Clearing out the Stuff…

By: Stephanie Andrews

 

So sorry for my absence over the past few weeks!  It has been a busy summer already, with work, family and friends and home life.  Sadly, there have also been a couple of funerals of the fathers of 2 very dear friends.  Seeing their profound grief, reminds me how short life really is.  I have had a hard time writing this blog, because I was not sure how to approach the subject of death.  I usually shy away from this subject in most ways, but I also wanted to share some thoughts regarding this difficult subject.   The truth is that we will all go through this process in one way or another.

 

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson

This blog also coincides with a book that I happened to recently pick up: The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnussen.  Margareta wrote this book when she was in her 90’s, after her husband died.  She was downsizing and she shares her process, as only a witty Swedish grandmother can.  She explains her slow, intentional process as almost a meditation of her life and a way to give away special items to family and friends by telling them a story of the item.  Then she donated or let go of the rest of the items on her timeline. She wanted to do this process while she was still alive, so that she could find the perfect home for some treasures as well as share the stories with loved ones. I am inspired by Margareta’s straightforward process and it made me think of my own home.

Sometimes at night I will sit in the stillness and simplicity of our Japanese Garden

If you know me well, you may know that I am not a very sentimental person.  I have two very special items from my grandparents, and if there was a fire, I would grab a very long coffee table (if I could lift it!).  Gifts are not really my love language (words of affirmation) and though my home is very comfortable, it is very intentional and fairly simple.  I am also blessed to have a very organized husband.  This guy organizes our pantry, fridge, linen closet, and garage just for fun. My  “death cleaning” needs are not huge, but there are a few areas that seem important.  In particular, my closet and my papers to start.  (I really struggle with the paper part).

I do not wish for this to be a de-cluttering blog (even though it probably is), I would rather pose some personal questions that may also resonate with you.  How do I consider simplicity, quality and balance in my home and in this process?  How do I do this clearing process consistently throughout the year?  What do the experts say about the paper clutter struggle?

So let me get started, figuratively, in this blog post.  Starting with my closet seems like an easier task than the paper part, so I will start here.  I feel pretty good about what I need to do in my closet!  Since going to Japan and buying the most high quality clothes that I have ever seen, I think that this may be easy, I am going to focus on quality!  I also think that I need to sort through the small stuff and let go of oodles of extra socks, underwear and workout gear.  The Japanese culture of minimalistic spaces and high quality truly inspires me.  https://designpulp.net/how-a-trip-to-japan-helped-shape-my-design-philosophy/

Okay, I have consulted an expert (chat GPT) to explore my paper problem.  First let me define the problem-every day in my mailbox, I get more paper-mainly bills, statements and sometimes fun things like invitations, and every day I get a ridiculous amount of catalogs.  Not only do I get catalogs, but almost everyone on our team gets the same catalogs delivered to my home and our business.  Yes, I am talking to you, RH! Grrr… I do have a recycling bin right under my mailbox, so that manages many catalogues.  Of course, Chat GPT, being the brilliant scholar, has given me the most obvious answers, which I am not going to share, because we have heard them before.

One thing that the scholar mentioned is something that has been something that I have been noodling in my head to build for myself-a place to manage where I put the mail when it comes in.  This needs to be easy to not have mail piling up on my dining table, my husband’s desk or our kitchen counters. I will call this solution Command Central.  I found the plans to solve this problem in a book by Terrance Conran-Plain Simple Useful-the essence of Conran Style.

Project #2 in this book is called a stationary cupboard.  I may have been looking for this solution my entire life.  Due to copyright infringement issues, I cannot share his beautiful pictures, but if you consult amazon, you can see this beautiful simple piece.  I think I will customize the size to fit my small home and then see if I can get my carpenter to build it for me. Stay tuned.

Ed and I on the ferry in Turkey

So this post did become much more organizationally oriented than philosophical.  I will conclude with something deeper.  I am slowing down in my home and in my life to celebrate those I love and spend time with them.  I am creating moments to talk of deeper stories of memories and life, and I am relishing those stories.  My husband and I are going through our “stuff”  so that hopefully our family won’t feel overwhelmed  with going through it at the end of our days.  And maybe these talks of death, and life won’t feel so daunting.