Have you heard about this? As I understand it, there is a tradition in Sweden, verified by the existence of a single word in the Swedish language that means the cleaning and decluttering done by a person who believes that their life is close to the end, of culling your worldly possessions to a manageable amount of meaningful or immediately useful items before you die. Or something like that. I’m not sure if this is an actual Swedish tradition or merely something we’ve all suddenly started talking about here in the U.S. Either way, it’s an interesting idea. You can read more about it here and here.
I’m certainly not opposed to the idea behind Death Cleaning. However, it seems to me to be the same as the idea behind Spring Cleaning, or behind the “Decluttering” advice, which you can read about here and here. The only difference I can see is that Swedish Death Cleaning is for people who never got around to Spring Cleaning or Decluttering. Same thing, just pushed to the last minute. Maybe, at its heart, Swedish Death Cleaning is the ultimate proof of hardcore procrastination versus your ordinary, garden variety procrastination.
And finally, remember that unless your death cleaning results in throwing every single one of your possessions, you’ll still need a will. (Had to get that plug in, because taking care of adult business always includes paperwork!)