Döstädning is a Swedish term meaning “death cleaning”. The concept is to clean out all of your stuff when you are elderly so that when you die, your loved ones aren’t tasked with the burden of going through and distributing all the stuff you left behind. Döstädning makes sense to me but for more than just making life easier on those who remain after my death. To me, Döstädning should be done early and often for the benefit of the living, right now.
Rather than waiting until we might get old to clear things out, how about we stop pretending we know when our time will come and start clearing out our stuff, now? Rather than living in a pile of mostly unused, unseen, unremembered stuff with a roof on it—something we call a house—how about we start selling it and gifting it, now? When can we use the extra money from selling our unneeded stuff: now or later or maybe too late? When will we most enjoy the pleasure of gifting items to others: now or later or maybe too late?
And perhaps by getting rid of stuff, now, we’ll realize that we need to be more judicious in procurement of stuff going forward. Maybe instead of blowing money on more stuff, we’ll put some money into savings and investments or pay down the mortgage faster. Maybe we’ll donate some money to noble causes or to humble panhandlers. Maybe we’ll take a friend to lunch or dinner or a show. Or maybe we’ll leave an outrageously high tip for a waitress or actually tip at all those unsung heroes of hotels everywhere—housekeeping staff. Maybe we won’t work so much at jobs we don’t like because we’ll realize that we don’t need to sell our bodies and our minds just to make money to get senseless stuff. Maybe then we’ll have more time for people, places, and production that really matter to us.
I don’t want to die anytime soon, but I want to clean house like I’m about to.
P. Gustav Mueller
Here’s a book about Döstädning: The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, by Margareta Magnusson. I haven’t read it, but I might at some point.