08 January 2008

Transitions...

... are by necessity,

MESSY.

There is first the getting rid of the old to make space for the new. When you are actually IN the old state or IN the new state, things have settled, the dust have cleared and you kind of know your way around it. It's the in-between that is problematic. You have parts of the old, parts of the new, misplaced parts and parts that you have no idea what it's for and how on earth did it end up here. Then there's the issue of dust and finding space for yourself to function, besides all the stuff.

I am in the midst of transiting from one office to another (and then back to the old one again), and will also be moving house from one end of Singapore to somewhere in the middle in the space of 1.5months. Somehow, these things have a way of finding a common time in my calendar and colliding, to great effect.

Now, every Saturday morning, I wake up and the first thought that hits my mind (after "what's for breakfast?") is "what can I throw today?" even if it's one book, a scrap of paper or a blouse that I no longer wear. Small victories in the battle against The Clutter. The Battle of The Bulge is the other war that I'm fighting right now, but enough of that for now--it's too depressing to blog about.

The Home Front is still manageable. Decluttering haven't started in earnest as my parents are still busy with the renovations of our new, smaller home, a 4-room flat that is so far removed from the neighbourhood my brother and I are so used to that we fully expect to have culture shock when we move there. Still, my mum have been telling me whenever she gets a chance to "start throwing your things away! Your new room is smaller and won't have space for all your junk!"

The trouble with having a penchant for drawing, reading and writing is that your shelves get filled with notebooks and scraps of yellowing paper with a particular drawing / writing that you did in a time of angst / frivolity / anger / happiness. When I pull out these to sort through, I get sucked into a time warp and will reminisce about that moment. Not productive, to say the least. The other trouble is of course, dust and more clutter.

Now my brother, on the other hand, have no such problems. He throws things away with a mechanical efficiency. I will always remember the last time we had a spring-cleaning at home--he cleared his room within half a day, while after a full day, I was standing in the middle of my room, surrounded by piles of books, soft toys and stationary, looking totally helpless as "all these things I dowan to throw!" and my mum and brother just burst out laughing at me. Touche.

My office space is just as bad. As I type this post, my desk cannot be seen and it looks like someone just ransacked through my little cubicle--overturned document holders, document spillage from the document holder surrounded by dusty stacks of CDs and folders. It didn't always look like that. The Karang Guni man is coming this morning and because we are all so busy doing actual work, I only had time to get out the things that needs to be thrown away. Of course, rather than typing this post, I could actually be tidying things up, but when inspiration strikes, you just go with the flow, ya dig?

The good thing is that in the office, I am surrounded by like-minded hoarders and packrats, so the mess is rather universal. It doesn't help that the renovations are happening right by our side as we try to function normally, but it's getting hard to ignore the pounding that is right beside us and the incessant drilling noise.

Okay, gotta go tidy up now. Blog to you again, when I find my way through the clutter to my computer.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hi HAIRy kai, esmond here. eh eh eh, can put up the link for the young adults thingy? let me see the hard work u've put in.. =D