My Mother in Law saved her her dog’s tags. I can look at the year and know which dog likely wore each shiny medallion. I am saving them as treasures. I am not saving her over-50-piece set of Liberty Falls tiny houses. Which begs the question: why do we save the things we do?
Turn of the 20th century, we owned little, passed down items imbued with family history and sentiment, and we almost seemed better at letting go. Fast forward to the turn of the 21st century. We’ve spent the last 50 years as consumers, many of us with “disposable” income. But we’re not just giving that income to transient experiences. We’re collecting, choosing, saving and even hoarding the things we buy without thinking through their fate.