Here are the planners that I've been using in this 3 years. Tons of papers, notes, and books. My mind was recalling the memories and salient moments I had in these years when I was cleaning up my study table and book-shelf. It means a lot to me.
Most of the time, I would try to keep many things with me as possible. Even though it has no much value or has been broken, I'll try not to throw it away. That's why the planner in year 2013 can be captured with the year 2015 planner. I do clean up, but mostly, I'm reluctant to throw away the old and broken objects that I keep inside my shelf. Or perhaps, I might not touch it, will never realise its existence until the day I do the clean up and saw it there. Physically, it might not have much value, but I'll still insist to keep it. The reason is simple, it means something to me. It is far away from it's functions, but the memories I had with the objects. For instance, the planners.
I could think about the cheerful moments and the hard time I had in academic. The single words and notes that I marked down on the calendar reminded me of the important events and those remarkable memories. Throwing anyone of them is like deleting the memorable moments I had in the past. Though some hard time and down moments should be avoided to prevent myself from feeling the sadness and depressed, but after some times, the hardship has transformed to a in-depth and meaningful insights to me. That's the value I see from these subtle objects in my life.
If you ask me why do it still keeping things that no longer serve as a functional object, I would say, they mean more than just the functions. They are the retrieval cues of my old times memories, and prevent me from getting amnesia. It might be spatially occupied, but I would like my memories been occupied with the ups and down than being empty.
* Perhaps this also explain why I hardly let go something in life.