Swedish Death Cleaning

 Think how much easier it will be to do your genealogy when you've cleared out the "genealogical clutter"!

-  Maggie

"Swedish Death Cleaning is the brainchild of author Margareta Magnussen, who coined the term in her 2017 book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter."-  https://www.thespruce.com/swedish-death-cleaning-4801461

"[This] can actually provide some real benefits in the here-and-now, helping you decide what items are truly important and what you’d be willing to part with. ... think of it as a Scandinavian twist on the Konmari Method."

With that in mind, you’ll need a framework for evaluating which of your items are worth keeping. First consider how much space you can comfortably allot for genealogy research and items. Then comes the hard part—determining what items are worth keeping and what aren’t.

For family historians, your sorting criteria should include assessments of an item’s value and its ability to be passed on. Here are five important questions you might use to evaluate each item in your collection:

• Is this item irreplaceable (i.e., one-of-a-kind)?
• Is a digital version available? Would it be just as useful?
• Who will inherit the information or item when I die? Will it be easy to store, and have others shown any interest in it?
• What practical value is associated with the item? Is it worth a lot of money, or does it provide some intangible research benefit to you or descendants (for example, proving an ancestral line)?
• What sentimental value is associated with the item? Does it represent a meaningful memory or person?

- From an article by Lisa A Alzo, Family Tree Magazine, August, 2022