Sunday, November 16, 2008

A Storeroom, Some Junk And A Little Girl ...

I mentioned in my other blog, Spiff, The Spaceman that wifey and me are a little crazy these days. We've been spending our Saturdays doing major cleaning around the house. And it's been happening every Saturday for quite a while now. I don't know what's gotten into us but we've become extreme cleanliness freaks ... LOL!

I mean, we could like laze in bed till late on Saturday like normal human beings but no, instead we wake up early, make the kids breakfast and then get started with our back breaking task of spring cleaning. Well, I wouldn't really call it spring cleaning cos you normally do that once in a while. We clean the place thoroughly every weekend so I think we're a little cuckoo.

Anyways, this Saturday it was the storeroom's turn to be cleaned inside out. In a previous post, I mentioned that I kinda keep all my stuff and don't throw them away. In other words, I'm a junkie as one of you said :D Well, that's entirely true cos when we cleaned out the store room, we discovered a lot of my junk dating back to the Jurassic era! I was amazed at the amount of junk I had in there.

I'm even more amazed how I managed to fit that much junk in such a small storeroom. It was beyond my imagination how I achieved that feat ... hehehe ... Some of the things in there were from an era long gone that I didn't even know where in heavens name I got them in the first place.

There are things such as an old steering wheel, tons of empty files, a rotating police-like siren on a tripod, an old cable TV decoder that should be in a museum somewhere, ball lock pins and some electronic devices that look like they belong in a James Bond movie. I still have no idea what they were.

Worst part was hearing wifey laughing away hysterically at some of the junk she was bringing out one by one from the storeroom. She was really amused at the kinds of rubbish I had in there. You see, we don't really go through that storeroom much.

I usually just chuck all my old stuff in there and it was like going through the lost treasures of King Solomon's mines or something. But it was kinda embarrassing having my own wife laugh at some of the useless junk that I collected over the years. Even the boys were pretty amused!

It took us close to two hours to clear out all the junk and only keep the things we REALLY need. After sorting the junk from the good stuff, I put it all in my car (which needed two trips) and took it to this little recycling centre. A big huge metal box by the side of the road just a few minutes away from my place where people send their old stuff to be recycled.

The place was already overflowing and there was already a lot of old junk outside the metal recycling box so I dumped what I could in the box and the rest that couldn't fit outside the box like everyone else and went back for the second batch of junk.

It was then that I saw this little girl and her dad. I could tell they were not well to do and there she was scavenging through other people's junk to find items that she could use. She managed to find this old color pencil set, some old bags and a few other things. The moment I put my second batch of junk down, she went through it and saw my old slippers (and they really were old) she quickly grabbed it. That was when I felt so sad for her.

If she was there a few minutes earlier, I could have given her all the old clothes I just threw into the bin. Some of the clothes were still new, only used once or at the most twice. And even the old ones were still pretty decent. You could see the joy in her eyes when she found something that she could salvage.

It sure did tug at the old heart strings. There I am moaning away about not being able to buy that $1000 mobile phone or even that $300 pair of running shoes and here was a little girl going through junk and being happy when she found something she could use!

That's when it made me realize how bloody thankful I should be to have what I have. Yet, I'm forever complaining that I don't have this or that when there are people in this world so much more worse off than I am. I really wanted to break open that recycling bin and take back those old clothes and give it to her if I could. I went home with this really humbled and sad feeling in my heart.

My one Christmas wish this year is to see Santa going over to her place and also the houses of the less privileged and giving them tons and tons of goodies. It would sure put a smile in my heart again.
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28 comments:

  1. hey nick.. i just done with the fantastic 4 tag that you had tagged me before my exam.. see it HERE

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  2. Faizal - Hey cool :D Thanks for doing the tag. I'll come over and check it out in a bit. You finished your exams already, huh :D

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  3. wow.....two hours and two trips? you werent kidding when you said you had a lot of 'junk'
    xxoo

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  4. Wanna come clean my storage room out next? ;o)

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  5. Dude that was sad...how old was she...I have alot of clothes for little girls that I don't mind bringing over sometime. Let me know okay!

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  6. Meleah - LOL! No I wasn't. I just couldn't believe the amount of junk I collected over the years ...

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  7. Tammy - Hahaha ... maybe I should start a house cleaning business, huh?

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  8. Adrian - Buddy, that scene put a damper on whatever little Christmas spirits I had.

    She looked much older that lil Ellie so I don't think the clothes would fit her but who knows, maybe she's got a younger sister at home or something.

    I'll come by and collect the clothes from you soon :D Thanks for the gesture bud!

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  9. Nick, an entry ended with a sad story.. Yup, hopefully Santa will do so.. Me myself never been thankful for what I have now.. Emmm..

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  10. Ah it's heart breaking to see people scavenging through the garbage isn't it?

    Can you donate the clothes to a 2nd-hand store? I do buy my stuff from the 2nd-hand stores very often.

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  11. I hope Santa would give the lil girl a nice present this xmas. :) It is sad to know that some of us ain't that lucky and still be happy to get and have what ever others have left in the recycle bin. :(

    Nick, we have the same bad habit..keeping JUNKS in the house only to wonder months or years later, why did we keep those stuff with us, LOL!

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  12. oooo so sad..poor little girl...we are blessed as we have what we have, a nice clothes, nice food and shelter
    and your story really make me realized that in live we need to thank to god whatever we have

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  13. sorry it took me awhile to get here. been really bz with the upcoming hobbycon event which is in 2 weeks time @_@ *sweats~

    anyways, OMG, I couldn't imagine how izzit in this store room. I haf tones of clothes pilled in a black plastic bag for charity. My mum hasn't send it yet. Hmmm. I think I still have lotsa clutter in my room that need to clear off. But, I could imagine the no. of items that my dad could probably sell or give away. Seriously. He collects more junk than I haf XD

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  14. Poverty is anywhere and it's very sad indeed.
    I myself feel so sad by not doing anything. Unfortunately there's nothing to do against these situations by ourselves. It's need a political actions.

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  15. :( So sorry to hear about the girl. I have lots of stuff i think i want to donate too..but not really sure where to give them..
    You know what make me guilty the most??? Throwing unfinish food! While they are so many people starving out there, the unfinished foods were simply thrown in the bin..

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  16. Freddass - We are never satisfied with what we have most of the time ... sad but true.

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  17. The Real Mother Hen - Especially when it was a little girl. And they joy in her eyes at finding something she could salvage. Imagine the happiness she would feel if she got some brand new stuff. That sure put me down a peg or two ...

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  18. Emelda - Yeah, Santa should just bypass all of us and head straight for the unfortunate ones. They deserve it much more than us.

    LOL! I'm still trying to figure out where I got some of my junk!

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  19. BT - Thanks BT. It just saddens me when I see things like these ...

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  20. Sweet-Girlicious - Ya, we do need to thank god for all the stuff that we have which we always take for granted.

    Some people don't have half the things that we do.

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  21. Maslight - No worries :D At least I know my storeroom is so clean that I could probably sleep in there ... hehehe ...

    Hopefully I won't collect any more junk :D

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  22. Cidao - Yup, sometimes it's just a political thing but sometime it's just pure bad luck! But it doesn't make the sadness any easier to take.

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  23. Kadus Mama - Oh, I pantang throwing away unfinished food. Wifey will always give the boys a piece of her mind if they don't finish their food telling them about all those poor people who don't even have proper food. We take too many things for granted I guess.

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  24. Hi Nick,
    Looking at the simple thing that brings pleasure to the less fortunate does makes us feel thankful for what we have and less whiney about things that we cant have right? But I guess we are human, we forget sometimes. Thanks for reminding us ^_^

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  25. Jen - Everyone needs a wake up call every now and then. I'm still humbled by the whole thing over the weekend.

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  26. Ohhhhhh no wonder wifey has been busy lately, spring cleaning it seems! Alamak, pity the small girl la, but at least she got some stuff from ur junk eh? Hope Santa will visit her this year too! :):):)

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  27. Marzie - Yeah, she busy jadi mandur making sure I get rid of all my junk ... LOL!

    Well, my buddy Adrian did say that even though I wasn't able to give her the old clothes, I should rest easy knowing that the clothes will go to some other unfortunate kid :D

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