Love and Stuff and Zoom

An interactive workshop with Peabody Award winning Filmmaker Judith Helfand and Dorot’s home organizing expert Kathleen Fiorito on how to use a little love to work through all the stuff we literally can and can't take with us.

This workshop will start with a screening of Helfand’s 10-minute NYT/Op-Doc “Love and Stuff,” followed by a pragmatic and mindful discussion, co-led by Helfand and Fiorito. Can you start with your grandma’s most cherished ‘tchotchkes’ and use the conversation and connection and stories about the stuff to get to the DNR (do not resuscitate orders)? We think so.

Filmmaker Judith Helfand’s inspiration comes from her own experience of going through her mother’s stuff post-funeral and shiva (ritual mourning) when it was too late to take her mother up on her loving yet emphatic request to come home and go through generations of family stuff together. It was only in the weeks after the funeral, while going through the stuff, and imagining doing it together with her mom, that Helfand realized how much fun they could have had, and how much peace of mind it would have brought her mother. This workshop is for everyone- older adults, children with older people in their lives, and those who work, counsel, and pastor them. Together we will think out loud about how to use a “stuff review” to nurture critical conversations about how we hope to die and what we really want to leave our loved ones.