kaleidodope

In recent days, I have been engaging in my personal Project Döstädning, literally "Death Cleaning" in Swedish. Whilst the original concept is that a person should sort out and minimise their belongings in the event of their death so others don't have to sift through everything, it does have a number of broader applications. It fits with the principle of one should keep in their possessions the things that they will use, along with mementoes of their life experience, all matching a short presentation I gave to the Melbourne Agnostics Society about five years ago, "The Continuum of Needs and Wants". Because disaster can strike at any time, it is recommended that everyone, regardless of health or age, invest in the process. In a more advanced sense, Döstädning also applies to emotional content, relationships, and ultimately is very close to the Stoic principle of "memento mori".

In the past year, I have engaged in several actions on this theme. Earlier this year, I sold off three bookcases' worth of roleplaying games and raised around $15000 for the Isla Bell Charitable Fund. I have also gifted a similar-sized collection of books, initially according to academic requirements (and with a sense of motivating concern), but more recently with a more open-ended approach, and one which will have to be revisited again (I still have thousands of books). In the past week, I've taken a similar approach with my collection of LPs and CDS. Whilst I am not a music collector or librarian, over the many years I've been a reviewer for a variety of physical and online 'zines and, as an enthusiastic attendee and listener, I have ended up with a rather large and eclectic collection, and much of it can be passed on to those who are more likely to use it. Following on from my recent Lightbringers post ("The Phenomenology of Nostalgia and Record Players"), from my collection I have earmarked over 300LPs to give away, and almost 600CDs.

Rather than provide a list of everything that's available (I haven't had the time to type that out), it would be far quicker for people to simply drop me a line about what sort of material they're interested in, and we can take the arrangements for collection from there. With the music part of Project Döstädning reaching this initial stage, the next targets on the agenda are DVDs and that curious collection of oddities that makes up my wardrobe. But with regards to music, books, etc., at my next linner-soiree planned for January, I'll be encouraging attendees to gather and take whatever interests them. After that, the rest goes to charity stores. It's all about redistributing my things to those who can best use them, all whilst preparing myself for one of the most substantial changes in my own life.