“Mom, what are we gonna do with 50 hotel toothbrushes?!”

I was standing in the middle of my parents’ walk-in closet thinking how the heck I was supposed to fit all my Cebu stuff into it.

I never really had a room in our ancestral home. When my family moved to this house, I was already living elsewhere, so every time I went home for a vacation, I would sleep in my brother’s room or in my dad’s office. 

However, this year my sister and I permanently moved to Kalibo, Aklan and that meant I obviously needed my own room. The discussion of where it would be had already been settled via call and chat while I was still in Cebu. The said ‘room’ happened to be their walk-in closet where they had installed permanent customized cabinets for their shoes and other knick-knacks.

When people move into a new space, they kind of expect moving into a blank canvas. Naturally, that’s what I was hoping for too. But that was not the case. There were 10 storage spaces in that room, but only one was available. Even the countertops of the low cabinets against the windows were full of things — folders, books, boxes of ribbons, toiletries, and LOTS AND LOTS of hotel toiletries!

We had brought 22 boxes from Cebu and judging from the available storage space, it looked like all I could fit in was a single box of my clothes.

So I asked my mom if she could work with me on decluttering the area before I slowly put in my things. “What do you mean? I already decluttered. What’s left are the things I would be keeping.”

Minatay. Hoarder man diay ako mama. (Crap. I almost forgot that my mom was a hoarder.)

I asked her permission to declutter some more, and she agreed as long I did not throw anything without her seeing them first. 

Naturally, I broke my promise. When she finally reads this, she will learn that I had thrown away all the hotel bedroom slippers that I found, some broken giveaways, expired skincare items, and most of the 50 hotel toothbrushes that I initially found. She did not want me to throw them away because *we might need them someday* #ClassicHoarderMentality.

Now don’t get me wrong: I am not mocking my mom for keeping things that I deem unnecessary. It just so happened that when I moved back in, I’ve already learned the joys of the Konmari method and no longer held on to too many things. 

I neatly arranged all her other extras in a MegaBox, organized the supplies which she stored in the room, and relocated them to the pantry in our common area. 

I showed mom her other things and asked why she kept them. There was even a His-and-Hers Hermès bath towel there! Why we never use it is beyond me, but it’s in one of the MegaBoxes and not seeing the light of day. She only laughed and said, “We might have special guests someday. They can use the Hermès towels then.” 

The clutter wasn’t just in my room — it was everywhere. A bunch of plastic food containers here, some boxed brand new appliances collecting dust there, etc. I pointed all of this to her.

 “Wait until you become a mom,” she said. 

We live moderately comfortable lives. We’re not rich and don’t live extravagantly, but we don’t lack a lot of things either. However, I knew that this wasn’t always the case, and maybe that had something to do with it too.

“When you ask, ‘Mom do you have this?’ I always want to be able to say yes. That’s one of the things that your dad always liked about me. He called me a girl scout, always ready for his needs.”

I looked at her, smiling as she stared at my dad’s photo. It’s true, though. My mom always seemed to have anything that we asked from her. From buttons to lightbulbs, name it, she’ll probably have it. 

She explained to me too why she collected hotel toothbrushes. You see, I’m a minister’s daughter, so it was not unusual for people to suddenly show up in our house and stay the night. One time, a group in our church was going to travel to Manila for a convocation and many of them forgot to pack toothbrushes, so she happily gave one to each of them. 

“When someone needs something, I want to be able to give them what they need. Maybe these things won’t be needed for the next two to three months, but soon enough they will be. So please don’t throw them away.”

I lived away for so long that I forgot: Our home was not just ours. Our things were not just ours. Our supplies were not just ours. 

I looked at all the clutter and decided to see them with fresh eyes. I told my mom that I now understood. But I also made a mental note to find smarter ways to organize them soon. 

My mother is a hoarder, but the hoarding comes from a place of love.

I can live with that.