Every year, around 700,000 marriages end in the United States. That’s roughly half as many divorces as there are weddings. And yet, when someone gets married, an entire industry steps in to help them set up their new life together. When someone gets divorced, they mostly get a casserole and a lot of “let me know if you need anything.”
Divorce registries exist to close that gap.
People Want to Help — They Just Don’t Know How
If you’ve ever been on the outside of a friend’s divorce, you know the feeling. You want to do something. You’re not sure what. Food feels small. A card feels strange. Venmo-ing someone money feels intrusive. So you send a text saying you’re thinking of them, and then you both move on, and nothing concrete ever happens.
A registry solves this. It turns a vague impulse into a specific action. Someone who loves you can look at a list, pick something you actually need, buy it, and feel good about having done something real. The registry doesn’t ask for sympathy — it just hands people a way to show up.
The Practical Reality of Starting Over
Divorce is one of the most logistically disruptive things that can happen to a person. Two people who built a household together now have to divide it. Sometimes that’s negotiated carefully. More often, one person walks away with whatever fits in their car or whatever they could fit into an apartment on short notice.
That means starting over with almost nothing. A mattress on the floor. Eating cereal because there’s no pot. Realizing on day three that you don’t own a single plate.
These are small things. But small things are what make a place feel livable. And it turns out, small things are also exactly what friends and family can help with — if they know what you need.
Divorce Is a Beginning Too
Wedding registries and baby registries have entire industries built around them. They are expected, accepted, celebrated. No one raises an eyebrow at a couple registering for a $400 stand mixer. The social norm is clear: you’re starting something new, and the people who love you want to help you do it right.
Divorce is also a beginning. It doesn’t always feel like one — but statistically, financially, practically, it is. A person walking out of a marriage needs the same things a person walking into one needs: a bed, a kitchen, a way to make their space feel like theirs.
The difference is that no one ever built a place for that. So we did.
What a Registry Actually Changes
Having a registry during a divorce won’t make the hard parts easier. But it does one specific thing well: it turns support from something abstract into something concrete.
It lets the people in your life feel useful. It removes the awkwardness of asking for things. And it gives you a list of what you actually need, organized in one place, ready to share when the time feels right.
That’s not a small thing.
the ReStart is free to use. If you’re ready to build your registry, here’s how to create one.
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