Turning This Flat From Messy To Scandi Was An Emotional Journey — Homeowner Struggled To Let Go Of Late Husband’s Keepsakes

Decluttering a home is never easy. But for this family of three, it’s more than just the physically demanding task of tidying up. It’s an emotional journey as well, involving memories and items belonging to the head of the household who has passed away, as seen in the latest episode of House Everything?.

Violin teacher Anita lives with her mum, sister and their cat in this flat that’s in a state of organised chaos, so to speak. The living room has neatly piled boxes and stuff (and there’s a lot of it), arranged in such a way that it resembles a maze. There’s just enough space to walk, but not for a sofa — Anita and family sit on stools to watch TV.

Among the reasons for that overwhelming clutter at home is Xuan-jie’s struggle to discard items that remind her of her late husband, who passed away in 2004. There’s stuff that may seem innocuous to those not in the know, such as membership cards and name cards that they’d collected when he was still alive. There are also items like his old stamp collection album and a birthday card given to him the year he left, which hold deep sentimental value.

“We need your help, so that we can slowly learn to let go,” Xuan-jie tells hosts Chen Hanwei and Jernelle Oh, who are here with designers and tidying experts to help spring clean.

Local KonMari consultant, Esther, guides them through the decluttering and tidying process based on Marie Kondo’s techniques — only keeping what sparks joy for them.

The crew and the family agree to put aside all the sentimental items for the family to sort out and decide in private what they want to keep and what to purge.

Besides these sentimental items, the trio has a lot of their own stuff to clear out as well, such as an inordinate amount of documents, books and stationery.

Minor spoiler alert: The family keeps to their promise and manage to declutter a whole lot of stuff. How did they do it?

And how did the interior design firm overhaul the living room into a pastel Scandi sanctuary that not only had tons of storage space, but cat-friendly features for their furkid?

Watch the full episode here:

Find out if the family managed to upkeep the tidy home in a post-makeover spot check here (find it under 'Extras'). 

Catch House Everything? Season 2 on demand for free on meWATCH, and every Thursday, 8pm on Ch 8.