We’ve all heard the saying, “A man’s home is his castle,” but is that really the case? In my experience, our home has long been the domain of my wife, children, and four-legged family members.  

My wife has a simple, Scandinavian inspired home aesthetic honed after her time living in Denmark. My children tend to embrace the “leave-it-where-you-left-it-until-you-have-to-move-it” approach to home decorating, or rather cluttering. And where or what exactly does that leave me in the equation? I get my home office. The one room in our house that is unequivocally, unabashedly 100 percent me. My stuff, my stories, my memories, and yes, even my clutter, although it’s not clutter to me. It’s my stuff, and I love it.  

Shelves, Shelves, and More Shelves! 

When I say I love my shelves, what I’m really saying is that I love the items that are displayed on my shelves, and coincidentally behind me during every one of my Zoom calls. Three shelves and as many decades (if not more!) of stuff that tells my story and highlights the places I’ve been and the things I’ve done.  

Let’s start with my technology shelf. Yes, I am a geek at heart, having been an electrical engineering student at Virginia Tech back in the day. As we used to say, you can’t spell “geek” without a double “EE.” I have a shelf dedicated to all the tech 'stuff' I have used over the years—my original 1992 Motorola flip phone, a Walkman (remember those?), a few Gameboys, a GPS tracker, and one of my most prized possessions, a Microvision Blockbuster gaming device. Our youngest stares wide eyed at this shelf wondering how on Earth we used to function “back in the day” absent smart phones, tablets, and the like. The older kids however love the shelf and always have a “remember when” story to go with the less ancient ‘stuff.’ 

I have a shelf dedicated to my more active flying days, when I had my own plane. (That however is a much longer story for another day, although I did document it in Artifcts for safe keeping!) 

I also have a shelf (and a windowsill!) dedicated to the places I’ve been and the mementos I’ve picked up along the way. Incense burners from my time in India, and sound bowls from Kathmandu. 

You can tell a lot about me by what’s on my shelves. And although my shelves may look cluttered to some and I have occasionally heard on Zoom calls, “wow, you have a lot of stuff,” I know what each and every item is and, more importantly, my family knows why I have the stuff that I have and what it means to me. What do your shelves say about you? 

What Good is an Office Without Books? 

Another corner of my office is dedicated to my book collection. As my wife likes to note, I was never much of a reader until I met her; she introduced me to the joy of reading and now I have a bookshelf that is a literal time capsule of the years we’ve been together.  

There are travel books for the places we’ve been, and biographies and autobiographies of the events we’ve attended and the notables we’ve seen speak. There’s also a healthy dose of fiction and non-fiction. I haven’t gotten around to Artifcting all my books yet, and I may not at the rate I’m going, but I have Artifcted the ones that mean the most to me. The ones I want my kids to know mattered to me and why. You can check out some of my favorites, including The Unwinding of the Miracle by Julie Yip Williams in my most Influential Books Artifct.   

And Don’t Forget the Walls! 

Some of my favorite ‘stuff’ doesn’t fit neatly on the shelf—a tapestry from my travels in southeast Asia, framed concert posters, and even children’s artwork. If the walls could talk, my office walls would continue to tell my story.

One of my favorite framed moments? My business card from the first company I founded. It’s a long story and a private Artifct, but having that card framed and readily viewable to all who enter my office is really important to me. It reminds me of my father, and my desire to make him proud of me given all the sacrifices he and my mother made for us growing up. It’s a testament to hard work and determination, and a reminder to all my children that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. 

Yes, I really do love my ‘stuff.’ And although I may not have much say over what the rest of the house looks like most days, my office is my castle, my domain, and the ‘stuff’ in my office is much more than ‘stuff.’ It’s my story, my memories.

I hope this piece has inspired you to tackle your office and add to your story, one object at a time. Oh, and once you Artifct your stuff, check out the timeline view where you can visualize your life and why you’re wired like you are! 

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You can also read previous ARTIcles Matt has written, including Father, World Traveler and Now Downsizer and Stuck In the Middle With Stuff. 

© 2025 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Reading time: 4 minutes 

Paper clutter and digital clutter can transform minor nuisances to major problems when you have a critical need for access to your important life documents. Today we want to flag the evolution well underway to declutter and organize all of life’s essential information via what’s commonly referred to as digital vaults. 

Bottomline: These modern tools can help you and your loved ones to get organized and be better prepared. 

How many email, banking, shopping, entertainment streaming, and even cloud storage sites are you using? Apps exist to help you keep track of paid memberships to ensure you remember to resubscribe or cancel, helping you keep an eye on costs and control the chaos. Check out this story from US News: Money for information on a few. 

And what about true life essentials, like the paper copies we keep of everything from warranties, tax filings, and receipts to insurance policies and mortgage documents. Sometimes we keep these because we aren’t certain where the digital version exists or if a paper copy is somehow legally required. We may even have digital duplicates floating around in our email accounts. 

Digital vaults can manage it all, your car title, mortgage information, passport and drivers license, and banking and investment details as well as life’s daily resources (memberships, online accounts, contact lists, and more) to be better prepared for everyday life, the aftermath of natural calamities, and deaths in the family. Vaults have a different scope than home inventory apps, the latter focusing on the tangible stuff. And vaults offer more features than file storage, like Box, Dropbox, or Google Drive, where you can nearly endlessly amass files without rhyme or reason.

The Early Days of Digital Vaults

Some of the first companies in this space emerged following the 2011 tsunami in Japan, others have steadily followed.  

At stake is everything we rely on to make our lives function. And when major calamities strike, we may lose access to important documents, including insurance policies, property deeds, and more, without which a return to any sort of normal is impaired and/or prolonged. A digital solution was needed to help people through these life altering events with less stress, cost, and loss. 

Why go digital? Because files in a cabinet or box are vulnerable. Period. Add to that the fact that more and more of our lives have gone digital, there’s no reason to create a paper trail for loss and misuse when robust and affordable digital options are now available to help us tackle it all securely. 

The Digital Vault Industry Today

The digital vault industry has emerged to not only securely store critical information but to also offer built-in planning tools. How’s that for efficient!  

Avoid getting distracted by bells and whistles, however. Review each vault’s listed features, and ask yourself: Does it meet my core needs? No one vault is exactly like another. Pick the one you’ll actually use and will work best as you work with financial services, insurance, estate planning and other professionals, too. At a minimum, as you review each vault consider: 

• • • Security of the system, how you will sign in and grant others access, and how any of your personal information is being used by AI tools to generate personalized recommendations. 
    • Export options if you terminate your subscription and want to take your assets back out. 
    • Adding new information, meaning is this a tedious manual endeavor or is there support from smart instant scanning and sorting (generally AI-assisted). 
    • Price for the trial period, annually, and lifetime plus any add-on features you “need.” If there is a free model, always try before you buy, and then upgrade if you like it and free is insufficient for your needs. 
    • Unique features. As we’ve said, no vault is exactly like the other and your needs are not identical to others’ either. Trustworthy Certified Experts™ offer customized 1:1 guidance whereas Motivity Care provides a suite of concierge care management services and GoodTrust is supporting estate planning. 
    • Ease of use, because beyond different features each offers, the vaults each look, feel, and organize your information a bit differently as is the ease with which you can securely share information with family and professionals. Don’t forget to test your vault out on the device you will use to get the work done, e.g. desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or phone.

Here are a few examples of digital vaults on our radar, each with an array of unique features, offerings, and specialties.

Artifct Here are a few examples of digital vaults on our radar, each with an array of unique features, offerings, and specialties.

(In alphabetical order; with company tagline.)

• • • Everplans: All the pieces of your world in one place. 
    • GoodTrust: Estate planning made easy, affordable, and secure. 
    • Keylu: Life is chaotic. Keylu brings order. 
    • Motivity Care: Redefining how you manage caregiving. 
    • Prisidio: Your digital vault. For life.™ 
    • Trustworthy: The Family Operating System®

You’ve Signed Up to a Digital Vault: Now What?

If you’ve taken the step to set up your data within a vault, be proactive to ensure your time and money are well spent. Here are a few tips to make the most of your digital vault from our personal experience: 

1. 1. 1. Block time to your calendar over the next few weeks to input your critical accounts, memberships etc.; if you have a filing cabinet or box, start by digitally migrating those contents. Email is another great source to migrate docs you’ve received. 
      2. Turn on any available options for reminders so you keep information updated and fill any gaps you might leave;  
      3. Add an annual refresh date on your personal calendar; of course, if you have a major life event (birth, death, sell a company, etc.), or you move, you should also update your vault information; and, 
      4. Set alerts in your search engine of choice, such as Google Alerts, for announcements from your vault company about events, new or retired features, and policy and price changes in case you miss an email or alert from the vault.
      5. Send feedback to your digital vault of choice. It only makes the product better (for you and for all) for companies to receive feedback. Screenshots and videos are amazing bonuses to include in your email to the company. Don't forget to mention what type of device you are working from (e.g., smartphone, tablet, desktop), if applicable.

With a digital vault, you’ll be better prepared for yourself and your loved ones. We hope you find one that fits your needs!

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© 2025 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

One of the most unexpected joys of building a company is the other entrepreneurs you meet along the way. Brilliance and creativity, moving the world in a better direction, seem endless. 

Imagine our delight to be introduced to a jewelry designer who loves stories as much as we do here at Artifcts. This Valentine’s Day we’re shining a light on her beautiful work and the stories and art all around that inspire her and motivate her through it all.  

Should you be shopping for yourself, a friend, or other loved one this Valentine’s Day, our guest today is offering Artifcts members a 20% discount* to bring home a modern heirloom with heart. Use the code LOVESTORY at checkout.

With that, we so hope you'll enjoy this special edition of ARTIcles by Artifcts! 

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Tanja Cesh is the type of woman who believes “How it’s made matters.” She’s unwavering in her commitment to preserving heritage craft and helping to lift up the artisan sector where vulnerable people, often women, have been undervalued for generations.

Through her travels, it’s Nepal that captured her heart and her imagination. She’s built her jewelry, apparel, and tabletop brand, Mulxiply, (pronounced “multiply") hand in hand with Nepali artisans with whom she now counts among her friends.

“The Nepali people love their country. Over the decade plus since I’ve been traveling there, I’ve seen a growth in the young energy and the value placed on the “maker” culture.”

Lucky for all of us, we can embrace that cultural movement through the stories and products Tanja creates.

“Stories, whether it’s what the inspiration was, or about the people who wear the jewelry, or how it was made, are so important. It’s exhausting being a modern consumer. AI thinks it knows us, reduces us to data points, but being approached that way is anything but personal or motivating.”

Tanja takes pride in the fact that together, she and the artisans are creating products you want to buy and want to pass down for generations. “This isn’t the type of stuff you buy out of guilt and turns up quickly in secondhand shops.”

While we chatted, Tanja spoke briefly about her art and design background, but it was her stories about her mother, her aunt, and her meetings with other artisans that seemed to truly shape her ethos and designs for Mulxiply. What better way to share her story than through her own words. 

Meet the Creator of Mulxiply, in 5 Artifcts, by @TanjaC

Artifct #1: Mom's Embroidered Jacket by Sigrid Olsen

Early learnings in fashion and design

“While this is a photo of our wedding, the artifact I'm highlighting is my mom's jacket... from a designer named Sigrid Olsen [...] I learned so much for Sigrid about how things work in [the fashion and design] business, but also how to keep things truly personal and with a story.”

Artifct #2: Dad's Vintage German Telefunken Radio 

Nostalgia meets mid-century design turned personalized marketing

“This radio has always been in my life. My parents brought it with them when they moved to America from Germany [...] Towards the end of his life, my dad struggled with both cancer and dementia [and] listened to music all the time until the day he died. [...] We used this radio as a prop in my company Mulxiply's Fall/Winter 2024-25 photoshoot.” 💕 

Artifct #3: Polaroid of Mom 

A single vintage photo inspires an entire jewelry collection 

“Years ago, I found this mysterious Polaroid of my mom captured in a moment [...] so stylish in her bob parted in the middle, sitting around a table with friends listening to music, candles flickering, drinks and conversation flowing. This photo became the inspiration for the Mulxiply Fall/Winter 2024-25 Jewelry Collection.”

Artifct #4: Vintage German Book "Sternstunden der Menschheit" by Stefan Zweig 

An eye for good design, even in the hardbound variety 

"I have no idea what this book is about as I've never read it. There is a collection of them — all beautifully bound with handmade paper, each book with a different pattern and color. [...] There is so much intention to how this book was made, and I appreciate the handmade nature of it. [...] We also used this book in Mulxiply's Fall/Winter photoshoot as a prop for the model to hold."

Artifct #5: Gold Bangle from Mom made by Zee Sipantzi 

Cherishing the old, and Artifcting it for always 

"This simple bangle was handmade by jeweler and family friend Zee Sipantzi. My mom had several pieces of jewelry made by Zee. [...] I wanted to Artifct it quickly as I'm not quite sure how much longer it will last. This is one of the cherished pieces I was able to keep after she passed and was the inspiration for the Ridge Collection I designed for Mulxiply."

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We hope we inspire you as always to take a fresh look at the 'stuff' in your life, stuff of old and anything new you bring into your life. Where do they come from? Why do you love them? Artifct to share and preserve it all.

Happy Artifcting!

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ABOUT MULXIPLY 

MULXIPLY was born out of recognition that fashion can be fair, art can be healing, and design can change the world. Working with our artisan team in Nepal, we are able to empower our artists to share their craft, economically impact their communities, and elevate their place in society. In doing so, we are elevating art and artisan. We couldn't do it without you.

* Offer valid until 11:59 pm EST on February 14, 2025. Valid online only. May not be combined with other offers.

© 2025 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It’s January, and we’re focused on the living room in our 2025 series, “Around the House, with Artifcts.” 

Before we dive into today’s ARTIcles story, we want to call ourselves out. There’s been a lot of chatter about something that we hadn’t even thought to address: What is a living room?

In some homes, there may be only one main room where you gather, listen to music, read books, watch TV. In others, you might have a living room that’s distinct from a family room. In these cases, the living room is often devoid of one thing in particular: a TV. It’s meant for relaxation and conversation.

For the purposes of “Around the House, with Artifcts” we’re not picky about whether you’re working with a living room or family room. Both rooms:

• • • Are high traffic, social areas 
    • Accumulate objects of sentimental and financial value 
    • Tend to be more about layout and decorating than some other spaces in the home

Okay, with that said, on with the story!

One Process to Rule Them All: Declutter, Artifct, Organize 

You’re welcome, Lord of the Rings fans!

When we are focused on daily living meets practical habits, in every room, we have the same process: declutter, Artifct, organize.

When it comes to the living room, which has a high propensity to be a major collection point for knickknacks to fine art, this strategy is particularly helpful. So much to Artifct! 

You gain so much clarity when you remove the clutter. You learn: 

• • • What’s accumulating 
    • Where it’s accumulating 
    • What’s worn out, in need of an update/upgrade, or simply no longer giving you joy. (Yup, we said it. Forgive us if you are not a joy fan.) Watch out, this clutter could include fixtures like furniture, which often we look right past when decluttering. 
    • What you need and/or want to make space for going forward.

Every home has its own rhythm and its own natural clutter. We asked some members of the Arti Community about their most common living room clutter. Here were some of their responses:

• • • Catalogs that come in the mail 
    • Personal items, like eyeglasses, pens and notepads, medicines 
    • Toys, including for our furry family members 
    • Technology, including laptops, iPads, and earbuds 
    • (Seemingly) Random remotes, chargers, charging cords, and other tech items 
    • Pillows and blankets 
    • Puzzles and games

This comment about toys from one of our members is too good not to share: “The movie “Toy Story” was on to something, because I could swear the toys get up and walk in there all by themselves. Wasn’t it clean when we went to bed?” Oh, we sure do feel you!

Now that you know what’s accumulating on a regular basis, you can focus on the next step. 

The recent fires in California have put a fine point on what it means to lose everything. You may have memories, you may have some photos, but an Artifct can pull triple duty: ease you through your grief, helping you to re-live happier times; support an insurance claim when you share an Artifct with your insurer; and help you rebuild and re-furnish your favorite spaces when the time comes. 

In the living room, where you have collectibles, decorative items, homemade blankets, art and photographs, books, and more, pause to consider what the items mean to you. The stories they could tell! It’s a great room to start in if you are building your Artifcts collection. It’s likely rich with your stories.  

A few Artifcting tips for the living room:

• • • Valuable items. Remember to include in each Artifct receipts, appraisals, and other items in the “Documentation” section that can support re-selling, estate planning, and insurance. 
    • Purely sentimental. When you Artifct these items, complete the “In the Future” field to help others know what to do with them one day when you’re no longer here. Make their decisions easier. 
    • One of a kind. For your one-of-a-kind items, valuable or sentimental, that mean so much to you, consider sharing those Artifcts with friends and family. Everyone loves a good story! 
    • On the way out. If your declutter included sentimental items that are hard to let go of, Artifct that and the story to remember always and to say goodbye.

You won’t get far with organizing if there’s nowhere to put the stuff. If you have certain items that are constant thorns in your side, items left out and about in passing or because of frequent use, start with those. It’s a great win to remove the clutter and find a long-term solution.

For everything else, here are a few friendly organizing reminders:

• • • Put things in the closest proximity that is practical to where they are used.  
    • If ‘stuff’ gives you anxiety, intentionally minimize what’s out on display and rotate new objects in by season or on a schedule, like monthly. 
    • Find a home for your best intentions, like books and magazines you've been meaning to read, craft projects you intend to start or finish, and so on. You can pull them out when you’re actually ready for them. 
    • Consider carefully if more storage is the answer in your situation. You might need to go back to the decluttering and Artifcting steps if you find yourself filling up and maybe overflowing your existing and/or new storage solutions.

What your your tips for decluttering living spaces and making it easy to let go of items, sentimental and valuable alike? Write to us at Editor@Artifcts.com. 

Happy Artifcting!

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© 2025 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Through the artifacts and stories carefully preserved and shared, we can connect with our shared history and bring forward its lessons to a new generation. We hope you find inspiration in this story, the spoken and unspoken history of a family that has now been brought into the light. We extend our deep gratitude to Deborah for sharing her story.

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Meet Deborah.  

Deborah grew up Jewish, the kind of Jewish that enjoyed matzah but also celebrated Christmas with other kids in her Connecticut neighborhood. Being Jewish, she felt different, special, “even if I didn’t know what being Jewish meant.”

While Deborah knew vaguely of her family’s migration from Austria to the United States during World War II, she knew little of the details that completely relandscaped her family’s lives.

Fast forward many years to 2003 when Deborah asked her mother about family documentation that might exist to support reparation claims for those who had property stolen as the Nazis swept across Europe. “My Mom said, ‘Good luck with that,’ and pointed up, to the attic, ‘Everything’s up there. Suitcases full. Take it.'"

Sure enough, Deborah’s great grandfather, her mother’s paternal family, had squirreled away a plethora of ephemera to document his original Vienna-based hat business, along with letters and other materials of their life. Everything they had departed Vienna for the US with, was all that remained. The rest? The rest was in secure storage at a port in Italy, destined for a ship to the US, and stolen when the Germans overtook the port. 

“It turns out, my mother’s maternal family, having left for the US a few years earlier arrived with practically all of their household items. We’re talking everything down to their 12-piece fine porcelain dinner service.” But of course, they lived in a small apartment in New York and had no need for most of the items. It all sat in storage for decades, wrapped securely in the same 1938 newspaper it shipped over to the US in.

Following are snippets from our co-founder Ellen’s conversation with Deborah in honor of today’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We’re sharing some of the spirit and content behind her discoveries into her own family history and the holocaust. Her Artifcted collection of family artifacts and her book Nothing Really Bad Will Happen provide you, the curious, with so much more historical color and context. We encourage you to explore and take in the themes of resilience, legacy, and survivorship.

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Ellen Goodwin: Where did all these family artifacts come from? You have a hat designed by your great grandfather, a vast collection of mementos and ephemera. Who was keeping them all this time? How has it been preserved?

Deborah Holman: Well, one part of my family lost everything, and the other saved it all.

My mothers’ father’s family essentially lost everything. They moved it into a storage container in Italy in 1941 to ship to the US once they got here. But when the Germans captured the port, everything they owned was stolen. They arrived with a suitcase and 5 bucks. The only reason I have one of the hats from my great grandfather’s hat factory in Vienna is I was able to find one on eBay!

My mother’s maternal family left earlier, in 1938, and they kept everything. They dragged all of it from Vienna and deposited it in the storage area of their apartment building. It sat there until it migrated into my mother’s attic, wrapped, unused, and never spoken of.

Goodwin: But your great grandfather’s documents, they were an exception. They made the trip with him to the US, right?

Holman: Yes, exactly. When they confiscated his hat factory, he began immediately to try and get it back. He saved every document, every letter for reparation claims. It was a whole additional suitcase in my mother’s attic I never knew about.

Goodwin: You never knew. You mean your mother never discussed it? 

Holman: Never. My mom was six when she fled here with her mother and grandmother. All she ever said were things like, “I could have been a princess,” and “Maybe I could have had a sibling,” or “We had money, and then we had nothing.” I knew her father had spent 10 months in two concentration camps, my grandmother had all the letters he sent every two weeks, but that’s it. 

My daughter was the only one to ever open a small crack into my family’s holocaust history when she interviewed my mother for a school project in the late 90s. I don’t know how accurate the memories were, but my mother shared more than I had heard before. And then that was it, “There’s no point in talking about it anymore,” were my mother’s final words on it. 

Goodwin: When going through large collections like these you expect to find certain things: passports, travel papers, letters, and the like. Did you find anything surprising?

Holman: As I was writing my book, I was feeling guilty about how I portrayed my great grandfather, the hat maker. He does not come across as a really good guy, so stern. And that’s where the title of the book, “Nothing Really Bad is Going to Happen,” came from. His view of what the Nazis were doing was akin to “this happens to Jews all the time.” He almost blew it, not getting out until ’41 because of his mindset. 

And yet, one day out of the blue, my sister called to tell me she found his wallet in a box in her house. She has no idea how it came to be in her possession. And tucked in the back of the wallet was a newspaper article, written in German. I translated it and discovered it was essentially an advice column, advising against giving your children too much before you die because if you do, they won’t learn to be self-sufficient, and they’ll want you to die prematurely so they can get your stuff.

With that article, I realized, I portrayed him pretty accurately. Guilt gone!

Goodwin: And THAT is why I tell people the things we keep speak volumes about us, what we value, and even our aspirations.

So, you have all this now, and you know more about your family history. What will become of these physical artifacts?

Holman: We’ve agreed we want to donate items of broader interest to an institution where people will get to see it all up close, somewhere more intimate. There are some museums in NYC as well as the Center for Jewish History that we have in mind. 

Goodwin: As we bring our conversation to a close, I’d like to circle back to where we began. You said as a child you didn’t know what being Jewish meant to you. What does being Jewish mean to you now after you’ve done all this family research?

Holman: Being Jewish means strength and resilience. It means “Good luck. Do what you want. We’re not going anywhere.”  

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Let this be your call to action on this International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Let this family's artifacts of the past and the people and stories they represent remind us always to stand against hate and intolerance in all its forms. We are better than our past, always improving with the lessons of history as our guide.

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© 2025 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.