Memory gives small objects jobs their makers never intended.

A thing made for one purpose can end up doing something entirely different. A ticket printed to admit you once becomes proof that an evening happened; a chipped mug stops holding tea and starts holding a person. Nobody manufactured these functions, and they cannot be transferred, which is why a stranger clearing a house sees only clutter.

Be a little slower to tidy away what someone else has kept, since you may not be able to see the job it is doing. And when you keep something, it may help to write on it why, so that the reason outlasts your memory of it.