SINGAPORE: Since her grandmother’s death about half a year ago, Kimberly Chan has been unable to sell her five-room flat.

Potential buyers would leave quickly each time, put off by the opposite neighbour’s corridor clutter, which spills into the lift lobby.

“They don’t really want to see much more of the unit because it’s very inconvenient (to live next to a hoarder),” said Chan, 35, adding that the clutter began about eight or nine years ago.

Back when her grandmother was alive, Chan’s family reported the issue via the OneService platform for estate issues. They cited hygiene and fire safety concerns, as the mess had piled up to within 1.5 metres of the lift entrance.

“My grandma was on a wheelchair, right, (and) we were unable to push her out of the lift,” she said.

Although counsellors and volunteers came within the week to assist the neighbour in clearing the clutter, the relief was short-lived. If the items were cleared on a Tuesday, for instance, the corridor would remain clean only the next day.

“On Thursday, the clutter comes (back). And by the weekend, it’s back to square one,” Chan told the programme Talking Point, whose producers could not reach her neighbour for comment despite repeated attempts.

In public housing, a minimum of 1.2m of clear space is required along common corridors. This ensures enough space for medical and fire evacuations. No items are allowed next to staircases and on the landings for the same safety reasons.

While there are no official statistics currently available on the prevalence of corridor clutter across Singapore, checks by Talking Point in more than 70 Housing and Development Board blocks found cluttered corridors in almost every block.

Of 200 viewers who were polled, almost 60 per cent reported facing similar issues. On social media and online forums, nearly 80 complaints about corridor clutter in the past three years were found.

So why do Singaporeans clutter their corridors despite the safety risks and possible fines? What are the costs of doing so, and how can clutter be better managed?

Talking Point spoke to several culprits to find out why it can be hard to let go of things and teamed up with experts to find solutions that can help families keep their common spaces organised.

WHY THE CLUTTER AND THE STRUGGLE TO LET GO

As the programme found, there are cluttered corridors across different flat types and residential areas. The most common items include excessive plants, large shelves and disused objects, some of which are combustible, such as cardboard boxes.

There are also bits of furniture used for lounging or decoration, which some people might call “creative clutter”.

WATCH: We confront HDB corridor clutter and declutter for three families (42:24)

For the household of Nur Eleena Raffie, an indoor space constraint was the reason they stashed items — almost from floor to ceiling — outside their two-room rental flat in the east. “Actually, I cleared up half of it already,” she said.

They had received a town council notice asking them to clean up the corridor, which happened after her neighbour’s bicycles caught fire, said the 39-year-old.

They had carton boxes outside their home at the time — a fire hazard, Eleena acknowledged. But even the remaining clutter poses a fire risk, she agreed.

Candy Cheng, whose family of six lives in a two-room rental flat in the north, also received a town council notice, but for storing items where the riser was.

After that, those items joined their remaining clutter — bags of clothes, luggage and even a standing fan — along their corridor.

“I didn’t think much of it,” the 57-year-old said when asked about the potential dangers. She also cited a lack of indoor space and lack of time to clean up as she was looking after two grandchildren.

Ramasamy Mullai, 54, who lives in a four-room flat in central Singapore, received a notice after some neighbours complained about the number of plants outside her home.

Despite her efforts to clear the corridor, she struggled to part with many of her plants, which she uses for cooking and religious purposes.

“I feel very happy to see the greenery, especially in the morning when I wake up. I’ll always come out and spend about 15 to 20 minutes outside,” said Mullai.

“I don't feel it’s dangerous because I always check the plants. … The space is sufficient to (let ambulance personnel get through) in an emergency.”

So why do people struggle to let go? They have a “fear of the future”, so they keep things “just in case,” said Martini Constance Lim, the founder of professional home organisers Minimize with Joy.

Another reason is an “attachment to the past”, even if the items are no longer being used.

As Eleena said: “Some of the items are memories for us.”

THE COST OF CLUTTER

Hoarded items in corridors can slow down evacuations, however. Last year, fire broke out in Block 287A Jurong East Street 21. But on the affected floor, items lining the corridor all the way to the stairwell made escape more challenging.

“It was difficult to pass (through),” said resident Alex Tan, who ran down from an upper storey. His son was among those who helped to remove cardboard pieces and other obstructions.

Less than a year later, Talking Point found offenders still cluttering the same block.

When confronted, one resident acknowledged the safety concerns but said the clutter in the corridor belonged to her father. “He said, ‘This isn’t so much of a hazard. It can be removed immediately; (there’s) nothing heavy,’” she said.

When paramedics had to evacuate a mannequin having a “heart attack”, however, they struggled in the cluttered corridor Talking Point had set up for the demonstration.

Wheeling a stretcher from the lift to the mannequin and back took three minutes and 35 seconds.

“We’ve seen worse: wardrobes, couches. Anything that they don’t want in their house they just dump (outside),” said paramedic Amanda Huang from Hope Ambulance. All that paramedics can do is shift items aside.

But when the corridor was cleared to provide at least 1.2m of space, she and her colleague took just one minute and 15 seconds. “(The time difference) has a very big significance,” she said.

Despite knowing that every second matters in an emergency, some residents continue to resist decluttering efforts.

Marine Parade Town Council, for instance, has seen a rise in corridor clutter. In 2023, it received 609 reports of bulky obstructions. Last year, that number grew by 13 per cent to 688 cases — nearly two complaints every day.

During the town council’s annual “decluttering exercise”, Talking Point saw firsthand the difficulty of persuading some residents to comply.

One resident, for instance, declined to shift a bicycle placed near the staircase to outside the flat, even though it would have still provided 1.2m of corridor space.

Once notified by the town council, households have seven to 10 days to remove items, failing which the town council can remove the items. These are kept for 30 days in case the owners want to claim them.

Marine Parade Town Council general manager Clarence Tan said his town council has handed out, on average, six to seven fines a year to repeat offenders. Fines start at S$100 and subsequently double to S$200, then S$400.

SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE CLUTTER

For those who are overwhelmed by years of accumulation, taking the first step can be the hardest. Experts who helped the three families whom Talking Point spoke to had these tips on how to clear their spaces and regain control:

• Choose plants based on how much sunlight your corridor gets. For example, Mullai’s corridor gets only two hours of direct sunlight, which is not “the right microclimate to grow a lot of edible plants”, said Corridor Farmers co-founder Roc Koh.

• Arrange plants strategically. A lack of space can stunt growth when some plants block the sunlight. “You really have to reduce the number (if) you want your babies to thrive,” said Koh, whose company designs urban farms, among other services.

He helped Mullai to halve her plant collection, reducing her eight moringa plants to three, for instance. He also installed a slimmer, stackable and more uniform planting system, which improved space efficiency and looked neater.

• Advocate for a community garden. For larger plants like Mullai’s banana tree — her “baby” — Koh suggested she gather neighbours to apply for a community garden, which she is doing now. “Your banana plant will really thrive there,” he said.

• Think about how often each item is used. Only items used within the past year should be kept. As for unused items, rather than hoarding them, check to see if they still work and toss out those that do not.

Lim, who follows the KonMari method — letting go of items that do not spark joy — also advised Eleena to be mindful that when choosing whether to keep an item, it should be something she would want to use in future.

Hand-me-down clothes, for example, end up becoming clutter, acknowledged Eleena, who reckoned she will not be accepting so many things from her relatives henceforth.

• Digitise photographs. These are sentimental items but are easy to accumulate over time. “Scan (them) … so you can store (them) digitally,” said Lim. “(Or) you may want to display them in the house rather than keeping (them) in the box.”

• Limit items to dedicated storage boxes. Group items by type, such as stationery or outdoor stuff, and designate a place for them. This will also help you know where to store and locate similar items in future, said Lim.

• Compact storage options can help. Transparent boxes that cost less than S$20 each were able to serve Eleena’s purposes — and created 1.35m of corridor space, well over the 1.2m required.

Cheng, meanwhile, got help from volunteers for Keeping Hope Alive, which works with less privileged Singaporeans. The team, with over 20 years’ experience in helping households declutter, introduced compact, space-saving solutions such as slim shoe racks.

Items like clothing, luggage and two fans were moved inside her flat, freeing up more corridor space. “There’s more space for me to keep my shoes,” observed Cheng. “I feel happy and comfortable, better than (before).”

Watch this Talking Point special here. The programme airs on Channel 5 every Thursday at 9.30pm.