Describe Your Home

My home, you could say, is broken.

The sense of belonging is still there, as it should be in most homes, but it’s been disturbed by the many sad memories that have attached themselves to the walls of my home.
 

From the outside, it’s almost a dream home, large and tall, standing proudly beside the many small homes in my lane. But open the door and you’re in for a very different image. The faded paintings that hang from the tattered walls that haven’t been admired in years.

The carpet that’s been eaten away by years of hoovering and walking. The stairs that creak when you run up them.

Then there are the photographs, old and dusty, bringing back memories of when life was once happy. Most importantly my dad's face stands out, the only piece of him left here. He still seems to be here. When you open the door of his old bedroom, a million memories hit you smack in the face. The tears that were wept here, the blood spilt, the voices raised as they argued and me and my brother hid under our duvet covers, like baby mice snuggled up trying to keep away from the cold air.
 

The many things that turn a house from just a building to a special place where you can hide, be safe and where you grew up.

My house has the things that make a house a home - the photographs, the ornaments that aren’t just there for show, but were collected lovingly from every country my mum and dad visited.

A home cannot ever lose its memories. Moving house is one experience I have never had, but it must be very sad. Because you are not losing just some walls, doors and ceilings, but your address, your memories, your neighbours. The place where you realised who you were, cried over the first crack in your heart, laughed with your friends, had your first masterpiece idea of becoming famous. These experiences cannot be replaced.

My home has a sense of fear in the air. After being broken into, stolen from and windows smashed you are waiting for the next tragic event to occur.

Sometimes I just want to get away from my home. The spare room that’s been filled up with rubbish, and the odd toy from our childhood. The old heavy cupboard that holds a million more memories, our birth certificates, my first letter to the tooth fairy, old birthday and Christmas cards, mum and dad’s divorce papers.

If a stranger was to come across these pieces of paper, he’d throw them away, unaware of the pain or happiness they’ve caused, the deep meaning they have.

The spare room is the worst room of the house - because of the junk that’s there; it clogs up your mind, you lose things in there, it’s a jungle of memories. Memories and rubbish mixed together, trying to hide the fact that my dad’s not there any longer.

Our broken home, where we argue cry and hug. The dusty unclean surfaces and the bare eaten away carpets. If it’s not my worst place in the world it’s also my favourite.

The smell of homemade food, wafting up the stairs, the cards that make you smile when you read them, my bedroom filled with pieces of me all, all mine.

The lounge - cosy and comfortable. All the things that make homes what they are can be found in my home, the memories, pictures and items.  

In a way, I’m glad my home is no showroom to a family that have moved so much they don’t belong anywhere, who can’t remember what address they were at when their eldest daughter lost her first tooth, their son passed his exams.

The house is small and well kept, organised with no dust or fluff anywhere. Sometimes I long for this home, not a big grand dream home with a Jacuzzi and swimming pool, but an ordinary home where each room is filled with the right amount of furniture, the computer doesn’t break, there aren’t books piled on every free surface area. But then I think of my home, with a never ending list of chores and something always not working, an item always lost in the rubble. But it’s still my home, my road, familiar and friendly, it may be dusty, old and have a billion sad memories clinging to it, but it is, after all, my home.