{"id":35293,"date":"2022-03-12T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2022-03-12T08:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=35293"},"modified":"2026-06-06T09:43:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T09:43:45","slug":"decluttering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/decluttering\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware. The Decluttering Craze Could Leave You Holding the Designer Handbag."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"decluttering<\/a>
This lamp belonged to my mother, then my brother, now me. I think it’s Japanese Satsuma . . . For me, it’s a keeper, but will my children want it? Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I like my stuff. I’m not ready to get rid of it. I’m not up for a radical decluttering of my house. I may be closer to death than I used to be, but I’m not subjecting myself to a Swedish death cleaning any time soon.<\/p>\n

Still, a lot of people I know are cleaning their closets. They are deaccessioning, as my ceramic artist friend puts it.<\/p>\n

And I say, watch out.<\/p>\n

That Decluttering Craze<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The decluttering craze burst on the scene in 2011, with Marie Kondo’s book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” Kondo encouraged readers<\/a> to get rid of anything in the house that “does not spark joy.” Her book sold millions.<\/p>\n

A few years later, Margareta Magnusson’s \u201cThe Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning\u201d hit the bookstores, imploring<\/a> the over-65 set to get rid of their stuff now —<\/em> and spare their grieving heirs the anguish of sorting through a lifetime of accumulations.<\/p>\n

Decluttering at My House<\/strong><\/h5>\n

I have been thinking about my heirs in recent years. I have. I’ve been getting rid of stuff, bit by bit. I’ve been throwing it away and I’ve been donating<\/a> it.<\/p>\n

\"decluttering<\/a>
This ceramic teapot by a Berkeley artist was deaccessioned by my artist friend. Now it’s mine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The one thing I have not been doing is giving it to people. Nobody wants my stuff, not the pristine Dooney & Bourke designer handbag that belonged to my mother. Not the cute stone-encrusted mini bag. Not my friends. Not my family.<\/p>\n

But that doesn’t stop them from giving me their<\/em> stuff.<\/p>\n

Lately, a number of folks who’ve been getting older have sent things my way — a vintage Japanese Satsuma lamp from my older brother. A prayer book that belonged to a dear friend. A charming teapot from the artist friend who is deaccessioning her collection.<\/p>\n

My younger brother had two framed prints shipped to me — at some expense — that used to hang in our childhood home. They were in poor condition and not to my taste, but they arrived on my doorstep one day, unannounced. Obviously, my brother didn’t have the heart to give the familiar old things away, so he sent them off to me. I didn’t have the heart to give them away either — until I’d tripped over them a few times and carted them off to the giveaway box in the garage.<\/p>\n

These were beloved objects all — by me. But not necessarily by my heirs.<\/p>\n

That’s why I will continue to do a little decluttering, from time to time, a little death cleaning here and there. But I’ll do that without the help of Kondo and Magnusson’s books. Those books would take up space on my bookshelf — space I want for my friend’s prayer book.<\/p>\n

Read about the prayer book and my friend Beverly Rose at “When a Young Mother Dies.”<\/a>\u00a0 As for my artist friend Nancy Selvin, more about her at “What I Really Want for My Birthday.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"-death-cleaning-rejects<\/a>
I came across a shelf full of handbags in my closet yesterday. They brought me no joy, so I tossed them in the donation box. But first I texted daughter Christina<\/a>. Would she like the mini bag encrusted with stones? “Not my style,” she texted back. How about the Dooney & Bourke designer handbag<\/a>\u00a0that belonged to her grandmother? “I don’t know when or where I’d use it. I haven’t even worn shirts with buttons in two years.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"satsuma-lamp<\/a><\/p>\n

Everybody’s decluttering, including my friends and family, and sometimes other people’s unwanted stuff ends up on my doorstep.\u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,70],"tags":[103,2574,34,1188,793,82,2575],"class_list":["post-35293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","category-book-openers","tag-aging","tag-decluttering","tag-dont-miss","tag-house","tag-nancy-selvin","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-swedish-death-cleaning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35293"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49346,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35293\/revisions\/49346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}