Hemmablind, Home Blind

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And Grant, I just learned a really handy Swedish term.

It’s hemablind.

Hemablind.

Yeah, literally, it means home blind.

And it means that you’re so accustomed to your home that you no longer notice its flaws.

Oh, I know this word.

I know the meaning of this word.

Hemablind.

Yeah, it’s cognate with English home blind.

And, you know, it means like maybe companies coming and all of a sudden you realize that there are cobwebs up there or, you know, clutter around the house that you just didn’t notice because you were hemableaned.

Right. I took a trip with my family a few weeks ago.

We went away for a few days and we came home and I’m like, who’s been here cluttering this place while we were away?

And it was nobody. It was us before we left.

All those things on flat surfaces, the books everywhere.

We did that.

We were hamble-blamed.

Right.

Exactly.

Isn’t that a handy word?

It totally is because you just get used to it.

And then when you realize that your mother or your mother-in-law is coming to stay, suddenly you’re like, wow, that’s grimy.

How long has it been like that?

Right.

Grant, I also want to tell you about where I learned this word.

And I want you to hear me out because I learned it from a reality TV show.

It’s called The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, and it’s produced and narrated by Amy Poehler.

And it involves these Swedish experts on decluttering your home, a professional organizer and a designer and a psychologist.

And they come to Kansas City in over several episodes and they help various people declutter their lives.

And the series isn’t about hoarders.

It’s about downsizing.

It’s about getting rid of stuff that you don’t really need, and it’s just sitting around your house.

And ideally, of course, the idea of death cleaning has to do with not burdening your adult kids with having to deal with your stuff after you’re gone.

But what’s wonderful about this show is that it really makes you think about letting go of things you don’t need, like dealing with that emotionally so that you can get reorganized and actually make the most of the rest of your life.

And you’ve got to trust me here.

It’s a very smart show, a very inspiring one, and they declutter the homes of very appealing people.

And unlike a lot of reality shows, it’s actually got a lot of heart.

It sounds like a wonderful show.

What’s that Swedish word again, Martha?

Hemablind.

H-E-M-M-A-B-L-I-N-D.

And the show itself is called?

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.

Oh, how nice is that?

Well, we’ll link to that show and those words from our website at waywordradio.org.

And no matter how you learn words, where you learn them, or who you learn them from, we want to learn about them ourselves.

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