In recent times I have seen two mentions of this, an article in the Guardian and a tv episode on a obscure channel.
I had never heard of this before. apparently it is based on the New York Times bestseller, “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.”
Swedish artist, Margareta Magnusson, sheds light on how to declutter your home with the intent of making the grieving process easier for your friends and family after you are gone.
Most of us know about decluttering if they have been involved in selling a house. A suit \rrives at your suburban semi-detached house complete with clipboard and nose in the air, and announce you need to declutter. Estate agentgs pretend to know what house buyers are looking for and they believe that people are put off by the way the present owners live. Pictures on the wall, ornaments on the sideboard, gaily coloured cusions etc. all "clutter" to a certain mind.
Now apparently this idea had been developed into a Nordic precursor to visiting Valhalla.
It is not a new thing, but seems to me to follow on from the fairly modern idea that everyone should make provision for leaving some kind of inheritance for their family, even if its only no work in disposing of the deceased's belongings.
I don't follow the concept that somehow, parents have an obligation to make life easy for their children by working hard before they die to leave a tidy , uncluttered home. A bit bizarre to say the least. When I die, I wont care what happens, will I? Do I really need to spend time sorting out my old clothes, giving away all my books, tidying up my computer hard drive so that my daughters don't have to do it?
Starting with my clothes would be a problem in itself. I know I have too many jackets and waistcoats, but which ones do I get rid of. I like them all. If I drop my clogs or fall off my perch in the next week or so, it wont matter, but if I live for another year or so, I might want to wear some of them.
The same with books. I have got books I haven't read yet and still reluctant to get rid of some that I might want to read again.
And that computer hard drive. Full of half written blogs, articles and even some detective books which I haven't finished writing because I couldn't decide who the murderer was.
Sounds like too much hard work just to save somebody else the bother. It may well be that my executors wont have a problem, just bundle everything into black bags, or hire a skip and it could all be gone in a day.
