Thoughts on my collection...

If you're not constrained by space or finances, hold onto the ship albums. It's not just a topical, but it also holds memories. One day you will thumb through it again, and it will rekindle your interest again. I can recall a few specific stamps that, in hindsight, I truly regret having sold because they had some special memories.

The bin of unsorted ship stamps -- you can always get more ship stamps to sort later, so it's not necessary to hang on to those.

The thing to keep in mind about topicals is that for most topicals, there is no "completion" since new issues are coming out all the time (unless it is an event topical). Some people like that, but it's not for everyone.

I'm personally not very big on topical collecting. Sorry. I like to collect by countries. But I keep a couple of "topical" side collections (butterflies on stamps, stamps on stamps, ear wax on stamps) and "off-beat" philatelic collections (selvedge, perforation chads) that I occasionally fiddle with just to keep things varied, but the topicals/off-beat are not my main pursuit.

Just my thoughts.

I had a butterflies on stamps collection and dumped it onto a serious "insects on stamps" collector, and I'm glad I did.

I still have a page or two of "scientists on stamps" and will keep adding to it, but only once and while, keeping the collection small and personal.

I also collected a few pages of maps on stamps, but soon lost interest, so it just sits there taking up space.
Nevertheless it is small enough to just be ignored without any concerns.

I'm not really being consistent in what I'm saying.
Oh Well, maybe consistency is overrated.