Decluttering your digital life

We’ve all had the experience of cleaning up older family members’ homes after a death or a move to a new community. What we find during a clean-out is occasionally a priceless heirloom or hitherto-unknown family photo; but more often we find ourselves uttering phrases like “why did they keep a thousand issues of Readers Digest?”

Now that our own descendants may be the ones doing the clean-outs someday, it’s time to confront any pack-rat tendencies we may have, in hopes of making things a bit easier for those who follow.

Besides the stacks of canceled checks in the attic (which can be shredded) and the stash of forgotten emergency money in a Thom McAn shoebox (which can pay for rental of a haul-away bin), there’s an additional issue: our digital life. For the purposes of this week’s column, we’ll stick to this aspect of the big cleanup.

Some older adults established their first email address in the mid-1990s. That means their descendants could encounter an email inbox bulging with 30+ years of leftovers, plus social media accounts that may contain both treasured photos but also remarks they might wish to take back. Passwords? They’re around, somewhere.

It’s a lot. Before your descendants can sort things out, they need to be able to find it.

Introducing The “Digital Death Clean”

Let’s make our digital lives easier for descendants to negotiate. It starts with four key words: make your wishes known. Would you want your social media accounts deleted, or memorialized? Are your logins and passwords stored safely and up to date? Will your survivors know where to find what they need, whether online or in physical form? Getting these matters squared away sooner rather than later will spare your survivors from having to spend hours with customer support, trying to piece together your digital existence.

A Beginners’ Checklist

Look into obtaining an online password manager that will allow you to designate a person to handle your password accounts should you die or become incapacitated.

If your social media accounts have a provision for one or more legacy contacts, use it. A legacy contact can maintain or memorialize your accounts after you’re gone.

If you store photos on a home computer, make sure you use filenames that are easy to understand. For example, a folder called “Yankee Stadium 1998” lets others know what’s inside, while that same folder called “ys98” might be confusing.

Have you switched your credit card statements and utility bills to paperless billing? How many digital subscriptions have you accumulated? Your survivors will need a printed description of where to find the necessary login information.

What do you want in your obituary? Now would be the time to write it.

Tackle a little at a time, as you’re able. Your mobile device’s camera can help you digitize your old travel photos and postcards, so that family and friends can all share the memories.

Golden Living is prepared by the Dutchess County Office for the Aging, Todd N. Tancredi, director. Email him at ofa@dutchessny.gov.