downhill side of middle age. You might use different methods for different kinds of things. But when youre just getting started, you might find yourself mourning the loss of trinkets, furniture, and clothingeven if theyre things you never use. As in regular decluttering, you need to build your decision-making muscles and spend time getting comfortable with the process. Below, well go in-depth into what Swedish death cleaning is, exactly. Instagram. Once youve done Swedish death cleaning, even to a first approximation, you will love your new and improved home, the peace of mind of knowing your family is taken care of, and the freedom to go where you like when you like without being weighed down. 
Magnusson presents the method as a means to living a happier life, in addition to making things easier for your loved ones after you die. 
If so, here are some tips that will help you start the process and get through the journey of Swedish death cleaning. Are there things you wouldnt mind them throwing away?
Any information you provide to Cake, and all communications between you and Cake, Loss is hard. Today's best The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning deals, We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices, Today's best Personalised Family Acrylic Monthly Wall Calendar deals, (Image credit: @swedishdeathcleaning/Instagram), BergHOFF tabletop BBQ: a compact buy for couples, Best reed diffusers: 7 approved scents for a luxury home, How to declutter your wardrobe: 13 tips for tidying clothes, 8 ways to Marie Kondo your garden this weekend. It can immediately free up space in your home and help get you in gear for further decluttering. Getting rid of large items first is the best way to get the ball rolling with Swedish death cleaning. I can either stop or keep going when 15 minutes is up. For me, the end goal is to have our stuff decluttered, organized and well-maintained so that we can enjoy it while we have it, leave it when we want to, and let our children remember us as responsible adults who have their act together.
A piece of antique furniture that you love, but which no longer serves any practical use in your home, is another example of something you can give away. That way, when you pass away, your family has fewer things to deal with. Try to create a taxonomy for all the things you own, based on how easy it would be to sort through this type of possession.
Tammy lives in Australia, so check legal requirements in your own location. Once upon a time I moved across the country with two suitcases. In a 2010 study, women who described their homes with clutter words or house unfinished words were more depressed and stressed through the day. It means things that need appraisals, emotion, repairs, errands or research get done as I get to them, not in a magical future time when Im ready. Make sure someone can get into your social media and other digital repositories to clean it up, cancel it, or tell your online friends of your fate. LinkedIn. The object is not to sit in an empty room until you die. My parents Tudor self-built house was full of architectural elements from old Hollywood movie sets, and collections of everything. For people who like to keep a productive green home, with stuff kept to fix, stuff to make things, perfectly good stuff rescued from give-aways and curbsides, stuff for gardening, stuff kept to recycle properly, and all the rest, its a constant effort to keep a balance between order, productivity, frugality and chaos. Consider using the guides to take Magnussons rather high-level conceptual book to a more actionable step by step level. This will help you to actually deal with the harder things and notice things youve never considered. Cake values integrity and transparency. Do you want to give Swedish death cleaning a try? The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning book deals mostly with the decluttering aspect, but Swedish death cleaning includes getting all your affairs in order. A table thats just gathering dust? But, areas that took me hours to declutter last time were done in minutes this time. Swedish death cleaning sounds so scary, but after reading your comments, it seems doable haha! I would absolutely use clutter words and house unfinished words in my house right now. The house clearing burden fell to my sister and an auction team. My second motivation is to properly respect the things I have by recycling and selling items I dont want, or giving stuff to people who actually want it. is the Swedish word for death cleaning. Glad it seems doable! Do you dream of going somewhere, but cant, because youre trapped by your stuff? Instead, Swedish death cleaning is a process you undertake in preparation for your own death. For example, if youre holding onto your mothers wedding ring because you want to pass it down as an heirloom, you can pass it on now, instead. It sounds like youve aready done a lot of the hard part if youve been decluttering. When we moved in, it was a dream home with a stone fireplace and window seats and a bathroom with its own garden, and twelve peacocks that the city made us get rid of. It all helps, its just a different motivation.
Set a limit: If youre keeping something because you might fix it or use it, set a limit.
Set a timer. Margareta Magnusson with her book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. with spider webs and dust, mixed in with trash and filled every nook and surface. Before you make a purchase, consider whether that thing will truly find use on a daily basis. And then enjoy investing in a lovely, small storage chest instead. You cant change someone else. Provide history: Things are more valuable to your family when people know the history. You may need to stock up on storage boxes or bags while you are reorganising your possessions; it's a good idea to label the different boxes according to whether you'd like to keep their contents or give them away. It does sound a bit morbid, and it's a downer to have to think about your own death while decluttering your home, but this process doesn't have be coloured with sadness. Finally, youll want to create an end-of-life planor update your current end-of-life planto let your family know what to do with the rest of your stuff. We've been testing the ultra-stylish BergHOFF tabletop BBQ. I am doing this for my kids as a responsible grownup. Use what you know about decluttering: All the other decluttering methods youve learned will help, like turning hangers backwards once a year to identify unworn clothes, removing a bag a day, the Flylady 27-Fling boogie, and all the rest. Usage of any form or other service on our website is Swedish death cleaning aims to solve that problem, at least in part. Thats how we found out that all our fire extinguishers were expired. The object is to have things that you enjoy and will use, and to give away or sell or remove the stuff thats weighing you down and will weigh down your family. Its possible to see value in everythingeven old cardboard, twenty year old wheat berries, broken crockery, and anything that can be repurposed, used in the garden or upcycled. You might even start by organizing and, 10. While youre waiting to give things away, its best to set everything aside in highly-organized storage boxes. Pass it on now: Decluttering family memorabilia is hard but doable. Its helpful at any ageget in the habit now and you wont need to think about it later. Your email address will not be published. Maybe you dont really care what happens to the rest of your stuff. Swedish Death Cleaning is all about being kind to others and making sure that people aren't hurt by what they may find among your things. There was a valuable antique teddy bear stuffed in a drawer with junk, my dads death certificates under a pile of laundry, and an actual colony of bats in the walls that came out at night. The idea is simply to casually present your friends with things you think they may genuinely like or need that you think you can do without. One of the benefits of Swedish death cleaning is that youll learn to appreciate items without actually purchasing them and bringing them home. Thats a long time, but thats how long it took to declutter fiddly, emotional, hard to get rid of things with a job, a commute, and allthethings to take care of. Im definitely going to start this next year since Ive already deep cleaned, decluttered and got a carpet cleaninng for the holidays. You'll find it much easier than you thought to part with that dress you wore the first time you met your spouse, or the high heeled shoes you adore but somehow never got round to wearing. generalized educational content about wills. Because life moves on, hobbies get taken up and dropped, people give you things, clothes wear out and families change, you will always need to revisit your Swedish death cleaning ritual. In this simple guide, we explain what Death Cleaning is, how to get it right and how not to be too put off by its morbid aspect. Similarly, its never too late to try Swedish death cleaning. You may be happier keeping the raggedy tshirt, and thats ok. Find more tips for dealing with memorabilia. While youre still alive, though, you might have photos and other personal items you want to hold onto as keepsakes. Id like to read the authors book first before I begin, but well see if I have time.
But Swedish death cleaning is also about more than deathits about how we live life. This includes items you might keep 'just in case' but never, ever actually do. Where will your family find your passwords, life insurance policy, will, up-to-date bank accounts, funeral wishes, and power of attorney documents? When my grandma was 80, my mom left her phone charger on my grandmas kitchen counter and my grandma threw it away. Find out what to do and discover resources to help you cope. I nailed the floor in the library loft, stained miles of molding, and have a scar because kids and construction sites dont mix. If its your stuff, talk with your family about wanting to clear stuff out and get everything organized. Instead, it's a process that can go on for weeks or months, or longer if you need it to the end result should be a lasting change to how you organise your life and your home, rather than short bursts of decluttering followed by more buying of things you don't need.
Know the next action: I write down a few small next-action tasks at a time so that theres something I can do wherever I am or whatever amount of time I have. As you go through daily life, examine every item you bring into your home.
Find out, too, how to declutter your wardrobe in our expert guide. If you have any wishes regarding the items that remain in your home, make sure to write those wishes down in your end-of-life plan. Have they always praised that lamp, which you incidentally never switch on? If they genuinely don't want your stuff, and you are able to let go of it, donate it or put it up for auction. Talk about it: But not too much. Its my job. View the videos for inspiration, and listen to podcasts while you work. Margareta Magnusson is the author of the definitive text on Swedish death cleaning, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. Detail death clean your finances: The original book doesnt go into much detail about preparing your finances. There are good tips at Money Crashers and Nerd Wallet.
Well also provide some steps and tips for getting started with Swedish death cleaninga few from Magnusson herself. If you prefer listening or viewing, there are podcasts online featuring Margareta Magnusson and detailing peoples experience with Swedish Death Cleaning. Its time to donate those things to your local thrift shop. As Magnusson explains in her book, going through all of their possessions after the deaths of her loved ones was incredibly emotionally taxing, and she decided to come up with a way of sorting through things that will help other's family and friends be less affected by their passing. If its too jarring to give away all of your belongings at once, you can gift your items gradually, over time. This is a more natural way to do it than forcing old china on people whenever they walk in your house. Thats too far. Do more on days off: When Im home for the day I may spend a few hours on projects that will take longer, like DIY projects or taking things for donation and recycling.
Limit yourself to just one storage box of personal mementos. My family prefers to stay home instead of going to a hospital, which requires advance planning and some family member training. Real Homes is supported by its audience. If you're looking for more tips on decluttering, check out our guides on downsizing your life, how to get rid of clothes, and what to do if you inherited a house full of stuff. The end of summer is the perfect time to get started. Swedish Death Cleaning, which comes from the Swedish dstdning, is giving the KonMari method by Marie Kondo a run for its money. Unlike regular decluttering, you arent doing it just for yourself, youre also doing it for the people you will leave behind. subject to our Terms of Use. Swedish death cleaning is practical and unsentimental.