"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."
"My apartment is chock-full of these nostalgic knick-knacks which makes dusting incredibly labour-intensive. I can even pinpoint exactly when and where I got each one. The hot-pink alpaca teddy on my bookshelf? I won it in an arcade game in Japan a decade ago first try! There's a coffee-stained print of Matisse's Blue Nude II I found on the side of the road with my first roommate, still hanging proudly on my wall. A One Direction T-shirt I bought as a teenager at one of their last concerts remains in my weekly pyjama rotation, despite it no longer fitting my adult body."
"There are some recent additions, such as my tiny collection of Sylvanian Family critters gifted to me by a friend last Christmas. Or beloved hand-me-downs, including a ceramic ram that belonged to my grandma. I would describe my interior style choices as sentimental maximalism. Others might say I have the early signs of a hoarding problem. The era of trinket collecting is in full swing within my generation. Spurred on by economic instability and the dreaded inevitability of proper adulthood replacing the remaining strands of adolescence, I am one of many who are ditching minimalism in favour of mementoes."
An intensely sentimental person keeps numerous nostalgic objects—old birthday cards, faded stuffed toys, handmade gifts from estranged friends—refusing to discard them. The apartment is cluttered with trinkets that make cleaning arduous and each item is associated with a precise memory or origin. Collected items include arcade prizes, found prints, concert T-shirts, recent gifts, and heirlooms. A trend among the generation favors mementoes over minimalism, driven by economic instability and delayed adulthood. Nostalgic objects provide comfort and whimsy but can also trigger heartache when tied to people who are no longer in one's life.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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