How Swedish death cleaning can help us organise our lives

Decluttering takes on new meaning in later life, but death cleaning is not just for old age, says Cork home organiser Vera Keohane

Having fewer possessions, including getting rid of things belonging to adult children, frees up space and makes housekeeping and day-to-day maintenance easier.

An evening prone on the sofa, remote control in hand, channel-flicking in pursuit of entertainment, threw up a programme called The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, based on a book of the same name by Margareta Magnusson which deals with döstädning, a Swedish word meaning removing the unnecessary so you can clear the path for retirement and beyond, or to be blunt, death cleaning.

Much as I love anything to do with household organisation, and better still a book on the topic, I would normally have been on to the publisher for a review copy faster than you can say declutter, but I could not bring myself to read this one when it came out about six years ago. The gloomy death reference in the title was too much for this housekeeper whose approach to domestic order belongs firmly in the joy-sparking world of Marie Kondo.