I’m just getting around to reading a book which my cohort of friends has been raving about — “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning” by Stockholm artist and writer Margareta Magnusson.

She died at 91 this past March, and her daughter said she left her attic and her basement empty. The subtitle of The Gentle Art is “How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter.”

Since the book was first published back in 2017, it’s time I took a look. I got it, after a wait, from the Peterborough Public Library, in the form of three discs on which actor Juliet Stevenson reads the text in a warm and inviting way.

Magnusson proposes that those of us over 55 declutter our homes and give away our possessions. Moreover, we can advise our elderly parents and friends by a series of gentle questions, to consider doing the same. The alternative, as many harassed and sad people will tell you, is a difficult period of both........

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