Does my obsession with old trinkets make me a hoarder or a sentimental maximalist? | Eleanor Burnard

Nostalgic knick-knacks will always have a place on my shelf – and in my heart. There’s something magical about being able to access the past in tangible, physical ways

It’s important to state that I am the most insufferably sentimental person I know.

There are old birthday cards collecting dust in my jam-packed cupboards, stuffed toys – their colours long-faded – sitting in my bedroom despite their prime cuddling years over, while gifts handmade by friends I no longer talk to take up real estate on my cluttered shelves. You couldn’t pay me to part with any of them.