My brother and sister-in-law (Westerners) lived in Cairo for a few years and tell a similar humorous story. They too would just set their trash and unwanted items out in the hall where it would quickly disappear.
Once my sister-in-law put out some clothes that included an old T-Shirt that had been printed for a family get-together celebrating her parents 50th anniversary. It had a large photo of her parents on it along with wording like "John and Mary's 50th anniversary" etc. etc. She thought nothing of it. But several days later while walking near their apartment, she was taken aback to see an Egyptian man coming toward them proudly wearing the T-shirt with her parents smiling photo on it.
And it seemed this was his favorite or only shirt. For months afterword, she'd see her parent's photo as the man went about his business in the neighborhood. She took it all in stride!
Some people attach more emotional value to items like that. Some don't. I did for a long time. After a lot of big changes I kind of stopped hording things as much and it was very freeing.
I used to never ever get rid of gifts, even if I no longer had any use for them and they were just contributing to clutter. It seemed so ungrateful.
Then I had to get rid of a lot of stuff during a very fraught move, and I thought: someone gave me this because they love me and want me to be happy. Would that person want me to obsessively, guiltily cling to something that doesn't benefit me anymore? No. They'd want me to get rid of it.
Once my sister-in-law put out some clothes that included an old T-Shirt that had been printed for a family get-together celebrating her parents 50th anniversary. It had a large photo of her parents on it along with wording like "John and Mary's 50th anniversary" etc. etc. She thought nothing of it. But several days later while walking near their apartment, she was taken aback to see an Egyptian man coming toward them proudly wearing the T-shirt with her parents smiling photo on it.
And it seemed this was his favorite or only shirt. For months afterword, she'd see her parent's photo as the man went about his business in the neighborhood. She took it all in stride!