A Ritual of Remembering
We’re here to help Chicagoland navigate through the Seasons of Life.
Honor your family’s legacy and start a mindful transition.
We Start by Listening…
Kept Well is a personal preservation service for individuals and families navigating through the seasons of life.
Clients come to Kept Well during moments of transition - when sorting through meaningful possessions like photographs, heirlooms, clothing, or keepsakes that feel emotionally heavy, time-consuming, or difficult to do alone.
Kept Well offers focused, story-centered projects that help individuals and families move forward — honoring what matters without urgency or pressure. This work is personal, unhurried, and empowering. Our supportive process helps you to know what you have and curate what you hold most dear.You won’t be doing it alone.
What do we offer?
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The Heirloom Session
A focused in-home session designed to identify meaningful objects such as jewelry, letters, photos, artwork, or a few special objects you would like documented.
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The Story Archive Session
We address collections like a closet’s contents, children’s art and schoolwork, or the boxes of possessions we’ve inherited, to provide clarity on what to keep, how to record, and what to release. This is the beginning of your legacy map.
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The Legacy Book Package
This includes everything in The Archive Session. Plus we will document and digitize articles to preserve your family stories, held in a beautifully curated physical keepsake book.
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The Estate Relief Package
For individuals or families navigating major life transitions like managing a loved one’s estate, wanting comprehensive documentation and wanting to preserve legacy.
I’m so glad you’re here.
I'm Joanna Goss, a Legacy Curator and Estate Story Archivist based in Aurora, Illinois. That experience, as well as going through a separation and helping down-sizing parents, and a mother surrounded by a child’s keepsakes, I created Kept Well. As an artist, I've long been drawn to the reasons we collect and accumulate what we do during our lifetimes.
When my grandmother was no longer here to ask, many of the stories connected to her possessions were lost because no one had documented them. We faced the question that so many families face: What do we do with these things? They matter, but not all of them can be kept. Where should they go?
Testimonials
"As a self-admitted hoarder, my basement had completely overwhelmed me. I had no idea where to even begin. Joanna helped me separate the valuables and precious memories from the rest, and organize it in a way that left my space tidy."
— Former Customer
