Swedish Death Cleaning

Time to Move Forward

Moving forward is hard-Chinese wisdom

My photo

The fortune cookie foretold what was to come. It seemed to know Swedish Death Cleaning was in my future; something I’d started doing without realizing it.

I unwrapped the cookie the night of the day I signed a marital settlement agreement that had been pending for 8 years as I was making plans to move forward in a new relationship.

My soon-to-be-ex husband was the one standing in my way and was about to be removed from the equation.

“Chinglish” aside, “time to moving forward” made perfect sense.

I thought making room for my boyfriend to move in would be relatively simple after an arduous 8-year battle with my husband to dissolve our 37-year marriage.

But I was immediately faced with the decisions I had delayed regarding my 88-year-old mother’s belongings. She passed away last May, and I brought home mountains of keepsakes and photographs to add to my own sizable collection.

The definition of clutter is delayed decisions.

I found clippings of my hair from haircuts as far back as 1970, the receipt from the anesthesiologist from my Caesarian birth in 1963 ($50), report cards…