swedish-death-cleaning – Paula Kuitenbrouwer

After receiving positive feedback on my Swedish Death Cleaning for Artists & Writers & Swedish Death Cleaning Part 2, I offer a follow up article.

The motivation to minimize decoration and possessions and as such creating a more minimalist interior often comes from changed psychological preferences. Of course, interior design preferences changes throughout one’s lifetime. Collectively we are enormously influenced by IKEA’s promotion of Swedish minimalism and by Japanese minimalism. But we are equally influenced by fashions like clutter-core or vintage hoarding. Your interior depends on your style, budget, background, and psychology.

60 is the recommended age to start

At the age of 60 you start to look at your home through the eyes of your grown up child(ren) or those you have in mind inheriting your property. Although you still have many years to enjoy your place, you also need less. Add to this that your offspring has communicated directly or indirectly which possessions hold value to them (and the 90% which doesn’t) at which point you start to Swedish Death Clean.

Everything demands care

All your stuff demands care and time, and you start to evaluate whether that time and care is worth the object. Every single object you own demands your attention. That attention can be dusting off, daily hovering (carpet), or re-potting your plants.

Decluttering becomes a necessity when you like to reduce the time you spend taking care of your belongings and interior.

You want less objects on a table so that you can sweep it clean of dust within a second. You want less plants because they grow too fast and become thirty babies. You want transparent water droppers so that you do not have to take care of your plants every 3 days but every 7 or 10 days. Like employees say: “You shouldn’t work longer or harder, but smarter”.

Swedish Death Cleaning or decluttering creates a harmonious interior with a reasonable workload. If home keeping becomes a drag to you; you might want to do a serious round of Swedish Death Cleaning. It frees your living space from clutter and diminishes your time spend on chores.

Shame

I have always felt a bit embarrassed to talk about cleaning and decluttering and it took me some time to write about Swedish Death Cleaning. It feels not right to complain about having unnecessary stuff. But having pointless stuff does not mean you bought it all. You receive gifts, you inherit stuff, you are part of a chain of young families that helps each other with secondhand clothing and educational books. Having too much stuff does not even mean you have too much stuff. The need to declutter can come from a desire to live more ascetic. Decluttering feels a bit shameful because people might assume you are a hoarder or a materialist, or somebody not in control. I am neither a hoarder, nor a materialist or lacking control but still I feel that I can do with less. I still fall in love with minimalism deeper and deeper, aesthetically and artistically.

Talking about cleaning and decluttering is also embarrassingly boring! What can possibly be exciting about a conversation about decluttering? Unless you come up with engaging horror stories like a mice infested pantry, or insects gnawing away your precious antique, or a biblical flood thanks to your upstairs’ neighbour, forget about talking about decluttering.

Also, talking about Swedish Death Cleaning feels uncomfortable because of the notion of death. “Are you ill then?”, “No!”, “Why call it death cleaning then?”, ” Well, it is because it offers a method of decluttering that benefits not only you but also your descendants”. With decluttering you ask yourself whether to keep things (because you like them or find them beautiful), with Death Cleaning you take it one a step further and you ask yourself ‘Will my offspring like this or will it be a burden?’ Thus, we should talk about it freely.

ASPIRATION

I have felt that Swedish Death Cleaning is essentially not only about decluttering but equally about aspiration. It requires self-inquiry. At the age of 60 (or any other age), it is a good thing to evaluate one’s aspirations (or one’s bucket list, like Gen Z says). If there is still (and hopefully) 10-20-30 years ahead, how to go about these years? In my case, I question myself whether I will spend time on lithography? Or on Christmas card making? Most likely not, so these tools can go. Will I fancy needle art? Yes! So, all that colourful yarn stays. Free oneself of old aspirations and by doing this, one adds more focus on one’s life purpose.

Since Neolithic Times

There is nothing wrong with cleaning, decluttering, or death cleaning because we have done that since Neolithic times. (That is when we started to settle and take care of our homes and plots of land). We have added decorations to our houses for a very long time; adding cultural patterns and styles is a deeply ingrained tradition. Think of the Bell Beakers Culture, decorating their ceramics. Paintings go back even longer; prehistoric peoples left painted on walls of prehistoric caves. Apparently, we need the stories of our lives to be visible because that reminds us of who we are, what is important to us, and what we live for.

Decluttering therefore is not decadent and not embarrassing because one can even declutter having an ascetic or minimalist lifestyle. In fact, these lifestyles require constant decluttering.

Having done death cleaning, I see less (home keeping) work and that makes me happy because it frees time for nicer things in life.

Preparedness

I have come to see that as long as Japanese Minimalism and Scandinavian Lean throw inspiration to me, I feel motivated to create more space, more flow, and as such a more tolerable home-keeping workload. I therefore need these methodological interior fashions, these concepts of minimalism or lean, decluttering, or death cleaning. These cultural concepts make home keeping more like an inspiring project and not like a brainless, routine chore. Foreign concepts that are both practical and rewarding give home keeping some necessary oomph.

Swedish Death Cleaning is ongoing, like decluttering is. There is always a possibility to create a better flow (read Eva Jarlsdotter’s website and books on Scandinavian Lean).

The Next Concept?

I see the next concept already emerging in newspapers, in books, in political and societal discussion: preparedness. West European countries admire Finish preparedness for a possible invasion by Russia. West European countries have had such long post-war economic high conjecture (albeit a few recessions), these countries almost fell into a slumber when it comes to hardship preparedness. Now there are voices (and not only military ones) that advise citizens to be more prepared for calamities. (Study your local vulnerabilities: living near a river requires different preparedness than living near a chemical industrial complex ). It is not much to ask from citizens to have enough food, batteries, and warmth for three days. (Governments need three days to mobilize a response to disasters).

It won’t take long before cute books on ‘How to be more prepared’ will be available in bookshops and I will buy them. They will have Scandinavian names like Hygge or Lagom and these books will be cozily illustrated. Thanks to decluttering and death cleaning, I will have enough space for batteries, candles, food, and these new books.

Paula Kuitenbrouwer

Welcome to my website that is full of my art, art-musings, and more. I am Paula Kuitenbrouwer and I am a freehand-drawing & commission artist. Art is often seen as a luxury but when it comes to memorable events we are in need of art. Please, feel free discussing commissioned art with me. I was taught drawing and painting by Spanish-Dutch artist Charito Crahay and Dutch artist Johan Kolman. I have studied Philosophy at the University of Utrecht & Amsterdam; currently I live with my husband and daughter in the Netherlands. My art website is at www.paulakuitenbrouwer.com.