Why 2026 Will Be The Year I Start To Live Lightly: And why you should do the same.

You may have heard of “Swedish death cleaning". It’s the idea that, some years before your death, you clear out your house or apartment, you tidy up your finances, and you leave it easy for your family to deal with everything once you’re gone.

I know some of you will find your own demise hard to contemplate — many people refuse to face the fact that our one and only life will end sometime. And for that reason, they put off thinking about it. But face it we must. And one of the best ways we can do that is to plan for it. Most of us can’t plan for a death that happens without much warning, but we can plan our life and living arrangements with the people left behind taken into account.

Let’s fast-forward to your death. Or mine, if thinking of your own makes you feel uncomfortable. I die. Family and friends are distraught. While still dealing with the grief, they also have to find a funeral director. Arrange to have the body transferred to the funeral home. Choose what sort of coffin, flowers, cars, funeral they want, and where they want it to be held. Go to the register office and register the death. Find a caterer for the wake and decide what food you are going to have and for how many people. Contact banks, utility companies and government departments to report the death.

They are just some of the things you will be faced with doing.

And that’s just the start.

I know this, from personal experience: my own parents and my two parents-in-law dying within the last 10 years.

After the funeral, it’s on to sorting out their home — it may be easier if someone still lives there, but if you are faced with selling a home, or clearing it quickly for the landlord, there’s a lot of work involved.

The house clearance is a massive undertaking. Remember, you are still grief-stricken, but you are having to go through the dead person’s possessions and decide what you will do with them — keep them, sell them, donate them to charity. All must be done at speed. The home needs to go back to the landlord, or be put on the market.

There may be house repairs that need doing. And if you don’t live close, that becomes a big problem — you’ll have to book days off work to arrange these and be present when the work is done. My adult children all live a minimum of 2 hours away (one in a different country) and all work full-time, so travelling to and from their childhood to sort stuff out can devour days of their annual leave.

And then there are the finances to sort — banks, building societies, life insurance, car insurance, home and buildings insurance. Stocks and shares. Pensions. Subscriptions to magazines, clubs, media services, newspapers, online sites — all need cancelling. Closing social media accounts. Letting everyone know — having to send copies of death certificates to everyone as proof. The list is long.

Have you begun to realise what a mammoth task you may be leaving behind when you go?

I really hope you have.


I’m going to be writing about my journey to simplify my life in preparation for my future demise (which hopefully is many years away!)

I’m naming it “Lightening The Load TM” .

I’m hoping that it encourages you to do the same. To live lightly, and to leave lightly. Because I think that putting off clearing, sorting, organising and cleaning until you’re older (and maybe without the physical or mental capacity to do it), or not doing it all, is a really selfish idea: we all need, no matter what age, to keep our lives tidy and organised, so that when the inevitable happens, your loved ones don’t have to suffer even more, trying to sort out the mess we left behind, whilst still dealing with the deep grief of loss.

If you care about the people who are going to tidy up after you, be kind to them now by starting your Lightening The Load cleaning now.

I’ll be trying out a range of methods to go through precious possessions and deciding what to keep or let go; finding out about arranging my own funeral, and paying for it upfront; leaving my financial situation clear so no accounts and money is missed, setting of LPA’s (Legal Power of Attorney) for health and finance, giving someone permission to make decisions for me should I no longer be able to; writing a living will to detail what I would like to happen should I no longer be able to voice my wishes. I have already written the will for after my death. And more.
Continue the journey with me!


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