Last night at Tapestry, Nancy told us about a book called The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. As your Senior Influencer, I feel compelled to talk about the book, but also the trend attached to it, and about death cleaning in general, Swedish or otherwise.

Full disclosure, I have not read the book, but have bought it, so that counts. Anyway, there are 3 principals to death cleaning in general, but Swedish in particular.

Swedish death cleaning is a method of organizing and decluttering your home before you die to lessen the burden for your loved ones after you’ve passed. I like the idea of this.

And I have begun already. After the death of my parents and Scott’s parents, and the subsequent mountain of THINGS to sort through, I decided I didn’t want my kids to have to do quite so much of the sorting. Granted, there is a certain amount of clutter one has to live with in one’s home just to get by.

Yes, I need three punch bowls, that silver flower frog, a box of decor from each of my decor phases (I might want to go back to one of them–Country French, for sure), and every flower vase I’ve ever received. And certainly, every lovely item in the china cabinet is a keeper, no matter how tarnished (the five silver platters) or pointless (the set of four floral luncheon plates with the indentations where the tiny cup goes.)

I’m sure you have similar necessities.

Mine are mostly in the attic. God help me. Actually I wish someone would. I would like to have a brigade of my many loved ones strung out between the attic and the front door just to carry things to the curb. Molly said it’s not feasible to try to get everyone together for that event, although it sounded really fun to her.

So I’ll guilt them into it one at a time or in 2s maybe if I can guilt a spouse or grandchild, too, although that’s harder.

Anyway my first success was condensing three bins of JCPenney memorabilia into one. Then I wrote on the lid: JCPENNEY– PUT THIS ON THE CURB. They don’t need to feel like they have to keep it or even go through it. After all, it was only 20 years of my life. (I’m practicing the guilt thing.)

What Is Swedish Death Cleaning?

1. First, sort throughout clothing. This not a problem for me as I am really good at cleaning out the things right in front of my face, like my closet. I am not that person who can pull out something to wear to an 80s Disco Theme Party. In fact, although I still wear things that are maybe 10 years old, I’m not proud of it. And I wouldn’t wear them to a party.
2. Next, declutter items that occupy the most space. Refer to the attic and china cabinet above. I would also include here the furniture and stuff you ended up with when your parents left their homes. At one time I had 7 desks. Yes, 7. I’m down to four now and eventually will have only 3 so, progress.
   • But it is this accumulation problem which afflicts many of us. And for me has caused my fractured multiple-personality-disorder answer to home decor.
   • The Media Room (where Steve and Martha edit in COVID-free safety) resides the heavy leather and oak furniture Scott loved. It will be my lodge den eventually.
   • My bedroom is down in my favored farmhouse style, but boasts a huge armoire from my mother vying for space with the OTHER armoire that goes with the bed.
   • Upstairs is the French guest room, presided over by beautiful twin beds that were my mother’s and a dark chest my dad made.
   • Across the hall in the Honey Oak room lives the remainder of the furniture my dad made and what I accumulated in my aforementioned Country French phase.
   • The truth is, I love all these rooms and they have been curated already, so mission accomplished.
3. Lastly, clean out your digital files. As a tech nerd, this is not a huge problem, but I have to consolidate the three computers housing old business files to jettison and a zillion personal photos to organize. This is what we do when we retire. It’s an elusive goal, but goal nonetheless.

And if you can’t organize digital files just yet, at least back them up on something, a separate hard drive, the cloud, somewhere. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the cloud is really acres of computers backing up everybody’s stuff somewhere in the wilds of Virginia. What did you think it was?

Anyway, get busy. Make a few lists so you’ll have something to cross off, then start small.

I’m going to start with 15-year-old financial files. The shredder must be in here somewhere.