YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU BY JESSICA ZIVNY

The legacies of stuff and the imprint it makes on future generations

I have spent decades creating spaces with dead people’s stuff. In my years as a Props Supervisor working on and off Broadway, it has become glaringly obvious that we are eventually going to run out of things. Right now, we can still purchase a chair that was built in 1840, but in 70 years, will there be any left? Film and theatre productions rely on these objects to set the scene and I can’t help but wonder how storytelling industries will have to adapt. It may seem trivial at first glance, but it is true that every object around you tells a story about who brought it into the space, and how it impacted lives. 

It’s pretty unfortunate that today’s quickly built furniture — often lacking craftsmanship — and brief home fashion statements (::cough cough:: Rae Dunn) are the items that hold a deep significance in our legacy. It feels a bit uncomfy to sit with the reality that the stuff we’re surrounded by is what our kids, and our kids kids, will be looking to, to ground themselves and hold dear.

Since childhood, I have always loved that my grandmother has her mother’s bedroom set. The bed, dressers, and vanity my great grandmother purchased as a newly acquainted immigrant in the United States was a symbol of great achievement for our family.  These pieces of furniture remain as relics for us, and provide us with quick access to remembering who these people were, what they were about, and what their life was like.

Do you still have that pocketwatch from a relative who passed? Do you still have that tea set that was smuggled out of your grandparents’ home country despite the laws that prohibited it leaving? Nearly every family has a story like this. Objects can keep us close to those who are no longer with us. When you think about your own legacy, what is the story you want to tell?

We so often look back at the history of objects as something to marvel over, but what about right now? We are sitting on chairs that are a part of history. Let’s marvel at what we have. Sure, “you can’t take it with you,” but what you’re sitting on just might be representing you or your generation in your grandkids homes, in a movie, or maybe even in a museum. It is unfortunate that a lot of items we have these days are not built to last, and yet, it’s what we have and it’s telling our story. The story of the relationships our country has with other countries, the story of what we can and can’t afford, the story of workmanship, fashion, and so much more. 

Our belongings are a mirror of our time — revealing not only how we live, but what we value. In a culture obsessed with the new, perhaps the real act of resistance is preservation. To care for something old is to keep a piece of our shared story alive.

As an interior designer and psychic medium, I see this connection daily — how objects hold energy, emotion, and memory. A room isn’t just filled with things; it’s layered with the lives that have moved through it. Every chair, photograph, and heirloom hums with the stories of those who came before. Design, then, becomes more than arranging furniture — it’s a way of channeling the unseen, honoring the past while shaping the energy of the present.

Maybe that’s the true legacy of our stuff: not just what it looks like, but what it holds — and how we choose to carry that forward.

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