The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter
Written by Margareta Magnusson
Narrated by Juliet Stevenson
4/5
()
About this audiobook
A charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life.
In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning “death” and städning meaning “cleaning.” This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. Her radical and joyous method for putting things in order helps families broach sensitive conversations, and makes the process uplifting rather than overwhelming.
Margareta suggests which possessions you can easily get rid of (unworn clothes, unwanted presents, more plates than you’d ever use) and which you might want to keep (photographs, love letters, a few of your children’s art projects). Digging into her late husband’s tool shed, and her own secret drawer of vices, Margareta introduces an element of fun to a potentially daunting task. Along the way readers get a glimpse into her life in Sweden, and also become more comfortable with the idea of letting go.
Margareta Magnusson
Margareta Magnusson says she is ‘somewhere between 80 and 100 years old’. She was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, on New Year’s Eve, and graduated from Beckman’s College of Design in Stockholm. After working as a fashion and advertisement designer, she embarked on a career as a painter. Her first solo exhibition was held in Gothenburg in 1979. Later, she exhibited in Stockolm, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and widely around Sweden. She has moved house 17 times within Sweden and abroad, which is why she says, ‘I should know what I am talking about when it comes to deciding what to keep and what to throw away’.
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Reviews for The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
463 ratings32 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Juliette Stevenson voice is a soothing aide for this subject.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Humor, wisdom, great content and narrator.
Sage advice for sure! - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nice narration. Thoughtful topic. Some things to think about for everyone.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Insightful, like listening to your grandmother impart her wisdom. I love that the author relishes in her memories and has lived such a full life.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5“The only thing we know for sure is that one day we will die. But before that we can do anything.”
I am loving this little book I just started! It is not sad but truly inspiring. It mirrors my own journey and how I think but have yet to handle my stuff. I'm starting this process again! It is our life work. Back to curating my best version of my life, my family, and my home. I hope you check this one out at the library or listen on audiobook like I am. I love her wit and charm while lovingly guiding us to do the work of ordering our lives
This book is truly delightful! #Love4theJourney
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An article about the author:
https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/margareta-magnusson-swedish-grandmother-marie-kondo-death-115147 - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I listened to the audio version... Overall, the book provided some interesting insights into organizing/getting rid if excess and focusing on items that truly matter... Though some aspects are typical of Sweden, it provided an opportunity to knowing more about the country and its culture from a native.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good for little hints and tips. Also good for end-of-life cleaning before death.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book has a few strange spots. But the overall plan is valuable and since the book is so short, it definitely is worth listening to. A lot of food for thought as well as practical tips.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book and very thoroughly written. As a minimalist for most of my life…I still learned things in here…especially about personal end of life clearing. I listened to the audio version. She has a very pleasant and soothing voice.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautiful book and great narrator, her soft voice was very appropriate. Thank you
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book the audible, digital or hardback version of the best decluttering, organisational and to the point books on the market. There is no selling, marketing or advertising; there's no gimmick! Just practical advice on how and why you need to get your chaos under control! I, however, as an American am not fond of the recipes no matter how simple.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Concise and sweet explanation of Swedish death cleaning. Definitely worth reading to add enormous value to your everyday life and your loved ones
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Such good advice! Wish I wold have read this before my grandparents passed.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I found this book touching and funny in addition to instructive. Charming for a self help book.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I really enjoyed this book and it gave me a really good thing to think about. Who wants my junk when I die? It's not junk to me. It's things I love and that make me happy. Things that hold sentimental value to me. But to others, it will just be junk. I don't wish to pass away soon, but when I do, I dont want my loved ones dealing with more than they need. Why have to mourn and get rid of junk when I can't make it easier now.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sweet gentle book filled with encouragement, motivation and praise to begin decluttering. This book found me while I was watching cleaning blogs on YouTube. I didn't want to stop the story, but must now begin decluttering my home.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I’m in my 40s and just moved. The task of organizing felt daunting until I listened to this book. Now I feel relief and joy to do this work.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I went into this expecting a philosophical approach to downsizing I could apply to my (distinctly not end of) life. However, since it focus more on things like what to save for your children and the like, I didn't get a lot from it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning “death” and städning meaning “cleaning.” This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. Her radical and joyous method for putting things in order helps families broach sensitive conversations, and makes the process uplifting rather than overwhelming.Margareta suggests which possessions you can easily get rid of (unworn clothes, unwanted presents, more plates than you’d ever use) and which you might want to keep (photographs, love letters, a few of your children’s art projects). Digging into her late husband’s tool shed, and her own secret drawer of vices, Margareta introduces an element of fun to a potentially daunting task. Along the way readers get a glimpse into her life in Sweden, and also become more comfortable with the idea of letting go.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The book basically just says get rid of your stuff before you die so your loved ones/other people don’t have to deal with your junk. It’s very light on strategy. But it’s nicely written.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/54 stars from me but not for the tips and advice. Decluttering has been done to death over recent years and Margareta Magnusson hasn’t really come up with anything new. However, the whole point of decluttering, to her mind, is to get it done so that the job isn’t left to your spouse or children after your death! Very sensible idea if you ask me! My eldest daughter has already made comment to this effect “I’m going to have to deal with - all this - one day, you realise”. Don’t tell her I’ve told you this!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I enjoyed this. There's not much here that isn't common sense, but it's written very well.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I love to listen to books that will help me to be better at something and I love to do that while cleaning, thus this book called to me. I will say I was disappointed. Other than it being a spin on my quarterly big cleans, I really didn't glean any cleaning tips. These tips were more about the emotional, or in this case lessening of emotions, when getting rid of things. I do this anyway but maybe others would find occasional learning moments in the book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Helped me to communicate with my grandma, who is a hoarder. Worth 5 stars just for that, but also a good read and as it says, very gentle.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This gentle book tells gentle stories from the author's life and how death cleaning became important to her. She writes about how she came to understand the need for reducing possessions, particularly when she had to go through households after the deaths of several loved ones and when she had to downsize and move to a smaller home. However she does not provide specific ideas, methodology or tips that are not generally known. The stories are interesting but the book was not useful to me. Some of her suggestions are counter productive. One suggestion that I particularly dislike is to give your unwanted items and knick knacks to others as hostess gifts or to relatives when they come to visit. It seems if you don't want to keep an item then you should not gift it to others unless they have specifically expressed strong interest in it. Otherwise you are just transferring your stuff to someone else's death cleaning pile. The truth that she tells is that if you don't do your own death cleaning and thereby show your heirs what is important to you then, once you die, it is likely everything will just be hauled away in a big truck because no-one will have the time or knowledge to winnow out the important items. The other truth she tells is that we should share our cherished stories now with our children and grand children rather than hope they will appreciate our items after we are gone.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sometimes I think it must have been much easier to live and die at the time of our ancestors, the Vikings. When they buried their relatives, they also buried many objects together with the body. This was to be sure that the dead would not miss anything in their new environment. It was also an assurance for the family members who remained that they would not become obsessed with spirits of the dead and constantly be reminded of them because their possessions were still scattered all over the tent or mud hut. Very clever.Can you imagine the same scenario today? With all the skräp (Swedish for “junk”) people have now, they would have to be buried in Olympic-sized swimming pools so that their stuff could go with them!Swedish death cleaning is a way of decluttering your possessions in advance of your death, so that you do not leave it all for your heirs to do. If you do not want to pass on loved furniture or other items to your friends and relations now, you can make a list or label items with the name of the person you would like to have them after your death.But if you're famous, maybe you shoudn't do too much death cleaning, or scholars won't have anything to work with when trying to write about you later on. Incidentally, I discovered that Ingmar Bergman thought about his death all the time, as is evident in some of his films, but didn't bother to do any death cleaning. In Stockholm we now have a huge Ingmar Bergman archive as a result.Interesting idea. I must try it at some point.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Charming, meandering, and slightly dotty Nordic alternative to awful Marie Kondo.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is hilarious and fascinating. It's not just a book on getting rid of stuff you don't need so your relatives won't be saddled with doing it for you. It's about Swedish culture, raising a family around the world in the 20th century, and the Magnusson family. I read it in what my brain thinks is a Swedish Grandma Accent and it made sentences like this, from the "If It Was Your Secret, Then Keep It That Way" chapter, the best thing ever: "Save your favorite dildo - but throw away the other fifteen!"
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5„Manchmal muss man sich von liebgewonnenen Dingen trennen und kann nur hoffen, dass sie bei jemandem landen, der bald eigene schöne Erinnerungen damit verbindet.“ (Zitat Seite 57)Inhalt:Die Schweden haben ein eigenes Wort dafür: döstädning, das Aufräumen des Lebens. Genau darum geht es in diesem Buch. Wir Menschen neigen dazu, nicht nur Erinnerungen, sondern auch Dinge zu sammeln, aufzubewahren. Wir alle tun dies, einerseits, weil wir vermuten, einen Gegenstand, der noch in Ordnung ist, vielleicht doch irgendwann wieder brauchen zu können, andererseits, weil uns etwas gefällt, wir es gerne in unserem Wohnraum haben, um uns daran zu erfreuen. Im Laufe des Lebens sammelt sich da vieles an, Hausrat, Erinnerungsstücke und auch Dachboden, Keller, Garage und Werkzeugschuppen füllen sich. Genau über diese Situation machte sich die Autorin Gedanken und begann mit dem Sortieren und Aufräumen. Ihre Erfahrungen und Tipps hat sie in diesem Buch gesammelt.Thema:In diesem Buch geht es darum, wie wir besser Ordnung halten können und was man speziell mit fortschreitenden Alter tun kann, um den Nachkommen eines Tages ein langwieriges Auflösen des Haushaltes zu ersparen oder dies wenigstens zu erleichtern. Eine Möglichkeit dazu ergibt sich, wenn man ohnedies aus einer großen Wohnung oder Haus in eine kleinere Wohnung zieht. Doch im Grunde ist es jederzeit sinnvoll, den persönlichen Besitz in Ruhe durchzusehen, sich zu erinnern und dann loszulassen – oder den einen oder anderen Gegenstand bewusst zu behalten. In kurzen, übersichtlichen Kapiteln spannt die Autorin den Bogen ihrer Themen, vom Möbelstück über Bücher bis zu Küchenutensilien in mehrfacher Ausführung. Auch Haustiere sind ein Thema. Viele unterschiedliche Anregungen und Tipps sorgen dafür, dass Leserinnern und Leser die jeweils für die persönliche Situation passenden Ideen und Vorschläge finden. Anders als bei diesem Thema vielleicht vermutet, handelt es sich hier keineswegs um ein trauriges Buch, sondern die Autorin schreibt mit viel Einfühlungsvermögen, lebensbejahend und humorvoll. Fazit:„Nach ihrem Tod wird niemand seine kostbare Zeit damit verschwenden müssen, den Krempel zu entsorgen, den Sie schon jetzt nicht mehr benötigen.“ (Zitat Seite 155). Dieses praktische, humorvolle Buch ist für alle Leser, die diese Ansicht teilen.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If you're looking for a how-to manual on decluttering your house in preparation of your own eventual demise, this is not that book.
If you want a book that has a strong impression of being a cozy chat with a grandmother who offers you tea and says semi-scandalous things while you chortle over a biscuit, this is that book.
With a wry, sometimes delightfully passive-aggressive tone, Margareta shares her life wisdom with a gentle and often funny meandering book. The whole book was like wrapping yourself in a warm quilt and spending time with a loved one.