Why does the narrator came back …

The narrator wanted to wipe out her past. She realised that the things are not associated with memories, but memories remain with you irrespective of what you have. She had no use of the silver and the antique things that once belonged to her family. She lived in a small room where scarps of the paper that was used as blackout paper still clung to the windows. She had no place for all those things in that small room so she decided to leave without taking the things back. Moreover the things had lost their charm and did not remind her of her mother anymore.

The narrator came back without her belonging because she believed that the memory objectives are linked with the items. So they immediately lost value once they are in a strange surrounding after some time. In the case old, the narrator, her belongings lost means when they have seen at Dorling’s house. She understood that taking them back they will be strange in her new home. And that is the reason why she did not come back to claim them.