We interrupt this Swedish death cleaning for a tech problem
- col-teri-stein
- May 16, 2024
- 1236
My sister recently sent me an article that described what I’ve been doing since I retired. Turns out it is called Swedish death cleaning. Apparently, the term was coined in a 2017 book, “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to free yourself and your family from a lifetime of clutter,” by Margareta Magnussen. I haven’t read the book yet, but I’ve read some that are similar.
It is still a disappointment that after all the years I worked, thinking things would be great when I retired, Swedish death cleaning is my main concern. My husband Joe and I are both doing it. We’re not doing it in the right order, but that’s OK.
Apparently, the correct order is clearing out clothing first, then decluttering items that take up the most space and then cleaning out digital files. Our plan, most of the time, is to just see an item and think we don’t need that. Then I get out a trash bag to place these donations in. We are not going to clutter up the landfill with items that are still useful.
Once a donation bag has been started, it seems to have the effect of attracting more items you don’t need to it. We’ve taken multiple bags to the thrift store this year and given items away to people we know. We were on a roll, and extra space was being gained, which is when things always go wrong.
I was making lots of trips to the front porch of our home because the irises I planted many years ago were looking better than they ever have. I guess they liked the early spring we’ve had.
Last year I thought about digging up these irises because they didn’t have any blooms at all. Maybe these irises had run their course. But this year there were 15 beautiful purple and yellow blooms. Those irises must have read my mind. Still, they never last more than a couple days, so I was taking lots of pictures. That is when I noticed something disturbing.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Why is my camera making that noise on sports mode? There was probably a better mode I could have used, but sports mode covers a lot of sins, especially in low light. I will just change it to see if it does it in other modes. As I turned the dial, the flash popped up and went off by itself twice. This might be a problem.
Since I had never updated my camera after receiving an update last spring, could that be the problem? The main reason I had never updated the firmware was because I am somewhat tech impaired.
I could do it, but it was going to take all day to figure it out. It would have been easier to order a new camera, which could be delivered in a day or two — problem solved. I also knew I was in trouble when the YouTube instructor said, “You can update your camera’s firmware, but you don’t have to.” I did the update, and my camera was still beeping and flashing at inappropriate times, although, as far as I could tell, it was still taking photos.
I phoned and explained the problem to the friendly camera support person. He said the words I’d been dreading. “It’s a malfunction. You’ll have to send it in.”
“Noooo, not that” was playing in my mind. There are a lot of things coming up where I want to take photos, like banquets, spring sports and high school graduation.
That evening I packed up my camera and shipped it the next morning — actually two cameras because I had another that needed looked at — to camera repair, and now I’m waiting for the good or bad news.
Then I dug out my camera from 2008, which is still working well at the moment. There’s a wooden table in our kitchen, but I’m just going to knock on my head.