Clutter or Memento It’s a daily struggle.

Friday, August 31, 2oi8

My 500 Words Short Story (653)

Clutter or Memento It’s a daily struggle.

Whenever I do research and find an old antique or memento, it becomes a time-capsule item that takes me back to my old days. Some people think I love to stay in the old days and live in the past. In fact, when I pick up something from my time-capsules (boxes) I remember distinctively what I was like back then compared to what I am today. It is a confluence of memories against the present reality that creates energy I draw on to propel me forward to Make Money & Love Safety.

The word "Research" here is simply searching for something a few times. An example is when you search for something and you can't find it, then you backtrack to search it again. Therefore you are doing research for that item. Hence, the word research came about.

Although @62, I am on a subtraction journey but still a hoarder of mementos in me. I am in the Crossroads of Clutters and Mementos.

Most of us wouldn’t consider ourselves hoarders. Perhaps to be more honest with ourselves, we would actually find that a lot of the things at home never been use anymore but can’t bear to throw them away. Technically speaking that is hoarding!

Most of us tend to have an annual spring cleaning in December or before the Chinese New Year. It is generally to throw out the old so that we can buy new things for the New Year.

If we consider ourselves to be reasonable tidy people, then why is it still a struggle to totally declutter or become a minimalist? What about those items that we never seem to be able to throw out? There are some genuine proofs that it is really difficult to throw away or let go even when I downsized from a 5 room to a 3 room apartment.

There are a few things that might be hardest for me to let go like Books, Clothes, Music, Keepsakes & Childhood mementos, you can add on to this list

Books that hold sentimental value which I enjoy re-reading them and still keep with me. As for the rest of about 80%, I left them with a friend in his Johor’s house.

Clothes that I still keep are the Hard Rock Café T-shirt which I collected during my travelling trips. I visited around 33 Hard Rock Café around the world.

During my time, we used to play music with vinyl (Phonograph) record. Sadly to admit, I have thrown them away when we have to shift from kampong living to HDB apartment. Then the disk size dimension is around 12in (30 cm). Technology has shrunk it into CDs and today’s digitization and online streaming has done away with the need to keep physical copies of our music. Although I lost all my vinyl records, this time around I am keeping all my CDs to remind me of the time I first heard my favourite bands and artists on them.

As for keepsakes, I hardly have any trophies or artworks to keep. Only have a few artworks of our children done for us. Most keepsake items are my old notebooks and journals from my work. These are items that brought back memories on different stages of my working history.

Childhood mementos – I still keep a few boxes of small toys we bought for our 3 children. Though our children have outgrown these small toys, it somehow helps me to reminiscent on a simpler time and feel like these things would be painful to be thrown away.

Workshop materials are my biggest pile of junks consisting of materials for my workshop activities. Thank Buddha, managed to keep 80% of them in my friend’s factory. My decision is to give them away by end of 2018. 

I am in the Crossroads of Clutters and Mementos. It has been a daily struggle! Are you?