Magnusson recommends not starting your downsizing by looking through old letters and photographs. I thought that was really interesting since I’m usually coming at it from a different approach which is to get it done very quickly. She says that actually, it may be better for you to do this on your own and take your time rather than having a professional come in and try to knock it out in a few days or a few weeks.

I help my clients downsize at a pretty fast pace because maybe the house is going on the market or someone has had to move to assisted living. I may work in a home for three days or a few weeks or a few visits over a couple of weeks. This caught my attention because as a Professional Organizer, I help people go through this process very quickly. This book really walks you through how to approach it at a very gentle pace. It is something that can take many months if not a year or more. Magnusson explains that death cleaning is really a slow process. She often writes about her passing things along to children and grandkids: what things they wanted, what things they had no interest in, and just how she is sort of chunking through this lifetime of possessions a little at a time. You want to have things in order instead of passing on a houseful or a lifetime of possessions to the next generation. There is a big theme in the book about not burdening the next generation with the things in your home. Her rationale is that since things have been out of sight and out of mind for so long, those are probably the things that you can live without. Attics, storage units, basements, and garages.

Margareta recommends going into storage areas first. Where to Start When Downsizing, Decluttering, or Death Cleaning

“Is there anything we can do together in a slow way so that there won’t be too many things to handle later?”.

“Could life be easier and less tiring if we got rid of some of this stuff that you have collected over the years?”.

“Do you enjoy having all of this stuff?”.

“You have many nice things have you thought about what you want to do with them later on?”.

Margareta actually has a few helpful phrases that she would use to approach the idea of downsizing with a parent such as: This is also a good book if you are helping your parents to downsize or if you are encouraging your parents to downsize.

$35.99 Buy on Amazon Questions to Ask when Helping Others Downsize

The art of death cleaning