Throwing Away My Favorite Rocking Chair

Today I had to part with my prized possession, my rocking chair. It has been sitting beside our bed for the last three years and somehow its leg broke a few months ago. It still is in perfect condition except for that broken leg. I had to take photos of my favorite chair before I parted with it. Same is true for a sofa in our sala, we had to throw it to give way to our new sofa set.

In Singapore, it is quite ordinary to see people throw away perfectly good stuff like sofas, TV sets, DVDs, CDs, designer bags and shoes,cabinets, computers…to give way to new furnitures and fixtures in their flats.

If you have just moved into a new flat, the good timing to furnish your apartment with thrown away stuff is during Chinese New Year or Hariraya. This is when people spring clean their houses and because of bigger bonuses want a complete change in their apartments interiors or wardrobes.

We are different. As Pinoys, we want to treasure old things.We patch things, re-upholster furniture but rarely do we throw them away. But somehow, re upholstering in Singapore is non existent. So out goes our sofa.

Then where do these stuff from Singapore go? Most of these furnitures,computers, Television sets etc are sold to Karangunis(Rag and Bone or Garbage Junkdealers) who sell them to nearby Indonesia.Even second hand cars in Singapore ( 6 yrs old and above) are sold in nearby Malaysia and Indonesia.

In Germany,they call it Sperrmüll hunting. Sperrmüll is nothing else than those odds and ends clogging the attics and cellars in Germany . Slightly worn out stuff, junk for some but really good stuff..these items are thrown or set out on the sidewalk and picked up by trash trucks the following morning.

My son Nygel asked me yesterday" Mommy why are you buying so many stuff now?" Maybe he is referring to our buying a new Plasma, sofa set, Dining and Bed in just a span of a few months. Probably he doesnt realize, we bought all these things three years ago when we just moved into our newly purchased  flat. Its not that we are keeping up with the Joneses, but somehow all things have shelf lives…some just get torn, some just break and some become passe. I think we have already been influenced by the Singaporean lifestyle.

Anyway,maybe my rocking chair might be picked up by another person.They say one mans thrash may become another mans treasure.