Rural Routes, Blog Version

Dostadning is the Swedish practice of cleaning out belongings in preparation for the end of life. It translates into English as “death cleaning” which sounds morbid, but is also realistic. As people of my parents’ generation used to say, “You cannot take it with you.”

Although generally designed for people over the age of 55,  nothing  says a person cannot start much earlier in life. The key, of course, is to quit accumulating at the same time.

“Death cleaning” is a top trend for 2018 according to publications such as the New York Times. Everyone is talking about it, they say.

I have never been trendy and I don’t know why I would start now. But changes are coming in my world and cleaning out has become necessary.

When my paternal grandmother moved into a care home in the early 1980s, I inherited her roaster. I did not have one of my own, at least not one that was big enough for a Christmas turkey. It was in far from pristine condition in 1980 but it continued to do its job until 2016, when I used Christmas money to purchase a new and shinier version.

More than a year later, Amma’s roaster still sits at the back of my kitchen cupboards.

“Do I use this?” I ask myself.

“Will I ever use it again?”

“Do I need to keep it?”

No. No. And no.

So it shall go.

But it is a tangible reminder of my grandmother, family gatherings at her house and then later family gatherings at mine. I have been thinking about her these past few days, the calendar reminding me that her birthday was January 10.   This death cleaning is not easy, but I must make a start somewhere.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND DEATH CLEANING

It occurs to me that there may be another layer to this Dostadning thing.

What about all the story and book ideas written in notebooks and scraps of paper around my house? What about all the family records saved with the vague idea of writing a family history for posterity’s sake?

Perhaps death cleaning and bucket lists go hand in hand. And isn’t it appropriate that I’m having these thoughts at the start of a new year, the traditional time for making resolutions?

Watch me go.

Or not.

Time will tell.

THEN THERE’S THIS

My husband says he remembers this hanging in his parents’ house. We found it in the basement.

It’s a promotional item, a picture in a frame featuring a thermometer in the lower right corner that has long since quit working. The mercury sits permanently at 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

At the upper left hand corner are printed the words “Langruth Trading Co. General Merchants Langruth, Manitoba”.

We’ll keep this a while longer.

WHAT I’VE READ

“The Forgotten Ones” by Brian McGilloway, Witness Impulse, an imprint of Harper Collins, 2015. I picked this up at a Walmart on my way to a vehicle oil change appointment. I had forgotten to bring my current read and wanted to have something to while away the time as I waited for my car. I did start the book that day, but then added it to the pile when I got home.

McGilloway is a New York Times Bestselling Author and this is a Lucy Black thriller. Set in Ireland, the book deals with a case that involves an embalmed corpse floating in a river, cremated remains that don’t match the funeral books, a battered wife and a corrupt construction company that forces homeless people to work for free. Set this against Lucy’s personal life: a father with dementia, a boyfriend crippled after a crime incident and a mother who left the family years ago and is now her boss at the police station (although their relationship is a well-guarded secret).

The plot lines come together in a satisfactory way, and it is not a hard book to read. Still, it took me a long time to read it and it was easy to set aside temporarily.

Perhaps I’m just too caught up in this death cleaning thing.