After Adam Liljenberg's grandmother died, his grandfather was ready to downsize and move into an assisted living facility. As Swedes, they were familiar with Swedish death cleaning, the idea that as you near the end of life, you declutter and organize your belongings so as not to burden those who survive you. When Liljenberg arrived to help his grandfather sort through his possessions, he didn't expect to be rescuing digital photos off a phone full of malware.
When we die, someone becomes responsible for the things we leave behind, and that includes our data. Being on the other side and inheriting someone's digital life often leaves people feeling overwhelmed, not to mention the guilt they feel every time they delete something. That's why it's in everyone's interest to organize our data at least a little bit before we reach the end of our lives.
The first time most of us face death cleaning isn't at our leisure with our stuff, but urgently and on short notice with our parents’ and grandparents’ stuff. The process can be frustrating and painful, especially with people suffering from dementia or who don’t have a handle on their technology.
Tina O'Keeffe is a professional home organizer who specializes in working with seniors. I asked O'Keeffe for tips on organizing digital assets while death cleaning. “It's different for everybody,” shge says. For example, one client with a terminal illness had saved photos, letters, and other mementos from her first marriage. She didn't want her second spouse to accidentally find them while going through her computer or her belongings. Protecting people from what you don't want them to see is just as important as handing down treasures.
While it's tempting to separate the digital cleanup from the physical, all too often the first step in organizing data is to scan physical documents. Elizabeth Fournier, a funeral director in Oregon, says one lesson she has learned in her line of business is to go paperless and digitize as much as possible. "You can help your family by scanning photos and identifying the year and the people, and maybe even the place," she told me by email. She also recommends making sure "important documents are someplace that can be accessed." In other words, don't file them into a subfolder of a subfolder. Make them easy to find.
Exactly how each person organizes their digital assets will vary, but it’s helpful to think about four specific scenarios: