Swedish Death Cleaning - digital version

Swedish Death Cleaning (known as döstädning in Swedish) is a decluttering and organizing method focused on simplifying your belongings before you pass away, so loved ones aren’t burdened with sorting through unnecessary items. It’s not morbid—it’s about living with less and making thoughtful decisions about what to keep, donate, or discard.

Key Principles

• Start Early: Typically recommended for people over 50, but anyone can do it.
• Prioritize Essentials: Keep items that bring joy or have practical value.
• Think of Others: Ask yourself if someone else would want or need the item.
• Gradual Process: Tackle one category or room at a time to avoid overwhelm.

Benefits

• Reduces stress for family members later.
• Creates a more organized, peaceful living space.
• Encourages reflection on what truly matters.

What's the digital version of SDC?

I think it includes these things and possibly in this order:

1. Inventory your online accounts: banks, websites, subscriptions etc.
   1. Close/deactivate old accounts, request data to be deleted. To my surprise it took me a few days to go from 500+ accounts to ~350. It was also interesting to learn in the process which companies survived 20+ years. Some pivoted their products, some grew, some got acquired, and some vanished without a trace. It was also interesting to see how modern technologies or dominant players replaced them.
   2. Update contact information for these accounts: primarily the email address. Either standardize the email address to where all these accounts go, or switch to another authentication method such as Apple/Google login. The biggest benefit of the Apple ID login is the ability to anonymize your email by having a custom 1-time email address just for this service.
2. Email accounts: I think this is a special category of its own.
   1. Reduce the number of accounts: this may only be possible if you've completed the previous step. If you didn't, someone else may be able to reset the password to your online accounts.
   2. Reduce the old mail: use Outlook's Sweep feature to only keep the last 10 recent copies of a monthly statement or newsletter for example
   3. Consolidate your address books if you have multiple ones, into your mobile provider's cloud-based address book. e.g. Apple iCloud or Google, Facebook and LinkedIn. So 3 max. If you're like me, you may have done that already as mobiles have taken over the majority day to day communications. The latest current contacts I actually reach out to are already in the address book, or social media site such as Facebook or LinkedIn.
   4. Merge duplicate contacts
   5. Delete contacts you haven't reached out to or heard from in whatever period of time you determine. e.g. a business contact from 10 years ago.
   6. Password recovery - figure out a simple method for the next person to inherit/access.
3. Data storage: worthy of its own post. Figure out what you want others to know. Family history perhaps. Financials. Assets. The rest is for your own entertainment.