How Surrendering My Treasures Inspired a Startup
A personal story of transition, written by Sheri Hauser.
So there I was, divorced after 20 years and moving out of our home to put it on the market. This house had acquired 16 years worth of shared memories and loads of mementos. I was downsizing to live in a space half as big and felt overwhelmed by the task. Witnessing the struggle, my friend, Harmony, volunteered to spend a day with me in support of this process.
She became all-business in her efforts to focus our time together and explained the process of bringing items together into categories. I chose to start with the most emotional category first, my art collection and she let me lead the way. We brought every single piece of art from each room in the house to the largest room to view my entire collection together. From this perspective, I could begin to feel which items would be impossible to get rid of and which I could potentially part with.
I am a curator of joyful things. I consider my purchases thoughtfully. They all told a story about a place and a time when an experience became a memory. Letting these items go caused me anxiety. Would it mean that the memory meant less? Would the person who is connected to that item come to my new place and judge me if they didn't see it on display? These are questions about respect. Respect for the lifecycle of the item itself, especially because I tend to collect handmade unique or peculiar pieces: art, jewelry, wearables, decor, etc.
My collectibles from decades of treasure hunting, curated to a select few.
Then, a light bulb went on for both of us. It was easier for me to let go of things I admired when I imagined them going to a specific community or organization whose values aligned with mine, instead of going to a generic donation bin or thrift store. By the time we got to my clothes, it wasn’t just a “save or toss” question, instead I made a pile for Dress for Success where professional outfits would go, a pile for my Burning Man community who would most appreciate my creative costumes, a pile of warm and basic essentials for a women’s shelter, a pile of specialty items to a consignment shop, and so on.
Me posing with my donation to the Seattle Burning Man Community
So the question wasn’t about how to speed up the process of downsizing or how to clear out my house with more joy, it was knowing where they were going they were going that became the only thing making it possible for me to let go of the items in the first place. Because I cared so damn much about each and every item.
For me, this realization carried me through the rest of the process of moving and selling my home. For Harmony, this was the spark that ignited her passion to launch a company focused on this philosophy.
What makes Rejoy unique isn’t home organization support, or de-cluttering service, it’s the commitment to do those things AND judiciously share the joy of your released items to a community of people who would most benefit and appreciate them.
The amount of waste citizens in the US discard due to abundance is staggering when the population of those in need is so clearly apparent. The stark difference between the two inspires me to show up and connect resource plenty with resource deficient populations. That is why I joined Rejoy as head of community partnerships to make as big of a difference as possible.
As Head of Community Partnerships, I am building alliances with nonprofit organizations who can provide donated items directly to the population who needs them most. In this way, Rejoy can make a difference from one household to many.
If you know of groups like this, who re-distribute household items to those in need, then I invite you to contact us so I can add them to our growing list of community partners and expand the virtuous cycle of joyful giving and renewal.
