Home Funeral Planning Checklist

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• Plan ahead by completing all legal documents you may need, such as an advance healthcare directive, last will and testament, and declaration of final disposition and funeral wishes.
  
• Learn what legal requirements exist for holding a home funeral in your state.
  
• Decide what immediate notifications need to be made following a death.
  
• Decide which professionals you want to hire, if applicable.
  
• Locate any needed legal documents
  
• Fill out a record of death
  
• Plan transportation for the body. Decide how the body will be transported. File and obtain a burial-transit permit.
  
• Plan for the disposition. Choose a disposition method, such as burial, cremation, or natural organic reduction.
  
• Call the disposition provider (funeral home/cemetery/crematory) to arrange/schedule final disposition.
  
• Make or buy a disposition vessel (e.g. a shroud, casket, urn, etc.)
  
• Plan for home funeral details such as:
  
  • Gathering community and assigning roles & responsibilities
    
  • Gathering supplies & preparing the space
    
  • Caring for the body
    
  • Inviting guests
    
  • Including ritual and ceremony
• Plan a memorial/celebration of life, if having one
  
• Tend to your grief
  
• Complete additional paperwork/to-dos after the home funeral such as:
  
  • Obtaining certified copies of the death certificate
    
  • Tending to any outstanding legal and financial matters

Download our free HOME FUNERAL GUIDEBOOK for more about this & topics including: Planning a Home Funeral, Building Community, Bodycare at Home, Disposition After a Home Funeral, and Grief & Vigils.