Hi First name / Slothy!,
I said something to a client recently that rewired her brain chemistry.
We were working on decluttering her basement when she pulled out several bins of old baby clothes. Tiny onesies, little shoes, things she hadn't looked at in years.
She told me she was keeping them for her kids and wanted to get my opinion on whether that was a good idea.
I said, "Respectfully, your kids don't want your stuff. And if they do, they'll let you know what they value and want to keep."
She looked at me. Then, after a beat, she said, "I needed that."
Because somewhere underneath all of it, she already knew. We usually do. It's a weight we feel, which is why we seek an outside perspective.
Her daughter then walked in and said, “Oh! My green dress! Keep that, but the others we can donate.”
And my point was proven.
Between client projects and my own personal family losses this year, the theme of legacy and what we leave behind for our loved ones has been coming up a lot lately. And I think it deserves some airtime here on The Vine.
Most of us want to leave things better than we found them. That is definitely a
core Savvy Sloth value, and I see it play out in so many ways. My home organization clients hold on to things for their kids (at the expense of their own peace and space) so their kids don't have to struggle later in life. My marketing and project management clients hold onto old tools or old ways of doing things because that's what built their success, and letting go feels like erasing something that mattered.
I understand both.
There is love and care in the holding on.
But here's what I've noticed: it keeps us anchored to either the past or the future, and never fully in the present. And the present is where your actual legacy is being built. How you show up every single day impacts how you and others experience and remember you.
The reality is that by the time the people you love inherit what you've been holding onto, the world will have moved on. There will be a newer version, a different tool, a different season of life. What felt sacred to save may not land the way you hoped.
What actually stands the test of time? The feelings underneath. The memory attached to it. The love it represented.
That's what people are really reaching for when they hold onto things from the past. Not the object itself, but the warmth it carries. And when they do inherit something, they make it their own. They find new meaning in it. They build something forward from it.
Because that's what legacy actually is. It's not stuff. It's the impression you leave. The memories people carry of you. The way you made someone feel on an ordinary day.
So if you're holding onto something for someone else, I want you to sit with one question: is it the item, or is it what the item represents?
Because if it's the latter, you can recreate that at any point. It lives in you. And you can create that feeling without anything taking up space in your home or your business.
The moment you can name what you're actually holding onto, you'll feel lighter, freer, and more present. And that version of you is the legacy worth leaving.
XOXO,
Renee
