Over the weekend I decided to help someone move some items from their current home to a another home.

While assisting in the process, we were tasked with removing some items from a spare bedroom complete with a closet full of clothes.

As I helped sort through this large collection of things amassed over the course of decades, I wondered to myself several times whether this individual even uses half of the stuff any more.

Several sets of clothes had been neatly stored away, at times in cellophane, but still appeared to have not seen the light of day since the 80s at least.

When the idea of pitching the old items was proposed, it fell on deaf ears.

To this individual, the concept of creating a simpler move by simply throwing unused items away had not crossed their mind, and it was not a concept for consideration.

Instead, their response was to simply put those items in storage, and another day would be set aside to sort through them.

While I wanted to pass judgment, I thought back to my own closet. I know full well it’s packed with things I could certainly do without. Old trinkets, birthday cards and items that serve no purpose today fill boxes stored away in every nook and cranny in my, and probably many of our, closets.

I then tried to think of why I keep my old things, which helped me to understand why anyone does. It all boils down to sentimental value. I know this because each time I look through those boxes in search of one useful item, a flood of memories come back as I pick up each useless item.

And while I know each of those useless items is little more than an excuse to trudge down memory lane, I put them back in the box, and then back on the shelf of the closet.