But.. I dragged them out and already spotted a couple of things. . Things I jad forgotten existed! But meant stuff to me in the past.. eg.. my camp blanket, a stuffed toy... and a cot quilt my grandma made.
What do I do?!?!?!
1. Decide whether they are still meaningful or not, and more importantly, why.
2. If they are still meaningful, do you have many similar things or just a few? If you have many, select the ones that are most precious & let the others go.
3. Think about how you can honour the preciousness of it. For some, that might mean framing a piece of embroidery with a photo of its creator, displaying on a shelf, or photographing things & having them printed in an archival quality book.
4. If after all that, you decide it is something you want to keep, find some appropriate storage. You may have a chest or a shelf or a drawer of family heirloom/personal history type things - but you need to understand that something else has to go to make that space available. And there needs to be a limitation on the space, so you can't just keep adding to it endlessly. For eg, for my DDs' baby things, I have two small tubs, one for each DD. They are small enough to be stored inside my wardrobe so I had to be selective about what went in - ie ONE of each thing.

I'll be honest, this is something I really struggle with, because my childhood/family experience was so fragmented. But I'm aware of it & that process of identifying the feeling/memory that goes with the thing and realising that the memory does not equal the thing, helps create a clearer space to decide what you really do want to keep it or not.