MEMORIES are the currency of our lives and often, when it comes to the past, we like something tangible to hold onto. It is a subject I have thought about a lot in recent weeks while embarking upon an industrial scale burst of spring cleaning.

Last autumn I wrote about my messy, junk-filled spare room and afterwards received several messages from readers, including one where the sender talked about their own experiences of decluttering and how they managed to unpick the tangle of why we hang onto certain things.

That sense of attachment is a hugely individual thing. I have ruminated on this in the months since, periodically popping my head round the door to survey the gargantuan mountains of stuff.

Is it sentimentality? Is it practicality? Is it prepping for an apocalypse in which I envisage myself turning a hodgepodge of random objects into a tank or a helicopter like a scene from The A-Team?

In truth, the possessions we gather, big and small, build a bridge........

© Herald Scotland