Tidying Up is Good for the Aging Brain - Reducing Stress While Downsizing Your Abode

Several WWURA members have been chatting about the term “Swedish” downsizing and determining which “things” to discard, throw away and/or give away. Can you name all the items you have in your closet, your hideaway, your garage? Are you attached to various objects? Object attachment is the experience people have when they feel an emotional attachment to any inanimate object and may even feel a sense of loss if they were to part with the object.

As individuals age, they inevitably experience a series of cognitive, emotional, and physical changes that may influence their attachment to objects. Life events may impact the way they view their possessions. They may have difficulty keeping up with tasks that were once routine and may be faced with a growing accumulation of once important possessions that are no longer needed. The process of downsizing and getting rid of clutter can cause emotional and physical stress. Problems with clutter have been associated with life dissatisfaction and potential falls. Realizing the benefits of decluttering their living environment and receiving advice on how to do this can help them feel accomplished and in control.

Extreme object attachment in adults can form as a way to compensate for a lack of interpersonal attachment or as a symptom of hoarding disorder. Do note that normative levels of object attachment exist across the lifespan. For example, many adults own a ‘favorite dress’ or a ‘lucky sweatshirt’ to which they feel emotionally attached, whether for aesthetic (‘I like how I look when I wear it’), sentimental (‘My mother gave me this’), or superstitious purposes (‘If I wear this on gameday, my team will win’).

“Swedish Death Cleaning”: Margareta Magnusson (The Gentle Art of Swedish Death) suggests two questions to refer to as one downsizes: #1: “Will I ever need this?” #2 “Will anyone I know be happier if I save this?” Swedish death cleaning is a process that one undertakes in preparation for one’s own death. Death cleaning has the goal of ridding your home of unnecessary belongings and clutter. That way, when you pass away, your family has fewer things to deal with. But Swedish death cleaning also has many benefits while you’re still living.”

Ten points to consider:

1. Start Swedish death cleaning whenever you want;
2. Take a deep breath and be prepared to make tough decisions;
3. Work big to small;
4. Keep one box of personal mementos;
5. Put your last wishes into action (give away, donate, or throw out);
6. Gift items gradually, over time, and thoughtfully;
7. Ask for help from family and friends;
8. Donate and sell stuff you and others don’t want;
9. Declutter regularly;
10. Create or edit your end-of-life plans and let family know what to do with rest of the stuff.

Sources:

• The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson
• https://blog.12min.com/the-gentleart-of-swedish-death-cleaning-pdf-summary/
• https://www.npr.org/2014/03/10/288492900/why-older-adults-have-a-hard-time-letting-their-stuff-go
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32219461/NIH
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7445186

Japanese Decluttering

An alternate method not addressed above:

I tried the Japanese method of decluttering where you hold every object that you own and if it does not give you joy, you throw it away.

So far I have thrown out all of the vegetables, the electric bill, the scale, a mirror and my treadmill.