One day in early 2016, I was looking for a particular Compass Ruler set. I was certain that I had seen it at my grandma's home but it was no where to be found. As I needed that stationary for school, I begged my mom to buy me another. Reluctantly, she agreed. So, we went to Popular Book Store and bought another set. When we went home, my sister passed me the compass ruler set I was looking for. She had found it by chance. It was buried under some magazines.
When Dad found out later, he was furious. He pulled me by the ear to a book shelf in the living room area and sat down with me there. That book shelf area was a mess. It had a bit of everything. Books, magazines, stationary, newspaper, tissue packets, etc. He then emptied out all the items from the bookshelf onto the floor. It was a horrible sight.
He turned and said to me "I want you to start categorizing what you think is useful and write down on these sticky labels". He also made me list down all those items into a Padlet (https://padlet.com/chiahowie/minipop).
Next, Dad brought out 2 huge bags and laid them on the floor. One had a sticker "Rubbish" tagged to it and the other had the word "Re-use". As we began picking up each item from the floor, we asked each other if that was of any use. If it was already broken, or did not have a specific purpose, it went straight into the "Rubbish" bag. After about 2 hours, we ended up clearing 5 bags of "Rubbish" and only 1 bag of "Re-use" items.
We then were able to repack the "Re-use" items back into the bookshelf based on the categories listed earlier. By the end of this massive cleaning exercise, the bookshelf was void of any rubbish and tagged appropriately. It was then he said to me that moving forward, my job was to be "Mini-pop Manager". Anything with regards to stationary storage will be tasked to me. I was to treat it like a real job as its now my responsibility to keep that area tidy.
Fast forward to present day, its been more than 2 years since that day and I have managed to keep the stationary area spick-and-span. Every once a month, I will do a more through cleaning and sorting out items that are no longer relevant. Each time I throw away bags of rubbish (you won't believe how fast these things build up!), my mind feels cleared up. Also, knowing that I am helping to keep my grandmother's place clean so that she does less housework - makes me happy. My sister would later be given a similar job as Mini-pop Manager, but at our Duxton home instead. She is doing as good a job as me. Dad says its mainly because I have set a good example for her to follow. That always give me a huge sense of accomplishment.
In hindsight, regular cleaning saves effort from a massive "spring cleaning" effort. Other than keeping the home tidy, we also save a lot of money from buying unnecessary items, some of which we might already have but not realize it. So, before we go to Popular for their annual stationary sale, mom and dad would now ask me what is needed for our own "Mini-pop" at home.
Chia Howie
6 Diligence, RVPS
10 Feb 2018
~note: this post was written on 10 Feb 2018, but backdated to Feb 2016 because that was the year I got this "Job".
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