Holding on to the obvious and overlooking the essential

The story I’m working on right now depends on survivors holding on to the obvious and overlooking the essential. In other words, the most important objects in a character’s life are ignored by her survivors because they latch on to those things that have an obvious intrinsic value or the sentimentality of a known family-story association.

Look around your personal space. Look at the things that you treasure. Would your family or loved ones treasure them as well? Would a stranger treasure them? Do you have any objects in your space that are important or significant for you but would appear innocuous or worthless to someone else?

If you died or disappeared and someone, even someone very close to you and very familiar with you, sorted through your things to remove objects of sentimental and financial value, what would be left? Would something important to you be left behind? 

I’m finding it almost impossible to be able to look at my possessions objectively. Would you pick up this green plate on my desk? The one that holds a smaller bowl of paper clips and a chapstick and charm bracelet? You might. It’s finely worked and stamped on the bottom. Perhaps you’d pick it up to check its value, but you wouldn’t know that although I associate it with my mother, it’s not as important to me as the gargoyle on the top shelf for maternal remembrance. What about these giant rubber bands that hang from my lamp? They’re cool and were sent to me by a good friend. I think of her every time that I look at them, but would you pitch them into a box of random office supplies and not give them a second look? Would you know that the foot-shaped paper clips remind me of Sonar birthdays? How about the mustache on the face of the computer? Would you pitch it when saving the Mac, tossing along with it a memory of Halloweens and silliness?

What objects would I overlook in your space?