I can’t forget a news video from last year featuring a house in North Carolina floating away due to catastrophic rains and flooding. The devastating fires in California are not yet contained. All I can think about is how difficult it will be for those people to recover their property, make insurance claims and provide essential documentation to access a number of services.
If all your important documents suddenly became inaccessible to you, what would you do? That’s why I’m a big advocate for digital organization. Any loss– expected or not can create a world of stress. If you’ve ever tried to get any official document (title, license, claim) without the required identification or documentation, you know what a time and energy suck it is. Now imagine how much easier it would be to get a replacement of that document if you had an electronic copy of it? Digital organizing helps you have electronic copies of things like your ID’s, insurance policies, health insurance cards, financial statements, estate plans and things like inventories of important things you own.
I know you’re probably saying, “what are the chances I’ll lose all my important documents in an event?” But imagine the relief it would be to have access to all your documentation if an unexpected event does happen.
Getting organized is a common new year goal. As someone who’s practiced feng shui and helped people declutter for years, I can tell you the payoff for getting digitally organized is much higher than cleaning your closet. When looking at digital organization, it helps to break things down into two categories. They are physical “things” to stored electronically and assets that are already digital that need to be cataloged and curated.
Physical to Digital Conversion
The first bucket is taking something physical then converting, sorting and categorizing it to a digital vault or digital filing cabinet, like:
- financial, medical, legal, insurance and other types of records
- legacy and estate directives
- property deeds, vehicle titles
- anything you want to memorialize like recipe cards, pet documentation
- photo and videos (DVD, VHS, etc.)
- appraisals for jewelry, art or collectibles
- personal property inventory (what you own that you’d have to replace in a catastrophe)
Digital Asset Management
The second bucket contains items that are already digital but need categorization and systematic organization:
- electronic photo and video collections
- digital assets you own (domain names, intellectual property, cryptocurrency)
- online accounts (anything with a user ID and password), password management
- web-based or online-only accounts where you may have money, like Venmo, PayPal, an eBay store
- loyalty programs like travel miles, restaurant points
Organize Your Family, Your Life, Your Files
Beyond the obvious benefit or not relying on a physical location, digital organization systems are designed to provide access for multiple authorized parties. There are several web-based tools out there to help. My favorites are Trustworthy and Everplans. Both are easy to use, secure and designed to help families stay organized, catalog and share information.
Trustworthy good for anyone who likes to dive deep into the details. It has sections for Tax Returns and an entire area if you are a Business owner. One of my favorite Trustworthy features is the ability to save a file directly from an email. The system will determine where it needs to be filed and pulls critical information for you. For example, if you upload a life insurance policy, it will autofill important details like the beneficiary, insurance amount and more.
Everplans is very easy to use, clean and even has recommended categories like Pets and Storage Units. Everplans has a section called “After I’m Gone” where you can write letters to your loved ones and even craft your own obituary.
Other solutions are Artifcts and My Data Diary+. Artifcts allows users to tell stories with any photo, document and create a family legacy to preserve memories. My Data Diary+ is a computer (not web) based digital organization solution. I’ve highlighted information about them here:
| Name | Description | Key Features | Benefits | Annual Cost |
| Trustworthy | Comprehensive platform to organize and secure family information. | Centralized storage, secure sharing, reminders, web and iOS app. | Streamlines family information management, reduces stress. Automation helps with cataloging. | $120+ |
| Everplans | Digital vault for end-of-life planning and personal document storage. | Secure document storage, sharing with deputies, end-of-life checklists. | Provides peace of mind through organized planning. Step-by-step and user friendly. Special end-of-life section. | $75 |
| Artifcts | Platform to capture stories and memories behind personal belongings. | Upload photos, add stories, share artifacts, organize collections. | Preserves family history and facilitates storytelling. | $45 annually for base level |
| My Data Diary+ | Tool for capturing, storing, and sharing personal and family data. | Customizable data categories, secure storage, sharing options. | Enhances organization and preparedness for emergencies. | $65 |
An unexpected benefit of these tools is identifying where you might be missing something or need to update your legacy and estate plans.
Getting digitally organized now can save you or your family a lot of hassle and time later. If you feel overwhelmed or don’t want to do the work yourself, Lightsome will do the digital organizing for you, just ask.
Be well, Be Lightsome!
Andrea Finck is the Founder of Lightsome Estate Concierge, helping families with organizing documentation, personal property and home management after the loss of a loved one. In addition to being an After Loss Professional and Certified Home Watch Professional, Andres is a Professional Feng Shui Consultant who says she’s been organizing things and rearranging furniture for as long as she can remember. Andrea can be reached via email at ">.
