New Feeling

The month of March has been a month of "Hijra" for me. I moved to a new apartment in Dubai and also moved to my own apartment in Setapak, Kuala Lumpur. I took a 1 week holiday to sort out final renovation works for my new apartment. Although things did not really go as smooth as I planned (contractors delayed works, variation orders, broken lamps..etc) but eventually we managed to move in to No. 5-10, Apartment Madu Mas @ Setapak after waiting for 2 and a half years. This time I decided to hire a professional mover company so that I don't have to lift a thing. Their service worth every single cents of their fee (RM1350). They wrapped and boxed up everything in my house including the thrash in the dust bin.

Wrapped up

Later my wife and I learned that we have been keeping a lot of unnecessary things in our house simply because we thought we would use and appreciate it again in a future. But the truth is - and this is an important lesson I learned from this moving exercise - the moment we put or store a thing away, it means we no longer need it and its use has expired in our life forever. Unless we intend to build our own museum, there is no reason we should keep it and let it rot in our store room.

My Interior designer

For example I have been keeping all my university notes and files as I thought I would refer to it from time to time. But ever since I left classrooms I have never opened the old files because there is nothing in it which I cannot get from textbook in libraries everywhere. In fact I also realised that my class notes were not really reliable as most of the time it was written in a sleepy mode (wahaha).

Second example, my old clothes. I always thought that I can keep my old clothes for my son(s) later on or whoever wants it. But in reality keeping clothes in damped boxes are just creating a heaven for cockroaches and mice. It will take more than 20 years for my son to be in the same size as my clothes and by that time, the fabrics would have damaged. And unless I give it away immediately, nobody want to wear clothes kept in boxes for 2-3 years.

So after we moved in, I cleared out all the boxes and keep only things which we still use from time to time. It turned out that I have thrown away almost 1/3 of my stuffs.

I am enjoying a new feeling now. A feeling of a house owner. Although I live in Dubai, but my mind always wonders about my own house in KL. I am really grateful to my wife who took care most of the design and renovation works. I am really satisfied with her design and choice of colours. It really is a place which I can call home.

We managed to throw a mini house warming party (makan2 with doa) with my parents, siblings and a few friends. Next time we plan to hold a bigger makan2 by the swimming pool in our building.

In a TV room

Living Hall

Mini Makan2

Until the next makan2...

Things do not change, we change.

Henry David Thoreau
(1817 - 1862)