When Swiss medical student Johannes Hofer coined the term “nostalgia” in 1688, he used it to describe mercenaries who felt a deep, debilitating longing for their native lands. He theorized that it could lead to a flood of physical symptoms, like heart palpitations and insomnia, and combined the Greek words nostos (homecoming) and algos (pain) to name it. Realizing you can’t go home again, it hurts.

Muñoz did her best to display items in her nostalgia room similarly to how they were when she was a child.

Photos: Lizzy Muños

But perhaps you can recreate it. Lizzy Muñoz, 31, did just that two years ago when her parents gave her a collection of boxes that had been gathering dust in their basement. Inside: a near complete collection of her childhood. There were DVDs, toys, magazines, and more. “I was looking through these boxes, and they held so much comfort and joy,” she says. Instead of putting everything back in storage, she had an idea: Why not actually use the items?…