Utter Clutter

There were two more additions to the family after we moved into the two-storey terrace house in Margaret Drive.. Raymond came along when I was seven, still in primary one and then Dennis came along when I was nine.. Mother was too busy with the baby and I had to wash my own school shoes and that of my older siblings... They bullied me into washing their shoes as well. Then, when there were two young ones, I had to iron my own school uniform.. Mother had a washer-woman come in every day to do the laundry (no washing machine then), except Sunday.. So if there were too much clothes on Sunday, mother would wash them rather than let the washer-woman complain when she come in the next day.. I had to help sometimes, to wring out the clothes.. Later I had to do the laundry all on my own at the age of 12 or 13 years.. I had rhuematism because of this and I could tell when it's going to rain.. (My husband used me as a barometer whenever he wanted to go fishing.. I was very accurate too!)

I was also asked to go marketing for fresh food (after following mother a few times) and had to clean the house.. I've got no complains about all this as I would like to think it made me a better person and I liked cleaning.. especially when it's all done and you sit back and relax over a cup of tea/coffee.. I used to do spring cleaning at least twice a year, taking everything out and moving the furniture about, and all the other people in the house would keep away and this would be 'down-time' for me.. Time to reflect on whatever's been happening, or sometimes when I was angry, this would be cooling-off time.. And at the end of it all, I would be happy and although the cause of my anger or unhappiness or whatever may not be forgotten, they were put aside like it never happened.

Besides spring cleaning, I like to sew and crochet.. And this is another way for me to 'chill-out' .. But I don't do this when I'm angry.. Actually I don't do anything when I'm angry... Nothing gets achieved... So I sew when I'm happy, I crochet when I'm happy! I clean when I'm happy! I can hear somebody out there say "BULLSHIT!".. Haha..

So, you may imagine that I would now be sitting in a cozy little corner of my 3-room HDB apartment, crocheting away, with a nice cup of tea somewhere.. NOT!! My apartment is full of clutter! I haven't done any major cleaning for the past four years ! Why?? Let me tell you the whole story... From the beginning.. about ten years ago...

I'd been living in this 3-room apartment since I got married in 1980.. At first we had the bare neccessities and when financially we improved, I thought that we should renovate the apartment.. change the windows from wooden louvres to sliding windows so that we could install air-conditioning; get built-in kitchen cabinets to put up all the lovely glass-ware I have; get wall cabinets so that all our things will be hidden and everthing will look nice and neat... So I saved and saved and then the opportunity came.. In 1995 my youngest brother Dennis, who is married by this time, and with his first child, bought a unit in the next block.. Great! I could stay in his unit first, while my apartment is being renovated (very messy and inconvenient to be living in a place being done-up)... But the contractor, who was my husband's friend, told us not to waste our effort and money because the HDB block we're staying in, was slated for re-development and we would be required to move somewhere else..in 2 to 3 years time...

Well! Hmm... 2 to 3 years ! I can wait and that means we can get a bigger apartment and I don't have to worry about the money... HDB will compensate us about $100,000.00 for this old apartment and we can use our CPF to buy the new one! So I went on a holiday with my two girls, to Perth (in 1997), and spent half of what I saved for the renovations. Then we waited for news about the en-bloc.. Nothing.. And we waited and waited, not daring to renovate, not buying new furniture because it won't go with another apartment.. and meantime, because we were expecting to get a bigger apartment, and the girls would be getting their own rooms, they bought a lot of things they wanted for their rooms.. "Mudder, I want this for my room.. it's on offer now.. next time may not have it.." So there is a mini water-fountain somewhere and a few other memorablia in boxes on the shelf...

Things weren't so bad at first.. My husband got a job where he was posted over-seas (Vietnam) and he comes back every 3 to 4 months and he brings back souveniers from his week-end trips to the outskirts of Hanoi.. There were celedon vases, wooden carvings, aromatheraphy burners (which I liked) and other knick-knacks.. These were still okay as I would display the items for a while and then put them away... Then in February 2001, he sent a fax: "Dear, I'm coming home for good..HQ wants me back." One week later he's home with his luggage and a couple of boxes containing fruits and gifts.. Not too bad I thought.. "Dear, all the other stuff will be arrive later" HUH?? What other stuff?? A few weeks later 11 (ELEVEN!) boxes arrived and I'm not talking about shoe-boxes!! They were big!! They took up half of the living room.. I gave up.. He told me he gave the TV to somebody (thank goodness).. Why did he not give away the oven as well?? and all the cook-wares?? There were more clothing and books and souveniers and paintings and carvings.. I surrender.. I can't find a place to keep all these!! Eventually I managed to put away some of the things but there's still 4 boxes in plain view and then I bought shelving to house things that my girls bought and yet there are stuff piled on the floor, and stuff piled on the table, and stuff on top of other stuff and clutter everywhere...

People who come by and see all the stuff always suggest that I throw them away... Now if I wanted to throw things away why would I buy them in the first place? Everything was bought because it was wanted/needed.. One day I may de-clutter, but not today... Today I want to sit back and relax and have a cup of tea...
EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL....