Doug.
Here we have the Lemu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual.
Fascinating.
It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.
Uh, Lemu, is that guy with the binoculars watching us?
Cut the camera.
They see us.
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How does death cleaning help you declutter your life?
Thanks for asking.
Back in 2010, Japanese writer Marie Kondo changed how we think about organization and decluttering with her bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
Behind the book's grand title is a simple premise.
Anything that doesn't bring you joy should be thrown away.
Since then, a new and somewhat similar trend caught on in the late 2010s.
Death cleaning.
It's mainly designed for people entering the final stages of their life and making sure they don't overboard before passing away.
People started talking about death cleaning in 2018 when Stockholm-based artist and widow, Margarita Magnusson, published a book called The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.
Since then, the trend has started catching on.
The name comes from the Swedish doestädning, a combination of the word do, which means death, and städning, which means cleaning.
How did Magnusson come up with the term?
In her book, she explains how it stemmed from a series of traumatic events leading to the loss of her mother and husband.
In each case, she had to go through their possessions and became emotionally attached while trying to salvage things that she assumed were very sentimental to both of them.
The main idea is to release the burden off your loved ones from sorting items that you've hoarded for years.
She also wanted to break down some of the taboos surrounding death, as she told ITV News in 2019.
When I mentioned death, because that's so scary people don't want to talk about it, which is very silly, I think, because that's the only thing that's obvious, that we have to, that is coming to us.
Addressing our own mortality can be scary, but it may help us accept it.
Where does death cleaning fit in alongside other minimalist trends?
You could say it's in between the Danish hygge lifestyle trend and Marie Kondo's Japanese method of sorting one's things and only keeping items that bring us happiness.
In concrete terms, death cleaning can be split into several stages.
First of all, you tell your loved ones about your plans to declutter.
That way they can help out and also dive back into the past with you.
It will save a lot of time for them when you do eventually pass away, as they won't have to go through the tough decision of what to keep or let go.
Then you start with items that don't have too much sentimental value, like clothes or accessories that you no longer wear.
Next, you give cherished or valuable items to your loved ones and finally, you give or throw away everything else which is left and not really useful.
In this day and age, even emails, social media accounts and digital files are part of decluttering.
From what age do people start death cleaning?
There are two main schools of thought.
Perhaps the most common is to start out from retirement onwards, or even a little before.
But in reality, more and more young people are trying it out.
Some start out with their childhood bedrooms, which are often brimming full with paperwork and old clothes.
There's no real age limit to start.
It's more about setting yourself an objective.
For example, you might be motivated, by easing the burden on your next of kin or simply decluttering, to have a clearer head when reaching a new stage of life.
There you have it.
Now you know what death cleaning is.
In under three minutes, we answer your questions.
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