"Swedish Death Cleaning" (it really works... BUT CAN WE DO IT?)

today we find treasures that have been passed down generation after generation but have been sitting in an attic for over 25 years we're here today helping some friends declutter some sentimental items and my mom is going to help declutter today yes our friends asked us to come over and help them declutter some sentimental items that had been held onto for a long time and passed down through the generations we were told it would be very interesting because even they were unsure of what was in these boxes since they had been packed up since 1993. this really is swedish death cleaning because the whole point of decluttering these items is because they do not want to pass these down to their children who have made it clear that they don't want them the author says if you care for your loved ones then it's only fair to spare them the emotional and physical burden of cleaning up your stuff they've just pulled down two boxes and we are going to just take everything out see what is in here because that's something that was mentioned that they're not sure what is in here exactly and sort it and just see what they want to keep and what they might want to get rid of made in occupied japan so even though it has a chip in it it probably could be worth something one option would be to sell it we decided to start with two boxes because there were so many that we didn't want to be overwhelmed but as we were unwrapping some items we were being told the story of how they got all of these so suddenly the nice thing about swedish death cleaning is it does allow you to go through and think of all the stories that the items remind you of going through this is very emotional for people now we're both gonna cry but even you know even though i didn't lose anybody going through this stuff well i did my grandparents died of course because they were old but going through my stuff even though it wasn't about someone leaving early it was still emotional because it's somebody who had a life it was their stuff it's very emotional no i got you no crying this is a good thing now we're both crying we're not crying after hearing the story and now i'm making your videos cry the story of all of this stuff is it was handed down their mother passed away he had to go up pick up all the stuff and bring it here and at the time was too emotional to go through any of it which i can completely understand and this was 1993-92 92-93 this has all just been up in the attic and that's what we're going through now but after hearing that story both of us are getting very emotional we have officially decluttered one item this candelabra was broken and he is willing to let that go we've emptied out two bins here this is the contents we have silver some china and some random christmas decorations and my mom wants to say something i forgot what are they gonna say i don't know you're like let's turn the camera on i gotta say something [Music] [Laughter] can we go through this what do you feel about this not much not much okay no i mean it's not something i'm that familiar with we decided to start with going through the christmas ornaments these were not something that he was familiar with but a few of them he did recognize but there was no sentimental meaning there he ended up saving about three christmas ornaments out of the whole box and i like to start with something easy like christmas ornaments because there isn't a huge attachment to those in most cases and this was a good way to get the ball rolling and get started with this decluttering project since these ornaments were homemade there was no real value to them which made it easier to let them go there are so many treasures that we're about to find but first i want to mention today's sponsor audible i'm currently listening to keep the memories lose the stuff declutter downsize and move forward with your life by matt paxton he helps you sift through years of clutter to let go of what no longer serves you and identify the items worth keeping i love listening to inspirational books about simple living and audible is the best place to listen for whatever you're interested in as an audible member you can choose one title a month to keep from their entire catalog including the latest bestsellers and new releases anytime i'm doing an activity where i can listen to a book i love that because i'm getting two things done at once all audible members now also get access to a growing selection of titles included with membership that you can listen to all you want the selection includes audio books audible originals and podcasts that i love and more get added every month new members can try audible free for 30 days visit audible.com shannon torrens or text shannon torrance to 500 500 and let audible help you discover new ways to laugh be inspired or be entertained so this can go okay start pointing to things either you want to keep or go okay so what about this and one grace yeah that's that's for the hometown about the candy dish i don't need it it's not any antique okay do you went to a thrift store right now do you see all this stuff for years these items were stored away in fear that it would make them too emotional all the things he's deciding to keep we're just putting in this box for now but as we started to sort through things he realized that a lot of these things were not really sentimental and he didn't remember them and he was able to get rid of more and more as time went on the biggest obstacle as we were going through the items was the fear that something would be worth something and that it would be of some historical value so that was really slowing us down because we wanted to look all these items up so they went into a maybe box this is one of the big differences between swedish death cleaning and normal decluttering because a lot of these items have been in family members lives for a really long time and it just takes longer to figure out what to do with them and also to make sure that you are not leaving this burden of going through things to your family later on he decided to get rid of all the china but keep an example of each one one is from japan and one is from germany everything in here is going to be given away it's some dishes ornaments and glass we've set aside all the silver to look it up and see if it's worth anything to sell or give to a vintage store do you want this it doesn't mean anything to you or those trays okay what about this so that can go and this can go yeah and then what about the head it can go so this is the box that's going to go do you want to keep this i'm going to keep that okay that's the only thing i know what is this this is an old-fashioned coffee grinder i think you have a new thing to do in the morning then you can alright they're not functional we have an extra bin now ebay is a great place to look for things to see if they are worth some money or have historical value and we were looking a few items up but this is a very time consuming thing to do and we had to leave it with them to finish there were quite a few treasures it was almost like opening a time capsule sometimes and seeing these old things that were hard for him to get rid of there are many dishes in holland there are many dishes in this house as well as we went through more and more boxes there was a lifetime of saving things like old newspapers and some yearbooks from college the good thing about swedish death cleaning is it allows you to pull everything down look through it while you are decluttering it reminisce and pick out the things you might want to keep for the rest of your life but then get rid of the rest because it doesn't mean anything to anybody else we were able to declutter two large plastic bins of stuff and then these are the items he decided to keep today was all about pulling out some stuff that had never been gone through for 30 years or more going through it we were able to help him get rid of a whole box of things that he no longer needed didn't feel any emotional attachment to and we have another large box of silver for the whole family to look up and take to an antique place yeah and that was your suggestion yes unless you really want to keep it i would say see if there's any value so you can sell it and then if not just give it to a thrift store let them deal with it or an antique store that takes where people are looking for and yeah things right i think it was a really positive experience today yeah for him to go through everything and and it was a really good thing to get rid of one box because we yeah we were under the impression that maybe we wouldn't even be able to get rid of anything the thing that holds people back is that they think things have value they have emotional value and then you deal with that however you need to but a lot of times we think things are really valuable when they're not and i've learned that with my decluttering and sometimes it's just not worth it to try to sell it unless you really just want to spend a lot of time researching selling on ebay but if not a lot of times it's easier just to give it away and that comes with inheriting all the things yes right because it's not necessarily stuff that you went out and wanted and bought it just came to you all of a sudden one day yeah you got a whole house full of things yeah it's hard too when you get all those items at once to not be emotionally attached to those items thinking everything's worth something yeah that was the challenge we had today and you feel like you owe it to the person who passed on to be responsible for their things obviously if it meant a lot to them then it should mean a lot to you and you should find or save it forever out of their out of respect to them but you have to really cut that and i want to say really quick that that's one thing that i'm really thankful that you're going through your stuff with me and by yourself because if i inherited all of your things in one day i would also feel that burden of was this something super important to you that i needed to keep or cherish what is important so it's nice to declutter together we've done the swedish death cleaning and a lot of decluttering where you have told me that doesn't mean anything or this was my grandma's and it does mean something so then i can decide later if i want to keep it and have it in my house because the person i'm helping today his children now will know what was important and what wasn't important yeah and it's good to if you have the history of the item put connect the history to it put a note inside a dish or something and if you really don't know the history but you think it's important just get rid of it it's my opinion there's too much stuff i want to highlight a few points between the difference of swedish death cleaning versus decluttering swedish death cleaning started in 2017 with a book it's all about how to free your family and yourself from a lifetime of clutter and regular decluttering has little to do with thinking about what you are leaving behind and more to do with how your daily life is going and how the clutter is affecting you in your daily life with swedish death cleaning the author suggests to start decluttering at the age of 65 because you want to be physically able to go through all of your things and have time to enjoy what those things have meant to you throughout your life enjoy all of those memories that come to mind as you're going through your items and when it comes to regular decluttering you can do this at any time because again it is not really about the memories necessarily although it can be but it is more about getting rid of the items that you don't really need in your home what's interesting about the swedish death cleaning method is it is not sad or morbid as most people tend to say when they read the cover of the book and they see the title it is more about enjoying the items before you get rid of them maybe handing them down to someone that you think would appreciate the item realizing how it came into your life and what it was used for think about who can enjoy it now regular decluttering is more about clearing out the junk you never really needed or the extra stuff that just creates a lot of clutter with swedish death cleaning the author suggests to gift items to family members that would appreciate these things and tell them the story of the item while you still remember it and this is something that my grandma did before they passed away they had to downsize their home and move into a one bedroom place and they went through all of their things and they wrote little notes telling us all about the item and who it was from what family member had given it to them and they gave us those items and of course we still have a lot of those items today swedish death cleaning does not only apply to the end of life it can also apply to downsizing homes a change in lifestyle cleaning out after a family member has passed away or any sort of huge lifestyle change that could be divorce or moving and it's just going through everything and getting through those things that you no longer need or you could pass on to somebody else there are also a lot of similarities when it comes to swedish death cleaning and regular decluttering and one of them is when to start and it could be when you find it hard to close a drawer or when you're home is always a mess and you just can't seem to stay on top of it another similarity that the author with swedish death cleaning suggests is where to start and in most decluttering tutorials they always say to start with the easiest areas so definitely save all of the sentimental items to the very end to go through and start with the easy places like the kitchen or maybe your closet in the con mari way of decluttering she suggests to ask yourself if the item brings you joy and in the swedish death cleaning book she suggests to ask yourself will anyone be happier if i save this so for instance if you're saving diaries that tell way too many personal things or talk about other people is that going to bring happiness to someone who finds those after you have already passed on and another similarity among all decluttering systems including the swedish death system is to reward yourself when you're done going through everything and this could be a reward by going somewhere you love taking a vacation going out to dinner and just not buying more stuff as a reward but just enjoying your time doing something that you love well i just figure we'll probably probably be back here maybe to help because there's a lot to go through we're willing to help definitely if we can and i think we did at least get the ball rolling high five we got it started bam

Channel: Shannon Torrens

Views: 67,997

Keywords: swedish death cleaning, how to declutter, I tried Swedish Death Cleaning, (and, it, worked!), doitonadime, decluttering swedish death cleaning, death cleaning, konmari method, declutter before its too late, Decluttering with Swedish Death Cleaning - Don't Burden Your Family, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, Swedish Death Cleaning: What age should we start?, The Swedish phenomenon of de-cluttering before you die, Swedish Death Cleaning, (it, really, works..., BUT, CAN, WE, DO, IT?)

Id: DaASvizyAlE

Length: 15min 57sec (957 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 29 2022