--- title: What Is Death Cleaning? description: Discover the Swedish tradition of death cleaning — and whether you should give it a try. canonical: https://time.com/5063275/death-cleaning/ author: Margareta Magnusson article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-03T16:18:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T08:44:06.424Z article:section: Ideas og:title: ‘Death Cleaning’ Is the New Marie Kondo. Should You Try It? og:description: How to get started og:url: https://time.com/5063275/death-cleaning/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55d67b4437940d93/6988f6ecab6d77cc0d6b1342/death-cleaning.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5760 og:image:height: 3240 og:image:alt: death-cleaning og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: ‘Death Cleaning’ Is the New Marie Kondo. Should You Try It? twitter:description: How to get started twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55d67b4437940d93/6988f6ecab6d77cc0d6b1342/death-cleaning.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # ‘Death Cleaning’ Is the New Marie Kondo. Should You Try It? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=23554797-346c-4cf1-8fa6-e00c959adc07&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME for Kids Interviews Marie Kondo [Watch (HLS stream): TIME for Kids Interviews Marie Kondo](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8Xs4XNy3.m3u8) (2:42)  _Published 2017-10-06. Two TIME for Kids reporters ask organization guru, Marie Kondo, how they can make their lives a little neater._ by [Margareta Magnusson](https://time.com/author/margareta-magnusson/) ## Margareta Magnusson Jan 3, 2018 4:18 PM UTC by [Margareta Magnusson](https://time.com/author/margareta-magnusson/) ## Margareta Magnusson Jan 3, 2018 4:18 PM UTC I am in the process of [death cleaning](http://time.com/4985533/death-cleaning-declutter/), or, as we call it in Swedish, _döstädning_. _Dö_ is “death” and _städning_ is “cleaning.” In Swedish it is a term that means that you remove unnecessary things and make your home nice and orderly when you think the time is coming closer for you to leave the planet. This is something that we will all have to face sooner or later. We really must if we want to save precious time for our loved ones after we are gone. Many adult children do not want to talk about death with their parents. They should not be afraid. We must all [talk about death](http://time.com/4441546/why-danish-parents-like-to-talk-about-death/). If it’s too hard to address, then death cleaning can be a way to start the conversation. So what is death cleaning? For me it means going through all my belongings and deciding how to [get rid of the things I do not want anymore](http://time.com/5027690/marie-kondo-tidying-up-with-kids/). Just look around you. Several of your things have probably been there for so long that you do not even see or value them anymore. Sometimes you just realize that you can hardly close your drawers or barely shut your closet door. When that happens, it is definitely time to do something, even if you are only in your thirties. You could call that kind of cleaning _döstädning_, too, even if you may be many, many years away from dying. I am now somewhere between eighty and one hundred years old. Today things are very different from when I was young, of course. I did not say _better_. But the pace today is very fast. Many young families have to schedule their lives down to the smallest increment to have time to do what they consider most important. Do not ever imagine that anyone will wish — or be able — to schedule time off to take care of what you didn’t bother to take care of yourself. No matter how much they love you, don’t leave this burden to them. How to begin?  Be aware of the fact that to downsize your home will take some time. Start by checking the basement or the attic or the cupboards by your front door. Many of the things you have in storage have probably been standing there for ages. You may even have forgotten what it is you have there. Good for you, because you will now realize that you will not miss anything if you throw it away. Visit these storage areas and start pulling out what’s hidden there. It may be a dollhouse or ice-hockey equipment, mostly things that you yourself did not want around anymore. Tell your loved ones and friends what you are up to. They might want to help you and even take things you don’t need and also help you to move things that you cannot move alone. You will see that a steady stream of people you like (or even dislike) will come to take things such as books, clothes, and utensils. Perhaps a grandchild or someone else you know is about to move into their first apartment. Invite them over and you can show them your things and chat about them, telling them stories about the objects (or perhaps even your life) that they do not know. Meanwhile, have some bags and boxes at hand that you can fill while you are chatting, so they can take stuff with them right away. Sometimes I feel a little uncomfortable with how unappreciative I am being about some of the things I want to rid myself of. Some of these things have brought benefits to me. But I’ve discovered that it is rewarding to spend time with these objects one last time and then dispose of them. When I was younger, I never used to have the time to sit and think about what an object meant to me in my life, or where it came from, or when and how it came into my possession. Each item has its own history, and remembering that history is often enjoyable. This new job of yours will not be accomplished any faster if you wait, but with a little practice and preparation, it will certainly be easier for you to make decisions about how to get rid of things. Trust me, the more time you spend going through your belongings, the easier it will be for you to decide what to keep and what not to. The more you work at it, the less time-consuming it will become. You might even discover the added bonus that it will feel wonderful to visit a dump and throw worthless things as far as you are able to. Excerpted from [_THE GENTLE ART OF SWEDISH DEATH CLEANING_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501173243/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1501173243&linkId=c5760eee2c375eef3398880840d0c641) _by Margareta Magnusson._ Copyright © 2018 by Margareta Magnusson. Excerpted with permission by Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. ## Transcript So can you show me how to fold these and put them in the box? Okay. [ MUSIC ] My mom always tells me to clean my room And it drives me crazy. How can you make tidying up fun? The ideal thing to do is to actually look at what kind of life you want to lead, look at the room, and then decide how you can make that happen for yourself. So when you look at everything that you have, then you actually look at the items, and then decide for yourself, whether that actually makes you happy, whether it sparks joy. Are American kids messier than Japanese kids? If so, why? So I think kids can be messy in their own way no matter where you go, whether it's in Japan or America. But I think one thing that I do notice is that American kids seem to have a lot of small toys. So something to think about is that you might have a lot of Toys and think about organizing those things. Do you think you could help me organize my backpack? Well the first thing we have to do then is to take out everything in your backpack. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] It's very important to take every single thing that's in your backpack out, and if you're cleaning your room too, you would do the same thing. [ FOREIGN ] Now that we have everything laid out here, we are going to start looking at every single item and decide whether you really need to bring it with you today. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] Okay. So now that you can see, you can see this pile which actually shows you all the things that you do need and that sparks joy for you, and then there's the other things that maybe you don't need today. Maybe it doesn't spark joy for you immediately and now that you can actually see everything, you can decide for yourself and think about what is actually important. For you. [ FOREIGN ] One important thing, as we start putting things back, is to put them stacked in a way that you can see what exactly is inside your bag. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] This is how we clean the inside of your backpack. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5063275/death-cleaning/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5063275/death-cleaning/"},"headline":"‘Death Cleaning’ Is the New Marie Kondo. 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