Words like “shirts” and “nick-nacks” and “books” don’t capture the feelings that we associate with our favorite items. A tee shirt from a trip to Japan in 1980 or a stack of yearbooks hauled from home to home—we keep these items because their presence instills within us a deep feeling of nostalgia. According to Randy Frost, a professor at Smith College in Massachusetts, “our possessions all have magical qualities. Many, if not most, of the things we keep have an essence that goes beyond the physical character of the object.” From personal experience, many of us know this to be absolutely true. While our possessions may bring us great joy,…