golden living

Decluttering your digital life

Golden Living

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.

golden living

Latest News

'Gather' at Troutbeck

'Gather' at Troutbeck

Romane Recalde speaking about her new business at Gather.

Natalia Zukerman

Hosted by Jason Klein and Sascha Lewis, an ongoing series called “Gather” at Troutbeck in Amenia brings together a curious crowd of local entrepreneurs, artists, and others with a story to tell for an intimate midday chat. On Thursday, Jan. 16, floral designer Romane Recalde, owner of the newly opened Le Jardin in Amenia, took center stage to share her journey from modeling in Miami to cultivating flowers in the Hudson Valley. Gather is a place to share stories, swap advice, and celebrate some of the unique businesses that make our area vibrant — all with a delicious lunch on the side. The gatherings are unconventional in the best way, with no agenda beyond good conversation and community building.

Recalde’s story isn’t just about creating a flower shop; it’s about a complete reinvention of self. “I hated Miami so much,” said the French-born Recalde, recalling her time in Florida before moving to New York. She worked as a model in New York, and eventually met her husband, James. Their pandemic escape to Turks and Caicos turned into a six-month stay, which in turn led them to Millbrook and finally to their home in Amenia, where Recalde’s connection to nature blossomed.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

Mad Rose opens ‘Assembled’ exhibition

Mad Rose opens ‘Assembled’ exhibition

Mad Rose Gallery’s “Assembled” exhibition opened Saturday, Jan. 18, with a public reception.

The eclectic exhibition — on view until March 2 at the gallery on the intersection of Routes 22 and 44 in Millerton — gathers together work from a group of diverse artists with decades of experience between them. The exhibition itself is true to the name, featuring photographs, sculptures, drawings and mixed media works in all shapes and sizes.

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit

The fragile bonds of family: a review of Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters'

The fragile bonds of family: a review of Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters'

Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters' is written with such verve and poetic imagination that it’s hard to fathom how it could be the author’s first novel. Ms. Lerner, 64, has worked for three decades as a literary agent, editor, and non-fiction writer, but at some point during the Covid pandemic — without any forethought — she sat down and typed out the first line of the novel exactly as it now appears in the book, and then completed it without telling anyone what she was up to.

The novel takes place over twenty years — from the 1970s into the ’90s — and is a kind of guide for that era. It reads like a memoir accompanied by some bouncy dialogue, but is actually a work of what’s called autofiction in which Lerner mixes her own experiences — including her own struggle with mental illness — with things she simply makes up. The fictional narrator is Amy Shred, the younger of two sisters in an upper-middle-class, secular Jewish family living in the suburbs of New Haven, Connecticut.

Keep ReadingShow less
books

Lazy, hazy days of...winter?

Lazy, hazy days of...winter?

This small stream is fishable, despite the wintry conditions. It probably won't be a pleasant or productive experience, but it can be done.

Patrick L. Sullivan

When syndicated columnists run out of ideas they do one of two things.

First they collect the last couple year’s worth of columns and call it a book. These are published to great acclaim from other syndicated columnists and show up in due course in gigantic, ziggurat-shaped mounds at Costco for $4.98 a pop.

Keep ReadingShow less