Keep The Memories, Not The Stuff

Book Review By Jeannine Bryant

REVIEWED BY LINDA STEPHEN

There are many books and TV shows about how to clean out our closets or basements – to sort through our own stuff or our children’s things. But what about when you have to sort through an entire house that belonged to a parent or a sibling or a spouse who has died? How do we part with the items or collections that our loved one treasured?

Lincoln business leader and author Jeannine Bryant’s new book Keep the Memories, Not the Stuff provides a helping hand and a step-by-step process for
how to prioritize what items to keep. She shares thoughtful insights into the grieving process, our attachment to stuff, and the process of letting go. Bryant’s company, Changing Spaces SRS, has worked with hundreds of seniors and their families in Lincoln as they downsize or clear out a home.

“The brutal reality is that people die, and their stuff must go somewhere,” Bryant says.

One easy option many people choose is to put things in storage. Bryant recommends strongly against that. “Try to keep only items you intend to DISPLAY or USE,” she advises. “If you think something is lovely, but it will end up in storage because you have no place for it, don’t take it!”

Keep the Memories, Not the Stuff will help readers to choose how and when to let go of keepsake items and in so doing gain a new perspective on life, love, and memories. Learn tips for sorting through boxes of photos or other collections.

This book is for anyone who has ever faced emptying out a loved one’s home or struggled with deciding which and how many items to keep from the past. Bryant shows that our legacy, what we really leave behind, is so much more than our stuff.

Meet the author on June 16 at 6:30 p.m. She will be at First Plymouth Church for a book talk and for questions— in person or on Zoom.

Keep the Memories, Not the Stuff is 91 pages. Bryant’s first book, Ready to Rightsize? was published in 2019.

Keep the Memories, Not the Stuff and Ready to Rightsize? are available to check out at Lincoln City Libraries. Find your own copies at Francie & Finch Bookshop, 130 S. 13th St. in downtown Lincoln, or at Changing Spaces SRS, 5621 S. 50th St., Ste. 4.

Linda Stephen is an artist and author in Lincoln. Contact her at Linda@UnfoldingCommunications.com.