You sound exactly like my wife, and her parents. Nothing can be thrown out without inspection for sentimental and monetary value. One of her grandmothers also had a penchant for hiding money in stuff.

I'm so reminded of Carlin's "Stuff" routine.

I look around my house, and I can count the number of things I'd like to keep fairly easily (in no particular order of importance):

• bikes (though some need selling or replacing)
• kayaks (and assorted gear)
• hockey gear (only because it's expensive to replace)
• the various momentos (generally from deceased grandparents, or travel) contained in a curio cabinet
• cameras (and a couple hard-drives of photos)
• cats
• wife and daughter

But then, I've never lived in one house for longer than 5 years, so I got quite used to ejecting the detritus of life on a regular basis. (And I still have a lot of crap that needs binning.)