our take on Swedish death cleaning

Written By Emily Van Orden

While it seems morbid, Swedish Death Cleaning (SDC) is far from it. SDC is a form of minimizing that brings about a life of beauty, intention, and unselfish living. When you use the principles of SDC, you start to see your environment and lifestyle differently. You start to see making memories and leaving a legacy as high priorities instead of amassing great amounts of possessions. Each item you purchase and bring into your home is something that you will leave behind for someone else to deal with. What you leave behind also tells a story of who you were when you went through your life. This will be your legacy.

Swedish Death Cleaning is not a one-and-done process. It is a lifestyle decision. Focusing on what truly matters frees you up to create memories, learn new skills, enjoy travel, or any other things in life that can truly be taken with you when you leave this life. It also brings peace to your posterity, knowing that everything in your estate already has a home, the financials and legal documents are taken care of, your end-of-life planning is already paid for and organized, and nothing ends in the hassle of probate and tax burdens. Your family will have the blessing of remembering and mourning you instead of dealing with all of your belongings. Leaving no direction for your family at this time adds to their burden of emotion at such a hard time in their lives. SDC takes this burden away.

How is this done? In this blog, we will take you through the process. It is not a sprint but a marathon. You will adopt ideas and habits that may not come naturally to you. Following is a sample list of topics that we will be covering as we start this journey together:

  • What do your environment and your belongings say about you?

  • What do you want your legacy to be?

  • Room by Room, minimizing the SDC way

  • What to do with your belongings

  • What to do about your estate

  • What papers and documents should you keep?

  • Digital files

  • Photographs

  • Memorabilia

  • Collections

  • How to plan for your own funeral arrangements

We are in this together. We are continually following this process and learning new ideas to pass on to you as we also complete our journey.

Emily Van Orden