Take a look around your room right now.  If you were to drop dead this instant would you be okay with having family members go through all of your stuff?

A lot of people have skeletons in their closet or on their hard drives that may be best left hidden even after death. It’s bad enough to have your friends and family mourn your passing but do they need the stress of learning you were into Japanese mud porn too?

So for the terminally ill, elderly, people wanting to maintain their double lives in perpetuity, and people living under constant fear of death, making arrangements with an experienced and independent 3rd party to come in and clean your space might be the way to go.

Making arrangements before departing this mortal coil has become something of a fad in Japan, especially since the release of the critically acclaimed documentary Ending Note (English title: Death of a Japanese Salesman) in 2011.

An ending note is an informal type of last will and testament but not legally binding. Their purpose is for people whose end is near to easily make the necessary preparations so that their family doesn’t have to deal with needless burdens.

Major stationery companies like Kokuyo even produce ending note kits to help facilitate the process.

Keepers is a private company run by Taichi Yoshida which started Japan’s first “Deceased Belongings Clean-Up Service” in 2000. In an interview with News Post Seven he tells some cautionary tales of his experiences with post-mortem secrets revealed.

“A lot of cosmetics and women’s underwear seems to come out of the rooms of estranged fathers.”

He also tells of men with mistresses and illegitimate children who were only discovered after death. As heavy as those cases are, even something not so serious but very unbecoming of your public persona might be best left hidden.

“There was a former elementary school teacher who was found to have over 1,000 adult videos in his home. His family was speechless.”

Unless you’re Larry Flint, no one wants to be remembered that way. So you could throw out your sexy lady chop sticks and Christmas masturbation devices right now.

Or you could whip up an ending note to have some professionals who’ve seen it all come in and chuck them out when you’re truly done with them.

Source: Keepers, News Post Seven via Itai News (Japanese)

▼ Keepers offers a range of services such as arranging all of the deceased’s belongings for memorial services.