What unusual items have you developed a sentimental attachment to?

Not sure if it qualifies as “unusual”, but my husband wrote me a love note on a tiny piece of paper about 8 years ago and taped it to the mirror in the bathroom. I keep it in my wallet, and make certain to transfer it any time I switch wallets.

I’m also quite sentimental over this little magnetic voodoo doll that a co-worker bought me while he was in New Orleans. I’d probably cry if I lost it.

I have a basket of curlers from the 60s and 70s that was my mother’s. We used to wrap one another’s heads in those enormously uncomfortable things and then try to sleep lol. I’ve had that basket since she died and I just can’t part with it yet.

@tranquilsea it’s interesting that you mention it, because I have my grandmothers rollers. I used to set her hair for her every week, and my aunt gave them to me when my grandma died. Sometimes it makes me smile when I find strands of her hair still wrapped in them. :)

I have this little Scottie Dog statue about 21/2 inches tall that I won with my maternal grandftaher in a skeeball game at an arcade. I barely knew this grandfather but I am unreasonably and unashamedly sentimental about my little Scottie dog.

A hankerchief that my dad owned. He use to have them in his sock drawer along with a tub with change. After he passed away, I held onto the one I loved the most. I use to go in his sock drawer to get change for movies or icecream. Whenever I come across it, it always reminds me of simpler days.

I have a little black cloth, used for drying glasses. I don’t wear glasses, and I don’t remember where this cloth came from. I’ve had it for years though. It’s folded up on a small basket on top of my fridge. I just like the look of it, and its presence. It’s comforting. Once I put it in the laundry, you know, keeping it clean. But I couldn’t find it after that and I’m not gonna say I freaked out, but it did affect me in a way. I looked through my clothes while folding them to see if it would pop up, and it wasn’t. So for a while, it wasn’t on the basket anymore, and every time I woke up and went by the fridge I was like, dammit. That’s when I knew it meant something to me, for whatever reason.
Well, it was in the dryer. I guess it escaped the curse of the forever missing sock. It’s now on my basket again haha.

Small simple items that signify either a certain special day in my past or a special made gift.
It ranges from a small stone, a painted block of wood, a Christmas stocking my Grandmother made when I was born, certain pens (I love writing instruments), my Dad’s watch (In passing I told him I had always admired it and even as a kid something about it captivated me). I opened a box he sent in the mail one day about 6 months ago and there it was.

My late mother’s old senior bus pass, God bless her soul.

I don’t know if this counts as unusual ;-) but the weirdest thing I ever developed a sentimental attachment to was a 4 pack of chicken legs that sat in the freezer for about 4 years after my mother died. I had a lot (!!) of trouble disposing of things after my mother died, not just her clothes but anything she had anything to do with or ever touched. She had purchased the chicken legs that last time she went grocery shopping, she had selected them, touched them, put them in the cart. I couldn’t get rid of them. Pretty weird, yes.

Pandora have one of my father’s hankies too! It has this sort of plaid border around it. He also used to keep them in his sock drawer and his dresser was this big old heavy wooden piece that I still love. It had this certain smell that is so sentimental to me. I learned to iron clothes by pressing my dad’s hankies so it is especiailly sentimental to me.

@Hypocrisy_Central I have my mom’s last driver’s license. She had the biggest smile in that picture. I was supposed to turn it in but I couldn’t.

The satin binding from my baby blanket. Not the blanket itself, mind you… that thing is long gone. Just the satin edge of it. I used to sleep with it, even into my adult hood. I don’t “use” it anymore, but it lives safely in a drawer. When I die, I’d like to be buried with it. It gave me a lot of comfort over the years, and I’d be crushed if it ever disappeared. Yes, I am 44 years old, damn it.

@lillycoyote She had purchased the chicken legs that last time she went grocery shopping, she had selected them, touched them, put them in the cart. I couldn’t get rid of them. Pretty weird, yes. NOPE!!! not weird at all

Dog nose prints on my front glass door along with a little drool. I won’t clean it.

Augustlan I so understand! I am very sentimental. I hate to admit to how truly sentimental I am! So I will tell you that my sister recently told me that her daughter still has her blankie. She always had to have it close so my sister was forced to have 2 so she could wash it. My neice still has not given up that blankie and she now has a 3 year old daughter of her own! She will probably take it to the grave like you, lol!

My Mom’s wallet and a sweatshirt of hers.

I still have the cup you use to shake the dice in from an old Yahtzee game. As a child I spent every Christmas vacation in San Diego visiting with my grandparents. My grandfather was very special to me because he spent a lot of time with me during our vacation. Each day he would sit with me and play Yahtzee. The cup reminds me of him and I just can’t part with it. This cup is over 30 years old now.

@lillycoyote Wow…maybe it sounds weird, but it really isn’t. What did you end up doing with them?

@lillycoyote my dad was like that when both of my grandparents passed away. He was more subtle when my grandfather died, but when my grandmother died I found 2 year old ranch dressing in his fridge that I know came from her house.

@augustlan I still have my baby blanket, and I’m very sentimental over it. I sleep with it when my husband is out of town. <hangs head in shame> I’ll never get rid of it.

I’m another baby blanket keeper. Mine was made by my grandmother. She knitted it blue and white because everyone thought I was going to be a boy. My sons used it when they were babies. The poor thing has all sorts of holes in it. I’m such a semi-hoarder. lol

@Symbeline I just threw them out. After 4 years in the freezer I didn’t think it was good idea to eat them, and an ever worse idea to put them in some kind of memory box, so I just threw them in the trash.

I’ve got an old paperback copy of Heinlein’s The Past Through Tomorrow. A sad looking guy in Sheremetyevo airport gave me when I was maybe four, I think because I tried to talk to him even though I really couldn’t understand him, he made faces and I laughed. It has traveled around the world with me ever since, every time I go overseas, nearly every time I get on a plane, and many a ‘local’ trips and paths of a different sort too. It’s held together with tape and glue, has notes scribbled on nearly half the pages with various times, dates, places, people, directions, translations, addresses, phone numbers, instructions, memories, notes, signatures, love notes, wishes, etc from as far back as when I first got it. It’s even got a couple receipts, business cards, and pictures stuffed in the pages. It’s been left behind and was mailed back to me from Japan to greet me when I got home. And once I had to switch trains and take nearly a four hour round trip to retrieve it when I realized I didn’t have it. There’s no way to really explain the why’s because I’m not sure I understand them myself. I’m pretty sure I’ll have it till I die and by then it should be just about full.

A velvet picture of the last supper that my parents and before them grandparents had hanging in the home I grew up in. The picture just reminds me of home so when my mother sold the house and said she was getting rid of it I told her I wanted it and have had it hanging where ever I have lived since. Some doylies and table runners my grandmother either crocheted or tatted. She has passed away and I think of her when I look at them. She taught me to tat and it brings me back to the days when she was teaching me. I also have a few peices of her jewelry and I wear her mothers ring because I remember her always wearing it. I also currently wear a ring she gave me when I was 12 with my initials engraved into it and when I look at it I remember her. My class ring because my father who passed away when I was 17 helped me pick it out. The ring was his favorite and I love thinking about the day we went to the jewelry store to pick it out and how proud he was to bring it to me at work after it came in. The movie It’s a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown because my boyfriend who had cancer and passed away noticed I say a saying from that movie and I never new where I picked it up from. We watch the movie together so he could show me exactly where Sally says it and after that he called me his Sally.

There are so many many things that bring back memories of loved ones who are no longer in my life that I could go on all day.

I have the 1889 Morgan silver dollar my mother used to keep my belly button from popping out when I was a baby. I’m told it’s worth lots of money but if I let it out it had my crusty belly button grunge on it nobody will want to handle it. It has since been cleaned.

Two little tiny plastic containers filled with gravels. They were given to me by my children. They called them love rocks.

A letter from an old girlfriend when I was very young. She contacted me recently on facebook. But she died of breast cancer not long thereafter. I did a fundraising bike ride as a result.

Hmmm, the only thing I can think of at the moment are certain books. Books that I’ve read in my teens and early twenties helped foster my thought process of today. It’s kind of like paying homage to something made me a better person or something?

My lettuce keeper.

@perspicacious I’ve always wanted a lettuce keeper. Don’t know why I never buy one.

@jonsblond I’ve had it since 1971. There is no other like it. I recently moved across the country and left it at my other house 2500 miles away. I had to go back to my other home in August and I brought it back here with me. Now I’m completely happy.

A Garfield the Cat alarm clock which sadly met its demise at the hands of my girlfriend, it was an accident but I was very pissed over the whole ordeal. I’d had it as long as I could remember.

I tend to attach too much emotion to almost anything that was given to me by someone I love. If I had to name one that stands above the pack, it would definitely be a little journal that my daughter made for Mother’s Day several years ago. She had taken a few cute photos from her toddler years and written very clever captions that brought back so many sweet memories.

Still have my baby blanket…still sleep with it sometimes, actually. It’s a ratty old thing by now. xD

@Mariah your answer reminded me that I still have my first and favorite teddy bear, my brother gave it to me when I was born and he was my best friend all growing up. He’s in rough shape but still in one peice.

I have a whole box of stuff that I am sentimental about even though they have no meaning to anyone else. The most random thing (that isn’t linked to romance as I keep most things that would be insignificant to others but are related to my relationship with my partner) would be an empty plastic bottle that once had bubble bath in it. The reason I kept it is I bought it as a joke for my dad when I was in America. The reason I found it amusing to buy my dad bubble bath from America is that the label said “Manilow Bubble Bath”! I got it from The Paris Hotel in Vegas where Barry Manilow is performing (and I went to see him while I was there being a big fan and all). It was the campest thing I could find so I found it very amusing to give to my dad (who can quite camp at times). Anyway, after the bubble bath was all gone I noticed he was going to recycle the bottle but I couldn’t bring myself to let it go with all the other plastic bottles so it is now sat above my fireplace in my bedroom with a load of other random objects that I have collected/kept/found over the years!

I have a glass jar of tamales that my mother brought to me
long ago as she knew I loved to eat them with scrambled eggs.
That jar full of tamales has been in every pantry I have had
and i hate to think of what those tamales smell like if you opened
them but I am sentimental and will not throw the jar out.

Also I am THE MOST sentimental about a small plastic toy warrior
that my mom found long ago and stuck it above her front car mirror.
My dad had it in his car after my mom died and then I got it after my dad
died. It is now in my car above the mirror and every time I look in the car
mirror i think of my mom standing watch over me. Sometimes it changes
positions and maybe leans and I always thing that is my mom telling me
she is thinking about me. I want to be buried with this little grey warrior toy.