Swedish Death Cleaning: What It Is and How It Helps

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Swedish artist and author Margareta Magnusson released her New York Times Bestseller, “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning,” in 2017. Together with the television adaptation in 2023, it has popularized a long-held Swedish term, ‘döstädning städning,’ which translates directly to death cleaning in English.

So what is Swedish death cleaning, and is it as ominous as it first appears? 

What Is Swedish Death Cleaning?

Simply put, death cleaning is the art of decluttering a household before you die. However, you needn’t leave the cleaning until you’re on death’s door. In fact, it’s better to do it as soon as possible so that others aren’t left with the task if you pass over from this mortal coil.

There’s nothing ominous or morbid about the term. It is, in essence, a way of encouraging minimalist living by only holding on to possessions you use and discarding those you don’t. You know, like those clothes you’ve had hanging in your closet for years and never wear. 

What about the small appliances stacked up on your kitchen counter, as there’s no place left in the cupboard to store them? Once done with Swedish death cleaning, there’ll be space for multi-functional storage on your counter to maximize your freed-up area and its functionality.

How Does Swedish Death Cleaning Help?

Besides giving you more space to move, death cleaning is beneficial in other ways. For starters, if you did happen to cross the great divide between life and death, your family and loved ones can get on with the grieving process instead of having to sort through piles of unwanted or unnecessary memories that only make your loss more difficult. 

That could be decades away, so consider how death cleaning can improve your life and state of mind while you’re still around. You’ll have a cleaner and tidier home, and life will be easier as you won’t have to sift through mountains of clutter searching for the one item you truly need. If you’ve already eliminated unnecessary items, you’ll better understand where the needed ones are, saving yourself time and stress.

A cluttered home can cause you untold stress and anxiety. Swedish death cleaning can create a more peaceful living environment while assisting your focus, boosting creativity, and even improving your sleep quality and patterns. A bedroom overrun with unnecessary clutter can make relaxing there more challenging. 

Your self-esteem could also suffer. Nobody wants visitors arriving at a cluttered house, as it’s embarrassing and could elicit feelings of shame. How often have you apologized to guests because of your mess at home? It’s a common occurrence, although often for no real reason. Swedish death cleaning helps to restore a sense of pride in your living conditions and environment.

What to Do and Where to Start

It can be overwhelming to do a spring or deep clean at home, so death cleaning’s requirement to part with unneeded items might seem even more harrowing. It’s straightforward if you’re willing to stick to the Swedish philosophy and not second-guess yourself.

The Swedish death cleaning process operates according to a dedicated checklist, which tells you where to start and how to sort your items. Starting with your clothing, you’ll move systematically through each type of item rather than sorting different clutter simultaneously. However, before you start, you should tell your loved ones what you’re about to do and why you’re doing it.

Clothing, Shoes and Accessories

Start with your clothes and other wearable items as you have a clearer idea of what you use or don’t. If you’re finding getting started daunting, lighten the mood and the load by inviting a friend over to help you and tempting them with a bottle of wine, which could be the dealmaker!

Move through your closets, sorting their contents into piles of which you’ll keep and which you won’t. Don’t make a “maybe” pile — if you’re unsure, add it straight to the unneeded pile. When you finish the hanging space, move on to the drawers and the shoe compartment. Finally, deal with your accessories, jewelry, makeup, and perfumes.

Once you’ve sorted everything, take the pile you intend to keep and try the items on. If they don’t fit, you know what to do — increase your unneeded pile further. After that, pack your closet neatly with clothes, shoes and accessories you’re keeping. 

With whatever’s still left outside your closet, decide whether to sell, donate to charity or offer to family and friends and separate them accordingly. If there are many items you want to sell, maybe store them until you’ve completed your Swedish death cleaning and advertise to build interest for a yard sale in the future. After you arrange for their redistribution, step one is complete.

Furniture, Appliances, Kitchen Items and Ornaments

Begin the same process again with the most prominent items that take up space. Deciding whether to keep or part with your furniture and appliances should be easy. If you have an old couch you’ve meant to get rid of for years, now is the time. Maybe you’ve got a chest freezer that’s sat empty for months — it has to go. 

From the space-taking items, move through to smaller ones. Include your kitchen, bathroom and guest room cupboards with the pantry in your sorting endeavors. You’ll be amazed at some stuff you didn’t realize you still owned! As you did with your clothing, put every item in a pile. If you want to save time, add each to a separate pile for keeping, disposal, donation and selling immediately. Follow the same procedure as you had with your wearables and pack everything you’re keeping back into cupboards or onto shelves. Then, arrange to part with the rest.

Paperwork and Digital Files

Do you remember the reason the Swedes call this death cleaning? Sorting through your paperwork and digital files is essential when preparing your family for a potential future life without you. You must ensure the safety and accessibility of your will and crucial financial information like bank statements and policies. Locate these and any other important documentation as you sort through and update anything where required.

You don’t need the 2010 Sears catalog or that Chinese takeaway menu. Add them to your financial statements from 1999 and recycle them. File your essential documents and let your family members know where to locate them. Then move on to your computers.

As much as physical clutter in a home can cause headaches, so can overloaded hard drives. Take time to sort through your document folders and delete anything you don’t use or will not use in the future. Clear up your bookmarks and uninstall any unneeded programs. Make a note of any critical passwords, like bank account and phone pins, and file these safely with your other essential paperwork. Remember to update these should you change anything later.

Don’t Wait to Swedish Death Clean

You’re likely still very much alive, but that’s no excuse to delay getting your house in order. Literally. You will feel so much better knowing that you’ve prepared for any eventualities and that your family and other loved ones will be better off in the event of your untimely passing.

That alone is a weight off your shoulders, and clearing up your clutter will further improve your moods, stress levels and overall quality of life. Margareta Magnusson has done many a service by making the Swedish death cleaning principle available to the rest of the world.