Signs my parents need to downsize their house

An ongoing list of observations while visiting my childhood house

I’m back in Indonesia for a week, working from my parents’ place. Throughout the house, I see traces of my 3-year-old self learning phonics (that I thought was pronounced “phoenix”), my 9-year-old self journaling in a pink lined notebook, and my 15-year-old self looking at the women in the Girls’ Generation poster I stuck to the inside of my closet.

I haven’t lived in this house in a decade. I moved out in 2014 to pursue an undergraduate degree in Hong Kong and have built a life there. In the dense city, I’ve squeezed as much life as I can in a <300sqft studio apartment with my fiancée and still made that place feel like a home.

I couldn’t help but compare that home to my parents’ house. Like everything that builds slowly over time, I see many signs that my parents need to downsize their house. A non-exhaustive list:

1. There is more clutter than useful items

   1. Nobody has flipped open my childhood storybooks in a decade (maybe two).

   2. My room has become a storage room. The storage has now overflowed to my brother’s room. He doesn’t live here either.

2. There are essential rooms that don’t work

   1. Their master bathroom toilet doesn’t have running water

   2. The front gate doesn’t open the right way

3. Spaces that are supposed to be utilized have become even more storage

   1. The space underneath an iMac houses my mom’s business supplies

   2. My dad’s coffee roasting chair has become an ad hoc table

   3. The dining table is half full with items

4. They have double or triple of everything

   1. They have two fridges, both of which are full. One was supposed to be dedicated to my dad’s business. It’s now filled with personal food items.

   2. There are at least five USB-A-to-lightning cables but only one works