Back in November, Pinterest successfully influenced me into Swedish death cleaning several decades early by placing in my feed a single pin related to the practice at exactly the time I began outlining a plan for a hypothetical move that I might be able to make in two to three years. Perfect timing! Why not turn a traditionally end-of-life decluttering practice into a mid-life, possible pre-move decluttering project? And why not get as much decluttering done as I could before the new year and start 2026 extra light and fresh? Four-ish months later, I’m finally and officially done (“done”).

I don’t own a ton of stuff to begin with (visual busyness and clutter easily overwhelm me (autism)), and I’m a pretty organized person by nature (also autism), so the project didn’t feel daunting to me. Still, my son and I definitely had extra stuff, and a few things would benefit from improved organization. The project took me longer to complete than I would’ve liked, mostly because (1) I didn’t have many spoons or much space to go through things; leaving things out to go through them here and there wasn’t an option because of how dysregulating visual busyness and clutter are to my nervous system, and because of how small my apartment is; and (2) I was committed to how I got rid of things.

To start, I made a list in my phone of the stuff I wanted to get rid of. Then, I organized the list by items that could be rehomed, those that could be recycled, and those that had to be thrown out.

Anything that could be rehomed, I either gifted to friends or my daughter, set out in free boxes, or donated to places and organizations that redistribute items directly to people who need them for free (as a rule, I will not donate to organizations that turn around and sell donations). For example, I donated clothing and small household items to the Portland Free Store; I donated books and unused stationery and paper items (planners, notebooks, greeting cards, etc.) to various Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood; I donated old magazines and various memorykeeping and craft supplies that I’ve had in my collection forever and won’t ever use to SCRAP PDX; I donated extra hygiene items to the mutual aid lockers at Always Here Bookstore; and I donated food that we wouldn’t eat before it’s sell/best by date to my neighbors and various free pantries in my neighborhood.

Anything that could be recycled, I recycled rather than threw out. For example, I recycled old electronics and cords, pens, ink cartridges, etc., at Staples through their recycling service; I recycled stained or otherwise damaged clothing, bedding, and other textiles via Just Porch It; and I recycled old paint through my county’s hazardous waste disposal program. Thankfully, all of these programs are free where I live.

I had three items that weren’t free to recycle: two laptops and one very old and very slow 27″ iMac, which I loved and was sad to let go of. Because these items had personal data on them, I took them to an electronics recycler who removed all three hard drives, destroyed two of them, and, at my request, gave me back the other one. All in all, it cost me $37. I also paid about $5 to have a huge stack of papers shredded at Staples.

I do realize that paring down possessions years before a possible move is a little…ambitious. Consider: Starting now affords me time to think about what I want to do with items I’m undecided about without feeling rushed into a decision it’s more likely than un- that I’ll regret (I say this from experience, as someone who has moved long distances several times).

In addition to paring down my possessions, I used this project as an opportunity to better organize some of my paper items, and some of the stuff we keep in storage. For example, I better organized my product manuals, which I keep in plastic sleeves in a binder, by grouping them by room instead of by type; I went through a stack of things my kids have made for me and organized them by child and approximate year; and I bought a large zippered bag (with handles!!) to store all the signs and posters from art builds, rallies, protests, and other direct actions I’ve participated in.

Initially, I considered buying a large, flat box with a lid that opens up (like this) for these items since for now I store them under my bed. Then I learned how much large, flat boxes with a lid that opens up cost (hello???) and decided to look for other options. I’m happy with this one. It achieves my original goal—it easily stores under my bed—and has the added bonuses of being much more affordable, much easier to carry than a giant box, and, unlike a cardboard box, rain-resistant, which could come in handy during a move.

In general, I don’t like to store stuff. I don’t even like having my kitchen cabinets or the sections of my TV stand (etc.) full (or anything under my bed!). It stresses me out when every space in a home is crammed with stuff, even when it’s behind a closed door or in a drawer (or under a bed!). For better or worse, “out of sight, out of mind” is not a thing for me.

Ideally, I’d keep only seasonal and occasionally used items in storage. Christmas decorations, suitcases, painting supplies, things of that nature. Because my apartment isn’t big enough for all of my books, or to display most of the memorykeeping albums I’ve made over the years, many of those items are in storage until I move into a larger living space, along with our seasonal items. Thankfully, my rent includes a small storage space in the basement of my building.

I also used this project as an opportunity to better organize the items we do keep in our little basement storage space, and, to no one’s surprise, made a spreadsheet to inventory it all. Whenever we do end up moving, I’ll already know exactly what’s in which storage container, and where each container is located. This information will also be helpful when having to figure out how big of a moving truck or pod we’ll need.

One of the highlights of this project was finding the only three items in my possession that I’ve not been able to place for years. I knew each of these items were somewhere in my apartment, I just didn’t know where. Turns out, they’d fallen into the very bottom of a box—as in: under the bottom flaps inside the box—while moving boxes around when my son moved in with me. It’s kind of a miracle I found them, which happened only because I lifted up the flaps to break down the box for recycling and saw them.

The photo strip is from my first time in a photo booth, the summer I turned twenty-one. RIP to true old school film photo booths.

The concert ticket stub is from the Warped Inside Tour lineup that New Found Glory headlined at the Roseland Theater a billion years ago. The venue itself is upstairs. That night, during one of the opening band’s sets, the floor began to buckle and break and the venue evacuated the building. After what felt like forever we were allowed back inside and the show continued, with New Found Glory playing their set on the ground floor. My friends and I ended up right up front, directly in front of the stage, and I left the show with a set list, given to me by Chad himself.

For the last several years it has been my life’s mission to find this ticket stub so I can have it framed alongside the set list, a photo I took (on a film camera!!) that night, and a sticker I bought from the band’s merch booth. These few things are some of the only physical items remaining from my youth and for that reason alone are some of my most prized possessions. I screamt an actual scream when I found the ticket stub.

I bought the brass crane embroidery scissors at Cargo in 2020 simply because I think they’re pretty—I have no practical purpose for them; I don’t think I’ve ever actually used them—and have missed looking at them since misplacing them a few months after I bought them. I’m happy to have them back at my desk.

Another highlight of this project was looking through and inventorying my newspaper collection. More about that in a future post.

If you’re interested in adopting or adapting Swedish death cleaning as your own pre-move or spring cleaning approach, my main suggestions are:

• Store items in a way that makes sense for you (and your family, if relevant). For me, this means storing like items with like items, and using durable storage containers, most of them clear, that will double as already-packed moving boxes when the time comes.
• Create an inventory of the items you store. Include information like what containers you’re using, what’s in each container, each container’s dimensions and volume, the location of each container, how full each container is, etc. You might also keep a list of any empty containers you end up with, to help avoid accidentally buying new containers that you don’t need because you forgot you have empty ones waiting to be used. I recommend doing this in a spreadsheet.
• Label your storage containers, especially your non-clear containers. If keeping a spreadsheet, you might also print each container’s inventory and affix it to the top of the container’s lid or place it inside the container.
• However long you think the project will take, budget at least twice that amount of time.
• Dedicate a container to items you’re not sure about. The point isn’t to get rid of everything. The point is to make considered decisions about what to get rid of. It can take time to make those decisions.
• Store personal keepsakes—anything you don’t want others going through, ever, even after you die (journals, photos, letters, etc.)—in the same container(s) and label the container(s) very clearly as, for example, “personal items, do not go through, throw away without opening when I die.”
• If you’re interested in rehoming and recycling items similar to how I did, research rehoming and recycling options in your area before you break ground on the project.
• Also before you break ground on the project: choose a “yay, you did it!” reward to gift to yourself when you complete the project. My reward: supplies for a new craft project.