Swedish death cleaning, döstädning, defined by my family

As more blogs are written about döstädning I had to ask my Swedish family what they believed the word meant. My uncle Åke put it plainly for me saying, “Deadcleaning means that you get rid of your things so your children don’t have to take care of too many things after you.” 

You can watch Emilio share with CTV News a quick summary of what Swedish death cleaning is and why it’s important for you to consider.

Is döstädning the same thing as downsizing?

The closest term in English for Swedish death cleaning we feel is downsizing. Downsizing being the term most older adults have coined for starting to let go of their life’s accumulation.

The trigger for me to write a short blog about the word was that same uncle from Sweden. We sent them a copy of our hardcover book for Christmas. When they received it they wrote us, “Today I was very glad to find your nice book in our box. I’m so proud of having a relative writing a book, and it will certainly help us organize our life. Being 75-it’s time to get rid of all old things and make our “deadcleaning.”

He used the term so easily like he knew that this was a part of life. We often forget that death will eventually come for us all and what we leave behind will either be seen as pleasant or burdensome. It’s never too late or too early to consider what you have and why… in fact it is quite a freeing experience to know that your material items are just that… material items.

Below Left: My Kristoffersson Family Reunion in Bollnas, Sweden, 2012

Below Right: Döstädning is not the only Swedish word we use in Canada. I spotted Fika on our neighbourhood cafe sandwich board 2 summers ago.

Don’t get down, get organized and keep living fully 🙂

Here is what we recommend:

• Really take time to think about your wishes — then write down your intentions.
• Consider those who will come after you.
• Who would get value from your things now or in the future?
• Make an event out of it — have a photo sorting party, laugh and enjoy your memories with those you love.
• Don’t let your age get in the way — this can be done at any stage in your life

If you like reading you can learn more by reading The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.

Have you ever thought about what will happen with your belongings when you die?

We found a lot of inspiration a few years ago when we read “Organizing from the inside out” by Julie Morgenstern.

We also watched a video and we really enjoyed her approach. She is one of our favorite organizers!!.

I just read one of her more recent books “When Organizing Isn’t Enough. SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life”.

I have been a professional organizer since 2012 and I found a LOT of value reading this book. If you are interested in organizing and simplifying your life I encourage you to read it.

I would like to share some notes from the book along with some personal comments from my experience.

When Organizing Isn’t Enough

Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life.

” When you are eager to make a change in your life, but you are unsure of your new destination, you need to SHED. SHED picks up where other organizing processes leave off helping you purge the physical and behavioral clutter holding you back so you can finally create real change in your life”

Julie writes about how important is to plan for positively managing change in every aspect of your life. Changes that really stick in the long term.

Name your theme

My favorite thing from the book is when she encourages you to “Name your Theme”. She invites you to define the next chapter of your life depending on what interests you, challenges you and makes you happy.

Some examples of themes from Julie’s real clients:

• Embrace my personal power.
• Fulfilling personal commitments.
• Self-discovery. 

There are several techniques in the book to help you find your theme.

In order to be able to make a good impact in our clients lives, we really try our best to understand the “what” and the “why”.

What do you want? and Why do you want it?. It doesn’t make sense for us to try to help someone else to get organized if we don’t have a clear understanding of their final goal.

Naming your theme will encourage you to answer those questions and understand why you are doing this in the first place.

SHED process

These are the phases of the SHED process:

• Step 1: Separate Treasures. Slow down to understand the emotional attachment you have to the clutter. Then identify and unearth the items and obligations that energize you and have true value for the next chapter of your life.
• Step 2: Heave the trash. Once you have selected the items worth saving, completely relinquish that which represents the past by letting go of everything that is no longer relevant. This includes a radical release of any activity or object that depletes you rather than energizes you and creates a large opening of time and energy.
• Step 3: Embrace your identity. Recognize that you are who you are without your stuff. This is your opportunity to reconnect to your most authentic self and pull your identity from within.
• Step 4: Drive yourself forward. Begin to fill your space and schedule with activities, experiences, and items related to your theme for the future.

The four steps of SHED enable you to manage your way through change consciously so that your transition is mindful, complete and rewarding.

I have to say that I LOVE this process!  We have used a similar approach and it does work very well!

We recently wrote “A Recipe for An Extraordinary Life” where we share the importance of nurturing all the aspects of your life. As you will see, STUFF is only one of them. STUFF should help you move forward with your goals not anchor you down.

Finding the clutter in your life is a part of the first step. Julie defines clutter as “any obsolete object, space, commitment or behavior that weighs you down, distracts you or depletes your energy“.

Hitting the wall of panic

Julie talks about “hitting the wall of panic” while going to the process: “The feeling usually doesn’t last too long a few hours to a few days. This wall of panic is the true breakthrough point in the letting-go process.

It requires reminding yourself that this process of letting go is your choice, and reconnecting to your own vision for this change“.

“A habit cannot be tossed out the window; it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time” Mark Twain

It takes about 90 days to form a habit and 30 days to break it. Be patient and consistent. Allow time for changes to happen. We are talking about your new life, the one you always wanted! The wait is totally worth it!!

Bad Habits

This book also touches on these 5 bad habits and includes great real examples on how to break them successfully:

• Mindless escapes.
• Procrastination.
• Perfectionism.
• Chronic lateness.
• Workaholism.

I LOVED this book and I recommend it to anyone looking to live a more meaningful life.