“Swedish Death Cleaning” my way to new studio and office spaces

The term “Swedish Death Cleaning” sounds morbid – especially considering its actual meaning. I’m no expert on the subject, but if I understand it correctly, it describes a decluttering process where the elderly purge their excess belongings so others left behind after they die don’t have to deal with their junk nobody really wants. Many who employ this technique try to find suitable homes for stuff they no longer need, or recycle it so it does not just end up in some giant trash heap. I am one of those people who hates to throw away anything that can be fixed if broken, then reused, repurposed, or rehomed.

I did not start out with the intention of doing anything remotely like “Swedish Death Cleaning” when I contemplated turning two unused bedrooms into dedicated office and studio space. My current studio space had become an absolute wreck after a failed attempt to share studio space remotely at my sister’s house. Things I’d gradually taken over there during the span of a couple months suddenly had to be hauled back in one day to accommodate temporary house guests, and the chaos that resulted from helter-skelter packing and transporting art and craft supplies left my studio area in an unusable mess consisting of hills of unidentified boxes and bags of stuff stacked randomly everywhere, with no room to maneuver between the piles. After an extended time avoiding the area, I realized I had to tackle that mess and get back to creating rather than dreading the thought of doing anything productive because of the horrendous cleanup that had to be done first.

Also for a while I’d been thinking about the need to do some general household decluttering. As a crafter, I tend to accumulate things I think might be useful in some way for some project I might want to undertake at some time in the future. With no specific project in mind, nearly every single thing I run across could be considered potentially useful crafting fodder – boxes, bags, old clothing, etc. You name it, I save it. As an artist, I tend to accumulate supplies – paints, sculpting tools, clay, etc. All this accumulating over the years has resulted in a mountain of clutter that has far outpaced my available space to organize and store it. Not to mention the normal overabundance of clutter accumulated after years of receiving well-meaning but unused gifts and acquiring items for several rounds of redecorating. Then there are the impulse buys that turned out not to fit right or work as well as expected. And let’s not mention collecting – I have several other blog posts about that topic alone.

Then hubby decided to “help” by dragging everything possible from every closet and nook and cranny in our house, and piling it all in the middle of our living room and kitchen, so we could go through it and finally rid ourselves of excess linens and plastic ware and other household stuff we didn’t use, need, or want. That’s when the whole process of moving/renovating my studio/office became a real nightmare. In the midst of moving furniture, selecting wall paint colors (always a difficult decision for me), and ripping out carpet to install alternate floor covering delayed by supply problems, I also had to contend with a jumbled mountain of clutter representing a lifetime of things acquired, and decide what had to go.

The decision-making process in sorting and shedding a lifetime of accumulated stuff is much harder than one might imagine, especially if one happens to be gifted with the hoarder gene and unwavering core rationalizations like “I might need this,” or “A loved one gave me this, so I can’t get rid of it,” or “This cost me a lot of money, and I worked really hard for it,” or “This thing is so unique/cool/beautiful, how can I get rid of it?” This mindset is especially difficult to change when reinforced by hoarding behavior of family members in a capitalist society where corporate propaganda in the form of marketing has invaded every aspect of life with the mantra, “You must continue acquiring. Resistance is futile – and unAmerican.”

Fighting this capitalistic assault with tricks like asking yourself if an item “brings you joy” or adhering to rules like “get rid of one item for every item you bring in” doesn’t really help in my case of hardcore hoarding. I’m not so far gone that I have piles of old newspapers stacked to the ceiling in my living space, but I do have other stuff literally stacked to the ceiling in my garage. So I admit that I have a problem and am facing a nearly insurmountable challenge of letting things go. I have to completely overhaul my mindset in order to find a way to begin culling. I have to ask myself difficult questions like, “Are you ever really going to use this?” while recognizing the fact that sometimes priorities and goals change, along with the intended usage for things accumulated. Ultimately I have accepted the truth that I can’t take any of this stuff with me when I go to the great beyond, but even that admission isn’t very helpful when trying to decide what to keep for a while and what to get rid of right away. I’ve tried looking at it from the perspective of what is truly important – what would I pack in an emergency if I had to evacuate suddenly. But that’s a different kind of situation and just muddies the waters of figuring out what I have room to live with, and what I don’t. Amid all this mental ping-ponging, I fear my “Swedish Death Cleaning” project could be the death of me.

In this “do or die” situation, I’ve managed to compile a few guidelines to approach my dilemma of decision-making in letting go of stuff. These guidelines are so basic, they can be applied to almost any project or goal.

1. SET CLEAR GOALS of what you want to accomplish. Choose your accomplishment battles carefully and prioritize your goals. Start with the most essential goals, the ones most important to you. Achieving goals is so much easier if you actually decide and recognize what it is you want to achieve.
2. WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS AND YOUR PLANS TO ACHIEVE THEM. Writing down your goals and making plans with the necessary steps to follow in order to achieve your goals forces you to analyze the process of achievement so you understand what is required to accomplish the tasks or aspirations you set for yourself. A step-by-step plan is your set of directions to get where you want to go. Without recognized goals and plans to achieve them, you might as well be driving aimlessly around with no idea where you’re trying to go or how you’re going to get there (wherever “there” happens to be). Without clear direction, eventually you’ll run out of gas and end up stranded wherever the car stops. With a destination in mind and clear instructions to get where you want to go, you’ll be less likely to find yourself stranded or lost in life. And last but not least – committing your goals in writing with full-fledged plans to accomplish them won’t allow you to let them to hide in the back of your conscience, lurking but never coming forth to be dealt with.
3. DON’T OVERLOAD YOURSELF by trying to do everything all at once. When tackling a large project like total household decluttering, carve out and define pieces of the project you can do one part at a time. Start with a smaller chunk of the project – try reorganizing the dreaded junk drawer or thinning out unwanted clothing and accessories in an unorganized closet. Most people can’t handle major upheaval and chaos over an extended period of time in their normal day-to-day lives, but focusing on one small area is doable and can be resolved quickly. The success of dealing with a smaller part of a large project will create incentive to move on to the next part and enjoy even more success. This approach works well especially if you are short on time and can only do a little bit in a limited amount of time. Don’t be afraid to leave something unfinished so you can come back to it the next day – just be sure to come back and finish that small task. Successes both large and small are important to keep you motivated to accomplish your goals.
4. BE REALISTIC about your expectations and assessments. Take note of what you want, what you have on hand, what you need but don’t have, and ultimately what you think it will take to make your project a success in your eyes. Don’t be afraid to adjust your project expectations. For instance, if you have a fabulous mechanized rotating/folding shoe storage system in mind for your closet, but your closet doesn’t have enough space, or you don’t have the skill to build it yourself, or you don’t have the money to hire it done, consider a shoe storage system that will work within your means. (A nod here to the cult comedy classic movie “Overboard” starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, and cue the Nutcracker music!)
5. DON’T JUDGE YOUR SUCCESS BY THE BENCHMARK OF OTHERS. This is one of the most important guidelines. You cannot compare your goals to those of others, or compare your accomplishments to those of others. Your situation may seem similar, but trust me, there are always differences, even small ones, that can severely affect the outcomes of success. You may have naysayers in your life, but ultimately YOU are the one who must judge what “success” means to you. Stop listening to others who may try to dismiss your goals as unimportant. Those people may find no value in your goals, because those goals don’t fit with their lifestyle. Oftentimes they’ll diminish the significance of your accomplishments to make themselves feel superior. Get those people out of your life – nobody needs that. Focus on what makes YOU happy and what will improve YOUR life, and forget the rest of the static and nonsense. Focus on YOUR goals and let others focus on theirs. It’s OK to look at what others achieve, but NEVER think that your accomplishments aren’t meaningful because they aren’t exactly the same as what others appear to have accomplished.
6. DON’T GIVE UP. If you get sidetracked or start to lose hope that you’ll finish your (understandably overwhelming) project, repeat this mantra, “One step at a time,” or simply, “Keep at it, you’ll get there.” If you’re having trouble staying motivated despite your best efforts, ask yourself why. Have you tried to do too much at once? Do you need to break down your project into smaller more manageable pieces? Do you need to reassess your concept of “success” for this project and aim a little lower? Whatever you’re going through, it’s OK to take a little break from it and admit the silent awful truth, “I really don’t want to do this.” But every time you hear yourself thinking that, respond with, “Yes, but just imagine how much BETTER everything will be when this is finally done!”

If you’re on an odyssey similar to mine – total house decluttering “Swedish-Death”-style, I wish you the best of luck. I know I’ll need it. As a science-fiction fan, I like to overdramatize things a bit, and put them into earth-shattering perspectives. Right now, I’m looking at my whole-house-decluttering project as an inevitable approach to a black hole (you know, one of those giant toilet bowls in space that sucks everything in its path into a big swirly of nothingness). In this instance, I’m viewing the black hole as a wormhole that represents a transmutation trip to success – when I go through that transforming experience, I’ll come out on the other side in a much better state. I’m already at the “event horizon” where the gravitational pull is too strong for me to turn back, so I can only move forward. I know the wormhole experience is going to be painful. I just hope it doesn’t obliterate me in the process.

See you on the other side of success!