Whether memento, talisman, idol, tchotchke or all of the above, we keep some items that sit unnoticed for years. Initially imbued with power, the object's sentimental resonance fades with time: it moves from a footnote to a bookmark to a link with a 404 error in your memory, and the exact emotional context associated with the item is gone. It's at this point that dumping the object makes sense.
So why don't we?
Laziness. More pressing matters. Time.
Perhaps it's the discomfort of parting with that physical memory trigger, of losing the mnemonic, of letting go.
But it could also be that we need a ritual to help us move past these memory ghosts and bring the story intofocus. It is not the object, but the story behind the object, that truly matters.
Take a photo of an object that holds significance for you. Tell its story, its inanimate eulogy. Then let it go.