Swedish death cleaning: a practical guide to sorting your affairs
Swedish death cleaning means sorting your own things so others do not have to. How to do it, including the list of accounts that saves your family most time.
What is Swedish death cleaning?
Swedish death cleaning is the habit of gradually sorting through your own belongings during your lifetime, so that the people who come after you are not left to do it. The Swedish word is döstädning, and an AFP report published by The Local explains that it joins dö, meaning death, with städning, meaning cleaning, and that the term was coined by the Swedish author Margareta Magnusson in her 2017 bestseller, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, although the same report notes that Swedes had been doing it long before she gave it a name.
Magnusson, who died in March 2026 at the age of 92, described it in a first-person piece published by The Big Issue in 2018 as a lasting way of organising your life rather than a one-off tidy, and her publisher, Canongate, sums up the idea as shedding unnecessary things at any age. Most of what has been written since concentrates on possessions, which is understandable, but the part that saves a family the most time later is usually the paperwork, because every account has to be found before anyone can deal with it.
Why does the paperwork matter as much as the possessions?
Belongings can be sorted by your family at their own pace, whereas accounts cannot wait in the same way, because each bank, pension scheme, insurer and supplier has to be identified and told before the estate can be valued and settled. Executors have to ask each of those organisations for the balance at the date of death, and when nothing has been written down, finding out who those organisations are is often the slowest part of the job. Tell Us Once, which the registrar offers when a death is registered for someone who lived in England, Scotland or Wales, passes the news to government organisations such as HMRC and the DWP, but it does not reach banks, insurers, utility companies or most workplace and personal pensions, so those are left for the family to find one by one.
A clear list of what you hold turns that search into a matter of working down a page. Building it is also a good moment to tidy up, because an account you no longer use takes a phone call or a form for you to close, whereas after a death the provider will usually ask your executors for documents such as a death certificate before it will deal with them.
How do you start sorting your belongings?
A practical way in is to begin with things that are large, rarely used and easy to decide about, such as furniture in a spare room or the contents of a loft or garage, and to leave photographs and letters until later, because they are slow to go through and bring back memories that deserve your time. Working in short sessions, one cupboard or one room at a time, keeps it manageable, and since there is no deadline, steady progress over months is perfectly fine.
Giving things away now means you can choose who has them and tell them the story behind each one, which a note left with your will cannot do in quite the same way. Things nobody in the family wants can be sold or given to a charity shop, and it is entirely reasonable to keep whatever still matters to you, since the aim is simply to leave less for someone else to decide about. Possessions you give away can count as gifts for inheritance tax, because GOV.UK's guidance on gifts includes household and personal goods such as furniture or jewellery, and it gives the annual exemption as £3,000 a tax year, so if you give away anything valuable it helps to note what it was, who received it and when you gave it.
Which accounts should go on your list?
The list should name every organisation you have a financial relationship with, from your bank to your broadband provider, because each of them will need to be told after your death, and the simplest way to build it is by type. For each one, write down the provider's name and a reference that identifies the account, such as a policy or customer number, but never passwords or PINs.
Banking and savings: current accounts, savings and building society accounts, ISAs, Premium Bonds and any accounts held jointly.
Investments: shares, funds, investment platforms and any employee share schemes.
Pensions: every workplace pension from current and past jobs, and any personal pension or annuity you arranged yourself.
Insurance: life insurance, critical illness or income protection cover, and home, contents, car and pet insurance.
Borrowing: a mortgage, credit cards, loans, car finance and any buy now, pay later agreements.
Household bills: energy and water suppliers, together with council tax and a TV licence if you have one.
Phone and broadband: mobile, landline, broadband and any bundled TV package.
Subscriptions and memberships: streaming services, newspapers and magazines, gyms and clubs, regular charity donations and anything that renews automatically each year.
Your bank statements are the quickest check, because a year of statements shows every direct debit, standing order and recurring card payment, including the small annual renewals that are easy to forget. Online accounts that hold money or credit belong on the list as well, since a balance or credit left in one can belong to your estate. When the list is finished, add where your paper records are kept, for example the folder with your pension statements and insurance schedules, so that your executors can find the detail behind each line.
How do you find old pensions and accounts you have lost track of?
For pensions, start by listing every employer you have worked for and any personal pension you remember setting up, because MoneyHelper's guide to finding lost pensions explains that you need the provider's name before you can find its contact details. The government's Pension Tracing Service then gives you a scheme's contact details, through the GOV.UK pension contact search or by phone on 0800 731 0175 from Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm, although GOV.UK is clear that it cannot tell you whether you have a pension or what it is worth, so the scheme itself has to confirm that. Our guide to how the Pension Tracing Service works takes you through it, and MoneyHelper notes that schemes may ask for details such as your National Insurance number and the dates you worked there, and that once a pension is found, checking the provider has your current contact details means its statements reach you again.
For old bank, building society and National Savings and Investments accounts, My Lost Account is a free tracing service according to its own website, but it only finds accounts that have been classed as lost, which MoneyHelper says often means an account inactive for around 15 years, and MoneyHelper suggests expecting a response within three months. Our guide to what My Lost Account does and does not find explains its limits, including that it is confined to those kinds of account and so does not cover pensions or insurance policies.
Once you know what you hold, closing old bank accounts you no longer use shortens the list your family will have to work through. Combining pensions is a bigger decision, because MoneyHelper warns that some pensions include valuable special features, and that older schemes may carry protections which could be lost on a transfer, so checking for those comes before moving anything, and regulated financial advice is worth considering if you are unsure.
What should you do about your digital accounts?
Add your email, social media, photo storage and shopping accounts to the list and decide what you would like to happen to each one, because some large platforms let you choose in advance who can receive your data after your death. Apple, for example, lets you add a Legacy Contact who can later request data such as your photos, messages, notes and files using an access key you give them together with your death certificate, although not your stored passwords or purchased films and music. Google's Inactive Account Manager lets you set how long your account can be inactive before it acts, and can then notify up to ten people you have chosen and share with them the data you select, and Google's help pages describe it as the place to say whether you would like the account deleted.
Passwords are best kept out of your will and your letter of wishes, because a will becomes a public document once probate is granted and a letter can be read by several people or mislaid. What helps most is a record of which accounts exist and what you would like done with each one, with the platforms' own settings handling access.
Where should your will and lasting power of attorney be kept?
Your will and any lasting power of attorney are the documents your family may need in a hurry, so the list should say where the originals are and who holds copies. If you have not yet made a will, our guide to writing your own will and the legal rules explains the formalities and when advice is worth paying for, whilst our guide to where to keep your will compares the storage options. Age UK's factsheet on making a will (July 2026) advises telling your executors where the will is held, which matters most when the original was lodged with a solicitor many years ago.
A lasting power of attorney, which is the document used in England and Wales, works whilst you are alive, because it lets people you choose help you make decisions or make them on your behalf, and GOV.UK explains that it comes to an end when the person who made it dies. Our guide to setting up a lasting power of attorney explains the two types and how registration works, and your attorneys would find the same list useful if they ever had to manage your money, which is another reason to keep it current.
How do you tell someone where everything is, and what should you do next?
The list only helps if someone can find it, so tell your executors, or whoever you would expect to deal with your affairs, where it is kept, and consider keeping it with a letter of wishes. Our guide to writing a letter of wishes explains how that informal, non-binding document sits beside your will and what else it can usefully cover, from personal belongings to funeral wishes.
Choose one place to keep your list and your important papers, and tell your executors where it is.
Go through a year of bank statements and write down every account, policy, supplier and subscription you find.
Trace any pensions from past jobs and any old savings accounts you have lost touch with.
Close the accounts you no longer use, and check for special features before combining any pensions.
Set up the legacy or inactive account settings on the digital accounts that offer them.
Make or review your will and lasting powers of attorney, and write a letter of wishes if you want to guide your executors.
Work through your belongings a room at a time, giving away what you are happy to part with now.
Update the list once a year, or whenever you open or close an account.
When someone dies, their family or executors have to find and tell every bank, utility, insurer and subscription provider, which is far quicker with a list like this to hand. If that work does fall to your family, Legacy Trail's free notification service can contact the private-sector companies for them.
Frequently asked questions
Döstädning is Swedish for death cleaning, joining dö, meaning death, with städning, meaning cleaning. It describes sorting through your own possessions whilst you are alive so that others do not have to, and although Margareta Magnusson coined the term in her 2017 book, the practice in Sweden is much older.
There is no set age, and Magnusson's publisher describes the idea as shedding unnecessary things at any age. A house move or retirement can be a natural moment, because you are sorting things anyway, and starting earlier means it can be done slowly, a little at a time.
A useful checklist has two halves, one for belongings and one for paperwork, and the paperwork half is what saves your family the most time. Date the list each time you update it, so that whoever finds it knows how current it is, and keep it to provider names and references rather than passwords.
Not in your will or letter of wishes, because a will becomes public once probate is granted and a letter of wishes may be read by several people. A safer approach is to list which accounts exist and use the legacy or inactive account settings that some platforms offer, which let a person you have chosen request access through the provider's own process.
Often, but it takes longer. My Lost Account only finds accounts that have been classed as lost, and the Pension Tracing Service only provides contact details for schemes, so an account that was still active but left no paperwork can be the hardest to find. A list removes most of that guesswork.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Individual circumstances vary. If you are dealing with an estate, consider taking advice from a solicitor who specialises in probate. For other guidance specific to your circumstances, speak to a funeral director, Citizens Advice, or a regulated financial adviser.