I have lived my entire life with another version of what you've described. My mother taught me from Day #1 that things, irregardless of how irrelevant they were, were to eternally be kept. At 89, she still considers throwing away or selling practically anything she or any deceased relative has ever owned to be inexcuseable.

You cannot (to this day) pick-up anything Mother has ever acquired that she did not date and usually note where it came from, etc. The strangest thing I've ever found so documented was a toilet plunger ("Plumber's Friend") with the date it was purchased AND several return address labels taped to the handle. May lightning strike me dead this minute if I'm lying!

I don't have any idea where attaching emotion to objects comes from but I know it exists. It may all be related to whatever leads to hoarding or possibly even stealing for some people. Shoplifters, from what I've read, steal about as often for the thrill as because they truly want or need whatever gets stolen.

I have this summer been secretly disposing of years of accumulated furniture and household items that I've paid to store (things Mother insisted had to be kept even if they eventually all but disintegrated in storage) and I absolutely feel a sense of jubilation driving away from each trip to Goodwill or the city dump!!