My Home Improvement

In an earlier post, I mentioned reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organising by Marie Kondo. I started the book on a Saturday afternoon and just a couple of chapters and an hour or so later, I was already raring to get started. Before I proceed, let me share the salient points of the book or Marie Kondo’s two steps and nine tips for tidying up (the KonMari Method):

1.   Sort by category, not location. Don’t do bedrooms first, living room next, followed by rest of the house. Do clothes first, then books, paper, miscellaneous and sentimental items.

2.   Tidy in one go. Don’t draw it out. If you tidy bit by bit each day, you’ll find you’re tidying forever. Do it all at once and you’ll have the system in place to stay tidy.

3.   Pick up each item one at a time and ask yourself: Does this spark joy?

4.   Avoid piles. Fold your clothes so they stand up vertically. This way, you can put all your t-shirts, for example, in a drawer and see each item at once in one glance rather than digging through piles of fabric to find what you want (and in the process, messing up your drawer all over again). Tip other items on their sides and store next to each other instead of stacking them. I turned to Google to see how it’s done.

5.   Don’t repurpose clothes to loungewear. Don’t justify keeping a torn t-shirt just because you think you can repurpose/recycle it as a pyjama top.

6.   Recycle your papers. Scan important legal documents. Get rid of everything else. Nothing is more annoying than papers so throw them all away unless absolutely necessary.

7.   Don’t keep gifts out of guilt. After the joy of gift-giving moment is through, donate the gift. It has served its purpose. But don’t foist unwanted stuff on family members who might take them out of guilt or pressure. Give them instead to charity.

8.   Storage experts are hoarders. A ‘clever’ storage solution never solved anything. A new box/organiser won’t make you tidy. Instead, pursue ultimate simplicity. Forget fancy storage containers. Drawers and shoe boxes often suffice.

9.   Start with what you know will be easy to get rid of. If you start with mementos or items with sentimental value, it will be harder. Start with items that are easier to make decisions about and you’ll be in the right mindset to tackle mementos later.

While Marie advised starting with clothes, I started with the bookcase at home as I’d been meaning to tidy up my dad’s miscellaneous items in there. We also have a lot of Yassin and prayer booklets at home so I collected all that I could find scattered everywhere. I then sorted out a cupboard and stored the Yassin and prayer booklets in the newly vacant space in the cupboard. I also took a sturdy paperbag and stored some Yassin booklets inside – sometimes neighbours want to borrow Yassin booklets for kenduri or for guests wanting to pay last respects to a deceased. It gave me the opportunity to chuck out the annual reports of a cooperative society of which he is a member (annual reports dating back years!). My dad is a hoarder all right.

Then I sorted out our wardrobe drawers. I started with dad’s drawers and sorted out his t-shirts by colour and refolded them, placing them back in the drawers vertically instead of stacking them flat. And guess what? Where previously we had problems trying to close the drawers, I now have extra space! I was pleasantly surprised with this and wondered why no one taught me this before. I guess we were used to just folding clothes flat like how some boutiques do it but of course those boutiques have far fewer clothes and shelves. By this time, I was already hooked. I then tackled his other drawer of pyjamas. Then I tackled my drawers.

Apologies for the poor quality of photos. These are my dad’s wardrobe drawers. Unfortunately, I still find myself refolding and rearranging his drawers every few weeks.

After the wardrobe drawers, I went to tackle my dresser drawers. I tackled everything including my scarves and innerwear and by the time I was done, I was able to close my drawers without having to push the contents and still had some space left over. Then I tackled my bedside drawer, kitchen drawers, closet drawers... I continued on Sunday and even went to bed late and woke up early on Monday morning to sort out other drawers (I even sorted out the wardrobe drawer of winter wear!).

My dresser drawer. I can now fit my scarves and inner wear and still have space left!

One of my wardrobe drawers. Apologies again on the poor quality of photo. And I have space left after rearranging them vertically instead of horizontally!

Not content to stop there, I also tidied up the drawers at micasa on my next visit.

In her book, Marie mentioned saying a prayer when entering her clients’ homes or offices. This may sound strange and weird to some people but I don’t find it strange at all because as Muslims, we usually say Salam before entering the house. Marie also states that we should thank each item of item we are about to let go to another home for the joy and service they had previously given us. In fact, if I recall correctly, she states that we should thank each item that still plays a role in our life for its continued service. Another tip is that when you fold clothes in your drawer, arrange like with like (e.g. white t-shirts together) and by colour with the lighter colours closest to you and darker colours to the back so that you’re greeted with lighter brighter colours first (a light colour helps lift your spirit more compared to a dark sombre colour). If you must hang them, organise them from dark to light colours, long to short length, left to right. It does make a lot of difference when searching for your clothes.

I had a sore throat and was coughing for days after clearing all the drawers in the house. Interestingly, Marie also shares in the book that many of her clients get very sick after the few days of tidying up. She states that this is normal as our bodies are just getting rid of the toxins that have built up over the years. I think this is a logical explanation. What with the dust that I shook about and cleared and the toxins I got rid of, it was no surprise I wasn’t well after tidying up. If you think about it, the whole process of de-cluttering and tidying up is a form of detox of our life and home and as we are involved in the process, our bodies join in and have a detox too.

I find it easier to find my clothes and enjoy the extra space I get from applying the KonMari method. I find I don’t have to tidy up my drawers as often too (except for Abah’s drawers because he’s a typical man). It saves me time and space, and tidies and detoxifies my life and home. I also found, from sorting out my clothes, that I already have enough clothes, scarves and innerwear so I have stopped buying new ones. I have given away hundreds of my books this year alone, to Teach For Malaysia and to the KL Library. So do give the KonMari method a try. You won’t regret it! It works in all rooms, including a kid’s, kitchen, attic etc. You can find ideas on organising your wardrobe here and other areas of the house here and here.

El Niño Is A Problem Child

Today, I want to touch on one aspect of human nature: wastefulness. We do like to waste, don’t we. No matter how we try to deny it, admit it, we are wasteful. We never learn from past mistakes, we are extravagant, we don’t think about the consequences of our action, we don’t consider the impact on the environment.

I’m sure we all know that we’re going through a phase of long drought. Dry, unbearable weather. Hot and humid conditions, sweltering days and hot nights. It’s been going on for months now (last December was one with the shortest number of rain days I can recall) and it doesn’t look like it’ll improve anytime soon. And we’re not alone in facing this latest trial: Thailand, the Philippines, India, some African countries like Malawi and Ethiopia are all facing the effects of El Niño. (By the way, I don’t  know why the local media likes to say that Equinox is a phenomenon. Well, it isn’t, so stop saying that it is! Go and re-learn your lower secondary Geography yea). Schools in some northern states have closed for a number of days due to the hot weather and we hear about the declining water level in the dams around the country. Even if we’re not tuned in to the current news, surely we can feel the unbearable heat and see the browning of grass and lawns, the drying (and in some cases, dying) trees and plants and failing crops.

And yet, and yet, we continue on to waste that most precious resource of all: water. I observe this happening every day: at prayer rooms, at pantries, at washrooms, at my neighbours’. We don’t need a lot of water to perform ablutions, we don’t need to have the tap running while we wash up or brush our teeth, and surely we can skip the long showers and take shorter showers or better still, bathe from water stored in pails or buckets. We don’t have to wash the car or porch every so often. We should know better than watering the plant at noon or in the afternoon so turn off the sprinklers at those times. Water your plants in early morning or in the evening when the sun is down. Malaysians really need to start using less water. We consume a lot more water than our neighbours and much more than that recommended by the United Nations.

In many religions, water has a special meaning and is often at the beginning of creation accounts. Most religions emerged in water-scarce areas (think Judaism, Hindu, Christianity and Islam). In Islam, water as a precious gift of God has an impact on how people handle water: I should esteem it and not waste it; if it is a gift to me, then it is also a gift to my neighbour, and I should not deprive him of access. The Quran as well as the hadith (written collections of the words and deeds of Prophet Mohammed PBUH) make explicit statements on the duty to use water economically, equitably, with consultation of all stakeholders, and with respect for the environment. It is related that the Prophet once passed by his companion Saad who was washing for prayer and asked, ‘What is this wastage, Saad?’ The companion asked, ‘Is there wastage even in washing for prayer?’ and the Prophet responded, ‘Yes, even if you are by a flowing river!’ And yet Muslims here use way too much excessive water to perform ablutions! Come on, Islam forbids Muslims from being wasteful so can we stop wasting water unnecessarily already?

As for me, I ‘recycle’ the water that I use to soak my vegetables and fruit by watering some plants. I collect the water from ablutions and use it to flush my toilet (you don’t need a lot of water for flushing the toilet after you pee. If you notice, the smaller level on dual-flush toilets for flushing liquid waste dispenses only minimal water). I collect water in a bucket to cool it down (water from the tap can get too hot sometimes) and bathe from it. I never turn the tap on when I brush my teeth. I collect dirty dishes and wash them together in one go instead of washing as and when – this doesn’t mean my sink is overflowing with dirty dishes (I hate having my sink full of dirty dishes anyway) but I wash a few items together at one time and not piece by piece. There are a lot of ways where we can play our part to cut back and conserve water, some are here but I’m sure Mr Google has many more suggestions.

As hot as it gets, I try not to switch on the fan unless absolutely necessary. I use handheld fan to fan myself. I have a pair of good arms and hands and I am capable of that. This is part of my effort to conserve electricity, indirectly playing my part to reduce global warming. After all, everything is intertwined – energy use, fossil fuel-depletion, climate change, global warming... 

Happy Earth Day! Let’s change our attitudes today and start playing our part in caring for Mother Earth if we haven’t already. After all, handling climate change - and El Niño - is serious business and no child’s play. And let’s make it a continuous effort and not just during a drought and a particularly prolonged dry spell, shall we.

Short And Bittersweet

I decided to check on TheOrganisation’s resort in Port Dickson last Thursday and was delighted to see there were some vacancies for last Friday evening (no such luck for Saturday evening though so we settle for what we can get). After some initial hiccup (the system closes on Thursday for balloting), I managed to book a unit. We left KL late though – yes, a Friday and it was raining – and arrived at the resort after 9 p.m.

I had brought some food along so we didn’t need to venture out again for dinner. We went for a short walk around the resort before retiring. We had planned to go for a morning walk to Tanjung Tuan (Cape Rachado) the next morning.

On Saturday, we set off at 06:50 and walked to Tanjung Tuan. We came across more people as we neared the Tanjung Tuan Recreational Forest – unlike us, they all drove there! We climbed up the hill to the lighthouse and spent a while to enjoy the view. Sighting a trail, we decided to check it out in the hope that it would lead us to a beach that we could walk back from. The trail started off OK but not long after, we had to go down and my, the steps were steep alright in most places. I remarked that I really hoped we wouldn’t need to climb back up the trail for I doubted I could do it. Even getting down the steep steps required effort. The dry weather of late meant the trail stayed dry and not slippery.

 We reached the foot of the lighthouse after a 2.7-km walk

 View from the lighthouse

Well, we got to a secluded beach alright and when we cut across some woods, we came upon another stretch of beach. This time, there were a group of other young people so we asked them if there was another route out. Unfortunately there wasn’t so we had no choice but to turn back and trudge up the steep steps. I was gasping for breath and breathing heavily even after a few metres. I have no stamina... O.O

 The first secluded beach

 The second secluded beach

Sign at the start of the trail. 270 metres felt like 2.7 km!

I finally reached the lighthouse and we walked down. There were more people coming up the hill to the lighthouse by then. We passed the turning to Pantai Cermin and on a whim, I decided to check out the beach. And a good thing too, for when we reached the beach, I sighted the resort neighbouring ours. We decided to walk along the beach back and guess what, it was less than a km away! We walked a total of 7.04 km or 11,512 steps (the steps I took) in 110 minutes.

Pantai Cermin

I quickly made breakfast before showering and performing Dhuha prayers. We quickly packed and left just after 10:00, 13 hours after we arrived. A short stay alright but we managed to pack so much in those hours! A night stroll, a morning walk/hike/climb/trudge/waddle and even a walk along the beach! So yeah, it was a short and bittersweet trip (bittersweet because I almost passed out from climbing back up the steep trail).

We drove to DPulze, Cyberjaya, and managed to catch the 11:45 Batman v Superman movie. We went to perform prayers at the prayer room. I wonder why Muslims are ignorant and wasteful. We know that we are in the midst of an unbearably hot and dry weather and yet people still waste a LOT of water performing ablutions. Do they think Allah is happy with this wasteful act? God gives us brains to think and eyes to observe. I even heard someone turning on the tap at full blast like she was in the shower instead of performing ablutions. Come on people, think and be considerate! Even if we are not facing a drought, do you think it’s right to waste so much water? God does not like wasteful behaviour and I would imagine He would like it even less if it’s allegedly in the course of performing ibadah.

After that, we drove to Mitsui Outlet Park. I wanted to find a new pair of trousers that I could wear on my trips. The linen one I bought at Uniqlo had some tear in the right side in Beirut and it was a good thing I brought my travel sewing kit along to patch it up. I finally found one pair of chinos at Cotton On (my first ever purchase there) and tried it on.

We had a quick visit to the first floor, a quick browse, a speedy purchase at Sasa and went to pay for the parking. I was still debating about the pair of chinos at Cotton On and decided to buy it only after we’d paid for parking so it was a quick dash back to the shop to grab it and pay. All in all, we stayed for 70 minutes (one hour of parking plus ten minutes out of the 15 allocated to you to exit). Talk about I came, I saw and I bought eh.

We headed back to KL after that. So that was how I spent 23 hours of last weekend ;)