I seem to be scattering pieces of myself around the city. An ID of mine was found on a car window by a neighbour; another one in the road. Umbrellas come and go. Thoughts are left on a street corner as I turn and something new catches my attention. Follow this trail to find me.
It’s wrap-up time, sorting, clearing, handing over; Swedish death cleaning for work and home. Life will move on, of course, and the world will be different when I reemerge. There’s so much to do before the operation and there’s never going to be enough time to do it. The idea about SDC is sorting out your home as you live your life. Declutter the stuff. Throwing out things I can do, organising the leftovers can be a struggle. Strip back, cull, make anew. Some things spark joy, and I’ll keep those, but there’s plenty that can be sold or taken to a charity shop. Yeah, I’ve read about all the cleaning trends. Cleaning does not come naturally to me.
Margareta Magnusson came up with the concept: “Visit [your] storage areas and start pulling out what’s there. Who do you think will take care of all that when you are no longer here?”
Rosellina Ferraro, PhD, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland: “If you pare down, the argument is that you can better focus on the really important things in life.”
The idea is that you start to take down the clutter in your home. You don’t have to do this all at once, take your time and sort when you have the inclination. Are you going to use the extra tea set that’s hidden at the back of the dresser? Do you use CDs and DVDs anymore? Your university work? Wires from tech spanning decades? What about the pile of clothes that no longer fit you?
My thing is books. I have so many of them, well over a thousand. I love the aesthetic of a wall of books but we also live in a house where we don’t have much storage. These need to go. I’ll keep the ones I like but the rest will be for the charity shop. I won’t read them again. I have BorrowBox which means I can get most of the books I want there. Libraries are amazing, use them.
I’m struggling to read. Stories need to be something else to keep my attention, weak characters and plotlines mean I check out of the book quickly. Concentration takes a lot out of me and I’m not going to waste my time. Books I’ve enjoyed recently:
Yellowface
Landlines
Miss Benson’s Beetle
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
A Day Of Fallen Night
I’m A Fan
I read pretty much anything, as long as it has a good story. Any book recommendations, please send them through!
Claire x