Death cleaning is the translation of a Swedish term, döstädning, describing a kind of de-cluttering later in life, when you downsize to make things easier for the next generation. It’s being popularized by The Gentle Art of Death Cleaning by Margareta Mangusson. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Death Cleaning”
If you haven’t heard the Swedish term, I probably mangled that. I don’t know what you said. Well, if you haven’t heard that or its translation, you will soon. It translates as death cleaning. And this is a new fad that’s coming out in relation to a book called The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, How to Free Yourself and Family from a Lifetime of Clutter.
Once you get up into your 60s and 70s, you start cleaning so that you don’t leave burdens to your children. Right, because cleaning a house out is not only sad, but it’s a lot of work. I’ve been there, yes. If you’re in your 70s, ask yourself, do I really need to save this copy of Catcher in the Rye from when I was in high school? Right. Or this book you’re going to read someday, right? Unless it’s signed by the author, the answer is probably no. Right.
What’s the word again? You’re going to make me say it, right? The Swedish word. It’s something like dusting. Dusting. Yeah, but death cleaning. It’s sort of the successor to Marie Kondo, I think. Just imagining the music you must listen to. It has to be death metal, right, while you’re doing that? Oh, I was thinking of… All that people he booked out of the shelf. I was thinking more of, you know, the Bach B Minor Mass or something. Death cleaning requires appropriate music.
Yeah, and supposedly, according to this book, it’s a really joyous thing because it sorts out your life before you die. Yeah, it’s a considerate act. Right. You look upon the people who are going to be responsible for your belongings in your estate. And it’s never too early to start, right? True. So I’m already tired of the phrase, I have to say.
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Dö (die/dead/death) städning (cleaning or tidying).
Swedish is a more agglutinative language than English, so something that requires as many as 3 or 4 words in English can be expressed with a single, long word in Swedish. e.g. “yrkeskompetensbevis” (certification of professional competency), or “lastbilsförare” (truck driver).