The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

[ajkel64]

I have been watching the TV series of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning out here in Australia. Trying to get re-motivated and sort out some stuff. I am trying not to get too overwhelmed so I am trying to just do a few hours every couple of days. Baby steps.

 

[FarmerTan]

I have been watching the TV series of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning out here in Australia. Trying to get re-motivated and sort out some stuff. I am trying not to get too overwhelmed so I am trying to just do a few hours every couple of days. Baby steps.

I need to get started on the journey again my friend.

My "stuff" is beginning to own me again!

 

[luvmysuper]

Malcolm Forbes was said to have remarked
"Whoever dies with the most toys wins."

 

[JeffJ]

Malcolm Forbes was said to have remarked
"Whoever dies with the most toys wins."

Having recently helped clean out the homes of a few that lived that way, perhaps to an extreme, I do not want that as one of my last legacies. The toys that are left will be fewer, high quality, and well used.

 

[JeffJ]

New year and also back to this. Recently gave away several households worth of Waterford crystal and Yakima roof racks that had been used for skis and bikes across many cars for 30+ years. Vintage china place sets are next. Then a second round of paring down the bicycles.

 

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

A couple of years ago I did some serious clearing out at my mother's place. Her place is beautiful and well decorated but then there is .... (cue the theme song to the movie "Jaws") THE STOREROOM. The size of a small family room with shelves and packed to the gills. Floor filled with box upon box sitting on top of themselves. "Hey Mom, let's take a look at cleaning up the storeroom - what do you think?" Her reply was always the same, "Oh no, you kids get to deal with it when I'm gone. I have no interest in any of that stuff." Great.

Soooo, she went to see a relative for a month. I recruited a sibling and we rolled up our sleeves. Hauling one box at a time and going through it. Newspapers - not clippings, newspapers - from 1947 that are disintegrating. One thing after another like that. Occasionally there were nuggets that we both agreed should be kept. We worked at it for two hours and I decided to evaluate. Not much of a dent at all. Gads, this is going to take a lot longer than we thought.

We ended up the two of us spending 1 1/2 days on it. All of the stuff had to be hauled up the stairs and into the garage. We got a dumpster delivered and my nephews loaded it after I had left. The next day it was hauled off and was 75% full. Last was to mop it all up and put back what we deemed worth saving. I. Am. Telling. You. To look at an essentially empty room with some things on the shelves - I was speechless at what we got done.

She returns from her trip and is overjoyed at the surprise we left for her. Could not believe it. It will make life a lot easier when the day comes she either moves to an assisted living place or is no longer with us. So what we did blessed her today, will ease matters in the future, and will bless us kids when we have so much less to deal with when that day arrives.

Highly recommended!

 

[luvmysuper]

A couple of years ago I did some serious clearing out at my mother's place. Her place is beautiful and well decorated but then there is .... (cue the theme song to the movie "Jaws") THE STOREROOM. The size of a small family room with shelves and packed to the gills. Floor filled with box upon box sitting on top of themselves. "Hey Mom, let's take a look at cleaning up the storeroom - what do you think?" Her reply was always the same, "Oh no, you kids get to deal with it when I'm gone. I have no interest in any of that stuff." Great.

Soooo, she went to see a relative for a month. I recruited a sibling and we rolled up our sleeves. Hauling one box at a time and going through it. Newspapers - not clippings, newspapers - from 1947 that are disintegrating. One thing after another like that. Occasionally there were nuggets that we both agreed should be kept. We worked at it for two hours and I decided to evaluate. Not much of a dent at all. Gads, this is going to take a lot longer than we thought.

We ended up the two of us spending 1 1/2 days on it. All of the stuff had to be hauled up the stairs and into the garage. We got a dumpster delivered and my nephews loaded it after I had left. The next day it was hauled off and was 75% full. Last was to mop it all up and put back what we deemed worth saving. I. Am. Telling. You. To look at an essentially empty room with some things on the shelves - I was speechless at what we got done.

She returns from her trip and is overjoyed at the surprise we left for her. Could not believe it. It will make life a lot easier when the day comes she either moves to an assisted living place or is no longer with us. So what we did blessed her today, will ease matters in the future, and will bless us kids when we have so much less to deal with when that day arrives.

Highly recommended!

I think the benefit of "death cleaning", whether done by the owner or a surrogate is that the family winds up having to deal with less junk and garbage.
In a time that should be spent with pleasant memories of the departed, they are faced with the job of a garbage man.
In turn, this makes it much more likely that true treasures and mementos will be discarded along with old junk.

 

[JeffJ]

I think the benefit of "death cleaning", whether done by the owner or a surrogate is that the family winds up having to deal with less junk and garbage.
In a time that should be spent with pleasant memories of the departed, they are faced with the job of a garbage man.
In turn, this makes it much more likely that true treasures and mementos will be discarded along with old junk.

Very well said. And it's not just the things, the clean-out and clean-up casts shadow on the memories of the good times.

 

[Rudy Vey]

I have tried to get rid of a few things since I retired, it is actually pretty easy if (!!) you make a decision to let certain things go.
But to make this decision is not so easy as one may think. Started with clothing and ended up with some 4-5 garbage bags full of stuff I had not worn for a long time...and took it to a collection container. Have a boatload of fishing stuff but haven't been fishing for a few years, this is next. A good friends 12 year old is so deep into it, it give me pleasure to see him fish and also talk about it all the time. Last week we went to the FlyFishing Show here in NJ and he had his mind set on a certain flyrod (6'6" 3-4 weight). But they were all a bit too much for his dad to spend. Guess what, I had exactly a rod (hardly fished by me) in the size and weight he wanted, so he ended up going home with it. One thing I know is that this rod will see a lot of fishing in the next years, definitely much more than I ever fished it. This is now my next step: clean out the fishing stuff, give the good stuff to the kid, maybe sell some and the rest gets somehow donated to a youth angling program.
If I could only convince my wife to let some of her clothes go....she has sooo much stuff to wear.

 

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

I have tried to get rid of a few things since I retired, it is actually pretty easy if (!!) you make a decision to let certain things go.
But to make this decision is not so easy as one may think. Started with clothing and ended up with some 4-5 garbage bags full of stuff I had not worn for a long time...and took it to a collection container. Have a boatload of fishing stuff but haven't been fishing for a few years, this is next. A good friends 12 year old is so deep into it, it give me pleasure to see him fish and also talk about it all the time. Last week we went to the FlyFishing Show here in NJ and he had his mind set on a certain flyrod (6'6" 3-4 weight). But they were all a bit too much for his dad to spend. Guess what, I had exactly a rod (hardly fished by me) in the size and weight he wanted, so he ended up going home with it. One thing I know is that this rod will see a lot of fishing in the next years, definitely much more than I ever fished it. This is now my next step: clean out the fishing stuff, give the good stuff to the kid, maybe sell some and the rest gets somehow donated to a youth angling program.
If I could only convince my wife to let some of her clothes go....she has sooo much stuff to wear.

If it helps... I had read in a few places over the years that when you are no longer with us 95% of the stuff you have will be donated or tossed. Only 5% will be kept by relatives.

That requires a mind shift of, "Okay, will my relatives want this?"

The tougher things are the sentimental ones and you should hold onto them - they are meaningful. In fact, jot a note and affix it to the item so that it will have meaning in the future.

We have our china from when we were married that has not seen the light of day for decades. It is gorgeous but you can't even give it away. Why? Because it can't be put through the dishwasher - must be hand washed. So none of the young couples want it. We have looked, it has almost no value and it cost a fair sum at the time.

I have a dozen nice straights that I have used in the past but don't see myself ever using again. Nobody in the family will want them so they sit oiled in a box. I haven't seen them for some time and don't know why I still have them but I do.

I have many years of an obscure British sailing magazine - nobody will want them and I haven't looked at them in forever.

I think in part you just need one of those days that there is a steely look in your eye and you are going to get at it. One way or the other you are going to have fewer things. Mind you, most of us are not packrats but just have stuff. Believe me, drive through any neighborhood in the summer when garage doors are open. Gads! They can only get one car into the two car garage because of all of the boxes!

 

[abw11365]

When my mother passed, I as the executor had to handle all the stuff. I hired an estate sale company - Caring Transitions - and they came in and handled everything. My mother kept a very neat house and so it wasn't the hoard that many die with. After my brother and I had removed everything out of the house that we desired to keep, CT came in and took possession of everything. It took them 3 or 4 days to set up the house for the estate sale. Everything that didn't sell they took to auction and/or Goodwill (at my discretion). The house was empty a week after they came in and the great majority of work was not done by us. But CT did tell me that usually they do deal with more cluttered houses and it may take a little longer but the end result is the same. I highly recommend this route. I have recommended this route to my executor. My wife and I do try to purge unneeded / unwanted stuff but more because we want our house to be uncluttered rather than worry for our heirs having to deal with it.

 

[Alex Jr]

It’s pretty amazing to own less and less things. Over here it’s everything down to minimum.

We have 4 plates, 4 regular water glasses, 4 coffee cups, everything 4 only. If there’s more than 2 guests, sorry, NO SOUP FOR YOU!

1 jacket, 2 trousers, 3 shorts. 3 shirts. 5 t shirts. Couple of gym outfits only. Same rule for shoes and the rest.

Call me crazy but I want to go further.

Ironically shaving gear takes the most space.

 

[StillShaving]

Besides physical stuff; I find it a bit daunting to sort, organize, and delete digital items. Files which can be ignored without much cost to my future self. But which might be of long term value to me or someone else. Imagine all the videos, photos, etc that will be lost on hard drives, phones, social media accounts, etc, as those who control them pass away.