angelarenea9
Written on Jul 28, 2022
Doestadning, or the art of death cleaning, is a Swedish phenomenon by which the elderly and their families set their affairs in order. Whether it's sorting the family heirlooms from the junk, downsizing to a smaller place, or setting up a system to help you stop misplacing your keys, death cleaning gives us the chance to make the later years of our lives as comfortable and stress-free as possible. Whatever your age, Swedish death cleaning can be used to help you de-clutter your life, and take stock of what's important.
Margareta Magnusson has death cleaned for herself and for many others. Radical and joyous, her guide is an invigorating, touching and surprising process that can help you or someone you love immeasurably, and offers the chance to celebrate and reflect on all the tiny joys that make up a long life along the way.
- ISBN10 1501173243
- ISBN13 9781501173240
- Publish Date 2 January 2018 (first published 19 October 2017)
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Scribner Book Company
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 128
- Language English
Reviews
adamfortuna
Written on Apr 15, 2019
Having gone through my moms things when she passed (and she went through her moms things when she passed), this concept is quite prominent for me. For those who have never had the misfortunate of sorting through a loved ones life, it's a heavy burden to bear. Finding time to slim down pays dividends now for the living, and later for those still alive.
Angie
Written on Nov 11, 2018
🖤
“Save your favorite dildo—but throw away the other fifteen!
annieb123
Written on Aug 7, 2017
Her writing style is humorous and wry and delightful. The author talks frankly about getting rid of things which tie us down and smother us in belongings/junk/stuff.
In that manner, this book reminds me a lot of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Interestingly enough, both books seem to me to be indelibly imprinted with the culture and background of the authors. This book is peppered with words and concepts from Swedish just as TL-CMoTU has a lot of the character of Japanese living philosophy intertwined in it.
Both books are more philosophy than hands-on 'how to' books. This one is a lot more down to earth and in my opinion more practical and includes less 'woo'/new age catchphrases.
Speaking specifically of this book, the philosophy of facing head-on that, frankly, we're all going to shuffle off and die at some point and streamlining our stuff before that inevitability is just going to make us more relieved and our heirs happier is important. It could have been very dark and depressing, but Margareta (self stated age between 80 and 100 :) does it with wit and panache. She's fearless in her writing, for example talking about dealing with ones dildo collection (keep one favorite, get rid of the other 15).
If I have a complaint, it's that the writing is a continuous stream of consciousness conversation, interspersed with personal reminiscences, and as a result is fairly choppy in some ways. The book is also fairly clearly written by an author whose first language isn't English. In this case, it suits the theme of the book and concepts which don't have clear equivalents in English are left with the Swedish word and a near-equivalent in English.
I really enjoyed it a lot.
Three and a half stars
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.