How to Clear Your Childhood Home

The biggest project me and my boys worked on the past two years is to clear my and Miggy's childhood home. Oh boy, I honestly did not expect that Mom kept a lot of stuff. Some were from way back in the 60s when I wasn't even born yet. A lot of people lived in our home. I experienced having different sets of relatives who lived with us and they did leave some stuff. 

Our decluttering coach, Ally Canita, observed that my Mom somehow organized her things. She already weeded out her clothes, turned Dad's closet into a craft materials cabinet, and she got rid of a lot of older stuff. She already curated what she left, but probably forgot about the gazillion of things she stored in the upper cabinets. 

We're honestly not done yet and our living room is still full of boxes for sorting. We just transferred everything since work is being done already. Anyway, here's a breakdown on how we managed to clear out my childhood home. 

Step 1. Make a list of all the rooms and take note of what's generally in all the cabinets/closets/drawers etc.

Step 2. Contact a decluttering coach or a organizer company that can help sort and box everything for you. 

Step 3. Prepare a list of categories on how the items should be sorted. Here's roughly what I had listed:

- craft materials

- books

- clothes

- bags

- linens/beddings/curtains/covers

- personal items like jewelry, wallets

- decor/statues/mementos/frame photos/paintings

- papers/documents

- kitchen items and appliances

- gadgets

- furniture (list per room)

Step 4. Buy materials: a lot of used boxes (cheaper than buying brand new balikbayan boxes), sticker paper for labelling boxes, Pentel pens, scissors, packaging tape. 

Step 5. Schedule dates for the decluttering/organizing team to sort and box items by room. It took 8 sessions for our team to work on the house, and another 2 days a year later to complete the outdoor storage and forgotten cabinets. 

Step 6. I made the mistake of sorting craft materials first. It took a lot of time because Mom had a lot of beads scattered around her things! It's better to start with things you can easily send for donations first like books, clothes, bags and linens/beddings. Start there so you can donate them immediately. Do things you'll likely keep last. Sort by having three boxes beside you while you go through everything: dispose, donate, keep. 

*We shred old papers that have PII and no longer needed.

Step 7. Our decluttering coach coordinated all the donations. We probably donated over 150 boxes of books and +100 boxes of other items. Old unusable appliances were sold to the junk shop. We only sold a few working appliances. Proceeds went to paying for donation delivery and decluttering services (last 2 sessions). 

Step 8. Make sure to label things you are keeping in boxes. Some of the things we set aside will be shared with relatives.

Step 9. Identify big items that you will keep, give away, or sell. We're only keeping a few key pieces and have started to offer some furniture to relatives. We managed to sell some furniture that's still useful. 

Step 10. Clean up when you're done! I'm honestly not sure when we'll actually finish! Hopefully, by end of October!

I honestly don't know how we could have managed clearing out our childhood home without Ally and her team. She had previously helped us combine all our homes (SG + Manila) when we went home. Things really pile up and if you have a hard time decluttering, get a coach! It's the best thing we did and I can't imagine how we could have emptied the house.

Be ready for surprises! We thought all the cabinets were already emptied and was so surprised to see my Mama Lola's cabinet still full of stuff! Mom's stuff! So that means I have a box or two of craft materials to sort. I'm still hoping to find my Mama Lola's frog figurine. I used to play with it when I was a child. And we're still finding odd stuff even though we thought everything's been cleared. Just found Dad's K of C sword. I wonder where that was hiding, hehe. It's hopefully the last thing we pull out from the house. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Most Unproductive Birthday Month Ever!

I'm a bit relieved that I made it to the end of August. It's one of the most unproductive months in my entire life. I did celebrate a milestone, but we were stuck at home for most of the month. We only ventured out because I had to see my doctor and I had to buy a wheelchair (I wanted to try it and didn't want to get it online). 

Anyway, it was still a beautiful month. I did spend almost a week in the hospital, but I got to eat my favorite spaghetti. I got a better view of what I'm up against. I did have a bad fall, but I was saved from further injury by a bag I made from my Mom's unfinished project. I've only been given what I can bear. 

Here's a glimpse of the entire month through a one second everyday video:

Recovery has been slow and I still need to do a number of tests. I'm spending time doing things I wouldn't normally do, i.e. daydreaming and going through the quilting books I collected the past year (all from Booksale!). I've also been able to write a couple of posts about what's going on and just focusing on praying for truth and justice and everyone's safety. 

Happy Sunday everyone! Don't forget to check out the eclipse tonight!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Snails Can Eat Your Papaya Fruits!

I spotted a small papaya fruit on the ground the other day. I haven't been very mobile yet, but had to step out and check what was going on with my papaya trees.

I picked up the small fruit and looked up to check the growing fruits. I was shocked to see a huge snail munching on the baby fruits! I haven't been able to spray Neem oil lately and the foil I wrapped on the trunk came off, that's why it was able to go up. Grrrr.

I immediately asked help from Sweetie to remove the snail. He also noticed another huge one on the wall and removed it too. I have to really be more vigilant and make sure the fruits are protected. I've put in a lot of time and hard work to reach this phase for my papaya trees, so I need to be more consistent.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Corruption is Systemic

The blow-up of the flood control issue made me think about the thesis we did back in college. We assessed the mobilizational effectiveness of the Sangguniang Kabataan.

The first batch of officers of the Sangguniang Kabataan were elected in 1992. That was the first time I voted and I was actually invited to run in my barangay. My Dad said yes, my Mom said no. Of course, we followed my Mom since she never allowed my Dad to run either. Anyway, I eventually ended up do a thesis about the SK with Jingo and Alan.

We toiled for many months and scoured all the barangays across Paranaque to determine whether the SK is able to effectively mobilize the youth. With only 66% of the registered youth who voted, getting them to participate in activities was much lower. It's essentially not that effective. 

All our interviews were taped and transcribed. The officers though shared off the record instances when they were being roped in to participate in corruption. They were asked to approve expenditures with jacked up prices. At a young age they were already being groomed to be corrupt. (The SK is allotted 10% of the barangay budget.)

The first batch of SK officers were all very hopeful and optimistic for a brighter future. I had hoped one day one of them would eventually become mayor of our city. I honestly have not encountered any of them (chairs and councilors) in any of the elections. I remember one of the SK chairs of the city was elected as the national head. I was hopeful he'd eventually go up the ranks.*

Anyway, the flood control issue is just the tip of the iceberg. I am so envious of Pasig City since Mayor Vico Sotto has been working hard to make his city clean. Corruption is systemic and it needs all of us to work together to get rid of it.

*I'll try to look up the names of the SK officers from my city and see if any of the 1992 batch are still in government.

**My parents did save me from a lot of heartache. I did dream of becoming mayor by age 30, but it wasn't the path I was meant to follow. 

***Oh, just to flex (minsan lang naman), our thesis earned a gold medal for best thesis. A copy is available at the DLSU library. Of course, I still have a digital and print out of it (survived Ondoy!). After, re-reading the conclusion I'm asking myself where did my academic voice go? 😅

Update: you may read the conclusion of our thesis on the SK here.

(Please remember, we wrote this 30+ years ago. I haven't opened it until this week.)

#BeKind #StaySafe

GenXers Childhood Boyfriend

We didn't have gadgets in the 80s. Our playtime consisted of either playing outdoors with friends or Lego, Barbie, Transformers, cartoon figures etc. indoors. Some were privileged to have Atari/Nintendo gaming consoles.

My parents prohibited gaming consoles at home, so my playtime revolved around Barbie and Lego. I was relieved to find my Barbie doll collection* and lonesome Ken. Funny, I had dressed up Ken with just a belt before I stored them over 3 decades ago. Sorry Ken.

I found his one and only outfit and washed it. Ken has finally been reunited with his clothes. I think I removed them because I wanted to experiment on sewing clothes for him. I never learned to make clothes, so he suffered 3+ decades covered up with a belt. 

Anyway, Ken was a common childhood boyfriend, haha. I don't recall what kind of stories I made up while playing with them. I do recall I separated him from the Barbie dolls so they won't fight over him, hahaha. They're still not together. 

Since I'm not good at making clothes, I found out you can buy clothes for Ken online. I'll get him a summer outfit to update his 80s Michael Knight look. Hahaha.

#BeKind #StaySafe

*Most of them came from Titay :)

Leg Update

I went to see my doctor last Friday. My knee and ankle area still hurts and my knee feels unstable. Doctor said nothing is broken, but to be sure I didn't tear any tissues he recommended to get an MRI and X-ray.

Recovering is taking up all my energy. I've been moving around more the past few days. I've been re-potting some plants as my workout. Just an hour of gardening is like a full workout. Add naughty cats who keep investigating what I'm doing helped burn more calories, haha.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Fabric Shopping

I miss those days I could go to my happy place, fabric/craft shops. I haven't done that for 4 years now. The only fabric shop I go to now is a store in ATC that luckily sells patchwork fabric. Or I just get from an online shop.

Shopping for fabric in person is more fun though. I got to relieve that when Sweetie played some videos of crafters shopping at Nippori Fabric Town (Tokyo). 

When I used to travel often, one of the things I'd do is visit craft shops after work. My favorites include: 

Tomato (Tokyo)

Yuzawaya (Tokyo)

Spotlight (Singapore, better in New Zealand)

Lincraft (Australia)

Yong Le Market (Taipei)

Fabric Outlet (San Francisco)

*I think Blogger has issued with photo importa lately 

Too bad I didn't get to see any craft store in any of my trips to Europe (too busy!). I heard though fabric is quite expensive there, but it would have been fun to see what's available and what kind of sewing gadgets they use.

Mom left a boatload of scrap fabric, so I have no need to buy for now. I should probably get busy and work on something soon. My leg is still recovering, so I'm going through my craft books from Booksale for now.

Oh, and I haven't visited Divisoria in a gazillion years. I'll put it on my bucket list :)

#BeKind #StaySafe