Garage Cleaning

Ok.. So I bought my first home about 6 months ago... Long story, but it came full furnished; with what I like to call "their stuff, my stuff and whose stuff IS this." I spent today, a mild day comparitively speaking for Texas, only 80 some odd degrees, trying to sort through and clean out some of the junk thats in the garage. What I don't understand is this: There is a closet in the garage filled to the brim with clothes, pictures and various assorted bits and peices from someones life. Whose life it is.. I haven't a clue. There were enough clothes in this closet, to clothe about 2 to 3 people. How can someone leave all this behind like it was never there? Clothes.. maybe.. but the pictures, the obvious family things.. Is it true that I am just a sentimental mushball? I couldn't imagine leaving all that behind. I have had my share of losing things throughout life, but not once.. did i ever willingly leave behind something of sentimental value.. no.. I NEVER left something behind of sentimental value..
I thought about this again.. as I was watching people dig through it as it sat on the curb waiting for the monthly pickup by the bulk trash people...Did these curb diving trash hunters know.. that they were digging through someone's life? Did the junk man.. who came by and picked up assorted peices of metal even stop to think where it came from and how it got to be considered "trash?"
Just something I thought about today...