Take The Next Step

04/02/2025

May be helpful if you or someone you know is going through this.

Feb 11 @ 3pm Pacific Time

02/02/2025

Have you been in a situation where you have had to clear your parent's home for their transition to aged care?

Or maybe you have had to clear your parent's home, when they died?

I'd like to hear from you as I develop a house clearance service to support people during this sensitive and difficult time.

I have a short survey that would really help support other people going through this in the future. Here's the link and please send it on if you know someone who might be willing to share their experience - thank you.

https://forms.gle/AGVuxScwexENbYfK6

01/02/2025

Most Australians prefer to "age in place", stay in their existing home as long as possible. Here are some practical suggestions on how to make your home suitable.

Learn what changes you'll need to make to ensure your home is safe and convenient for aging in place.

22/12/2024

21/12/2024

When there is no deadline to get organised we can get into a habit of procrastination. If you are procrastinating about taking action with clawing items from your home, take a little step each week. Getting a skip bin is an expense and has a timeframe in which you need to use it or the cost starts to build.

Instead try finding 5 things a week that you will discard or recycle and use your regular kerbside bins for that purpose. Same with donations, 5 items a week starts to make a difference. By taking small steps you avoid the overwhelm and stress of doing it all once.

18/12/2024

Reframing aging - from the awesome Jane Fonda

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDDHDKqoq57/?igsh=MTVwYjFqNmhsYjQwYg==

11/12/2024

We die twice: once when our breath leaves us, and again when the last person who truly knew us sets down the last object that remembers our existence. "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning" is not merely a book—it's a requiem, a love song, a final, fierce embrace written in the language of objects, memory, and profound tenderness.

Margareta Magnusson doesn't just write about clearing out; she excavates the geography of human vulnerability, inviting us to touch the raw, trembling edges of our mortality with something between a whisper and a scream.

1. Emotional Archaeology:
Every object we own is a poem waiting to be understood. That faded photograph, the chipped teacup from your grandmother's kitchen, the worn leather journal—each carries the fingerprints of moments lived, breaths taken, tears shed. Death cleaning is not about discarding, but about listening. Listen to these objects. They tell stories of love, of loss, of becoming. Each item you touch is a map of your heart's journey, waiting to be decoded, honored, and sometimes, gently released.

2. Mortality as an Act of Profound Tenderness
Death cleaning transforms the terrifying inevitability of our ending into the most extraordinary expression of love. It is a final embrace for your children, your friends, your beloved ones—saying, "I see you. I protect you. Even in my leaving, I care for you." You are crafting not just an inheritance of objects, but a sacred inheritance of grace.

3. Aging as Unfolding: A Landscape of Wisdom
Margareta Magnusson doesn't just write about aging—she sings it. With a voice that dances between Nordic pragmatism and profound emotional intelligence, she reveals aging not as decline, but as a beautiful, complex unfolding. Each wrinkle, each released object is a story of survival, of joy, of resilience.

4. The Alchemy of Unburdening
Imagine your possessions as energy—some vibrant and alive, some stagnant, some holding you back. Death cleaning is an alchemical process of transformation. You are transmuting physical weight into spiritual lightness. With each object you release, you're not losing—you're liberating. Liberating yourself, liberating your loved ones, creating space for what truly matters.

5. Intimacy in Letting Go
This is a book about vulnerability. About having the courage to look at your life—truly look—and decide what echoes you want to leave behind. It's a meditation, a prayer, a conversation with the deepest parts of yourself. What stories will persist? What love will continue to resonate?

Magnusson offers us more than a method of organizing. She offers a philosophy of being—raw, tender, breathtakingly honest. She teaches us that how we end can be as beautiful, as intentional, as the life we've lived.

In the end, death cleaning is not about death at all. It's about love. Boundless, transformative, liberation love.

BOOK: https://amzn.to/3OFNXGV

You can ENJOY the AUDIOBOOK When you register for Audible Membership Trial) using the same link above.

10/12/2024

Part of the inspiration for Take the Next Step was this fabulous program on SBS "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning". A great feel good watch for the summer that can inspire you to live (and die) differently.

11/09/2024

Some tips on recycling. Recycle Smart is a great initiative - they will pick up soft plastics from your home. Check their website for more details. Great for hard to recycle items like disposable contact lense cases, food wrappers, batteries and more. In participating areas they will do a free pick-up each month.

11/09/2024

Anyone relate?

❤️❤️❤️