Learn about how you can de-clutter your life with the Swedish concept of döstädning, or “death cleaning.” Then, learn about how Alfred Russel Wallace, the “other” scientist who discovered natural selection.
Learn about how you can de-clutter your life with the Swedish concept of döstädning, or “death cleaning.” Then, learn about how Alfred Russel Wallace, the “other” scientist who discovered natural selection.
Use Swedish Death Cleaning to Declutter Your Life by Ashley Hamer
Meet Alfred Russel Wallace, the other guy who discovered natural selection by Cameron Duke
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/swedish-death-cleaning-can-declutter-your-life
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about how you can de-clutter your life with Swedish death cleaning; and the story of the guy who discovered natural selection — and no, I’m not talking about Charles Darwin!
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Have you ever wanted to declutter your life, but found that the struggle is real? Well then, maybe you should try the Swedish concept of döstädning [DUH-sted-ning], or “death cleaning.” It's an approach to minimalism with the goal of making things easier on your loved ones. The one catch? Is that it's just a little morbid.
Specifically morbid is the central question behind Swedish death cleaning: If you died tomorrow, how hard would it be for your loved ones to sort through your belongings? As people collect things, they tend to avoid the difficult process of sorting and discarding the stuff they don't need. But if you don’t want to sort through your own stuff, why would you make your loved ones do it after you’ve gone?
Like I said, it’s a bit dark. But it might help to know that it’s not just for people who are getting on in years — it's really a way of living a smoother, simpler, more clutter-free life. That’s useful for all ages.
If you want to simplify your existence with Swedish death cleaning, here are a few tips to help you get started.
First, start from top to bottom. That means if you have stuff in the attic, the main house, and the basement, go in that order. Having a method makes the process less overwhelming.
Once you've collected what you're going to toss, invite people over to see what they might want. This is a great way to bond, especially since your belongings might be full of stories that loved ones haven't heard.
Next, get rid of anything embarrassing. Whether that's old diaries or evidence of your vices, think about whether you'd want to find it in your loved one's home — and if you wouldn't, make sure others won't have to find it in yours.
You should save photographs and letters for last. Their emotional content can make them the hardest to sort through. When it comes to photographs, throw out any duplicates or images of people you can't name. Then, give away what you can.
In the age of the Vikings, a loved one would be buried with their belongings so that they wouldn't miss them in the afterlife. The plus was that this also helped the living move on since they weren't surrounded by the old belongings of the dead. Since we don’t have that luxury nowadays, it's up to us to keep our spirits from tormenting our loved ones.
If you can only name one biologist, it’s probably Charles Darwin. His Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection is pretty much what made biology a science, so yeah, he’s a pretty big deal. But what if Darwin never existed? Would we have still figured out Natural Selection? Well, yes. In fact, someone else came up with the theory of natural selection before Darwin ever got a chance to publish. That guy’s name was Alfred Russel Wallace. Here’s his story. Hiss-TORY, if you will. ...get it? His story? History? No? OK. Moving on.
Wallace was a British naturalist who was a big fan of Darwin’s, and 14 years younger. In the 1840s, about a decade after Darwin’s famous trip on the Beagle, Wallace traveled to the Amazon in search of clues as to how organisms evolve. Four years later, he emerged from the rainforest with years of collected specimens he planned to study back in England. But halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, his ship caught fire and sank, taking all of his work with it.
Most of us would have given up, but not Wallace. He knew he was on to something, so within a year, he boarded a ship bound for the Malay Archipelago, now known as Indonesia and Malaysia. He spent eight years island-hopping and collected more than 125,000 specimens, including 5,000 species totally new to science. As he explored, he began to notice that life on the islands seemed to have a strict dividing line, as if the archipelago was split into two biological halves. The northern half contained placental mammals like the ones in Asia, while the southern half contained what seemed to be their marsupial analogs like those of Australia. He didn't know it at the time, but that line is actually the division between two continental shelves. The line is now called the Wallace Line.
In 1858, Wallace was confined to his hut with malarial fever when he had his stroke of inspiration: he realized that species are shaped by their environments. He wrote up his theory and, to make sure it looked okay, sent it to none other than Charles Darwin. Darwin had been mulling over his own theories for nearly twenty years, but to his credit, he joined Wallace in publishing a joint paper about natural selection. Of course, this made Darwin realize that it was now or never. The next year, he finally published his famous book, On the Origin of Species. And the rest is history.
As for Wallace? He didn’t resent being overshadowed by Darwin. Their collaboration gave him access to the highest echelons of the scientific establishment, and he went on to write more than 20 books and more than 1,000 articles and published letters on a wide variety of topics. The next time you find yourself sitting on a million-dollar idea, think about Alfred Russel Wallace — and make that idea happen.
Let’s recap today’s takeaways
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CODY: Today’s stories were written by Ashley Hamer and Cameron Duke, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough and Sonja Hodgen. Today’s episode was produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!