I have a very few representative samples; not of notes, but a couple of childhood essays. The rest has all long since been ditched, along with textbooks (other than a couple of lasting interest).

I have a Really Useful Box full of sentimental claptrap of absolutely no utility or beauty; my rule is that I won't to keep more than will fit in that box. Though much of what is in that box can be scanned and discarded and I do have that as a future plan. I also have a couple of special objects that are not in that box either because they're too precious and live with my jewellery, or because I'm so proud of them they are actually on display.

My equivalent of the school notebooks was a selection of trophies that I won as a child in maths contests. My mum cleared them out, and some years later I gave them to The Year of the Teledu to use as prizes.

Flylady has loads of posts on the stuff people keep. Amazing numbers of human teeth, for one thing.

But my serious clutter problem isn't the utterly useless and ugly, it's the stuff that's marginally useful, or that is decorative but that I don't have space to display it.