Object attachment

The emotional bond a person forms with their belongings. Strong object attachment is normal; intense, distress-causing attachment is a key feature of hoarding-related difficulty.

Researchers describe several flavours of object attachment: items as anchors of identity, items as connections to people, items as symbols of safety, and items as repositories of memory. Most people experience all of these to some degree — with hoarding disorder, the intensity is markedly higher.

Memory keeper exists because of this. A photo and a story can hold the meaning while the physical object moves on — the bond doesn't have to be broken to release the item.