{"id":543,"date":"2021-06-17T05:07:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T05:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/?p=543"},"modified":"2021-06-17T05:07:43","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T05:07:43","slug":"whatever-you-call-it-youll-be-glad-you-did-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/whatever-you-call-it-youll-be-glad-you-did-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Cleaning: Whatever you call it, you’ll be glad you did it"},"content":{"rendered":"

I appreciate that this suggestion might be a little more enticing if it were called something else.<\/p>\n

But as a Swede myself, I have to say that I find the Swedish concept of \u201cdeath cleaning\u201d \u2013 clearing out your home so the people you leave behind won\u2019t have to — joyful and liberating.<\/p>\n

If you find that difficult to believe, take a look at Margareta Magnusson\u2019s helpful — and potentially life-changing — book\u00a0The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning<\/u>.<\/p>\n

As Ms. Magnusson explains, we buy things because we think they will make us happy. But instead of enjoying those things, using them up and\/or passing them on, we keep accumulating more. And then, we\u2019ve got a problem.<\/p>\n

Even worse, we\u2019re creating problems for the people who have to clean up our stuff.<\/p>\n

Ms. Magnusson suggests that we should want to make our loved ones\u2019 memories of us nice \u2013 instead of awful. I agree!<\/p>\n

Fortunately, it is actually rather easy to do:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Keep what you use and or love. Let go of the rest.<\/li>\n
  2. Find a place where things belong. Keep them there.<\/li>\n
  3. Do a little at a time. Get started now.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Just for the record, you don\u2019t have to be anywhere near death to start \u201cdeath cleaning.\u201d It’s motivated by awareness — not an age.<\/p>\n

    So if you agree that decluttering might be a good idea, but the idea that you\u2019re \u201cdeath cleaning,\u201d makes you uncomfortable, call it something else. Tell yourself you\u2019re working on increasing your personal environmental awareness, or that you\u2019re demonstrating your extraordinary generosity.<\/p>\n

    Remind yourself that you\u2019re creating more space for the things you love in your life \u2013 including the people you love who won\u2019t have to clean up after you.<\/p>\n

    I can promise that you will feel like celebrating when you get it done. And if you\u2019d like help, just let me know and we\u2019ll get your party started!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I appreciate that this suggestion might be a little more enticing if it were called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11,34],"class_list":["post-543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","tag-deathcleaning-doitnow","tag-declutter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onthemovenow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}