Tidy Away

Tidy Away is a poignant animated short about grief, denial, and emotional survival. The film follows Val, a recently widowed 60-year-old woman who refuses to slow down after her husband’s death. Instead of mourning, she sorts. She boxes up his belongings, her belongings, their shared history—until her once-cluttered home becomes stark and empty. Her son Jack watches helplessly as memories disappear into bin bags. Through subtle visual storytelling, Tidy Away explores the quiet ways people avoid pain and the cost of erasing the past.