How a Healthier Home Helped Mr Lim Move Again
For more than 20 years, Mr Edword Lim’s life revolved around a pair of wheels.
But somewhere along the way, the rollerblades disappeared. Not because Mr Lim had stopped loving the sport, but because they were buried beneath years of accumulated belongings in his home.
When Habitat for Humanity Singapore volunteers helped him declutter and clean his flat, they uncovered more than dusty boxes and forgotten possessions. They also found a hard drive containing 10 years of skating videos and memories of a chapter of Mr Lim’s life he had almost left behind.
For Mr Lim, making space in his home became a chance to make room for a passion that brought movement and joy back into his life.
When home became harder to live in
Mr Lim, 75, moved into his flat in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic changed daily life. During the Circuit Breaker, he spent much more time indoors, and the boxes from his move remained unopened. As the months passed, more belongings accumulated, and eventually, he lost the motivation to clean altogether.
What began as a temporary situation gradually became the norm. Over the next seven years, clutter and dust continued to build, making parts of his living space increasingly difficult to use.
A social worker later met Mr Lim during door-to-door visits and referred him to Habitat Singapore’s Project HomeWorks, an intensive home rehabilitation programme that works with social service agencies to help vulnerable individuals and families create safer, healthier and more functional living environments.
Mr Lim accepted Habitat’s offer of help. Over three sessions, volunteers decluttered and cleaned his home, clearing away years of accumulated belongings and uncovering pieces of his past along the way.
One volunteer noticed a change in Mr Lim as his physical environment was renewed. With a cleaner, more functional home, his mental well-being seemed to improve too. The transformation was visible not only in the space around him, but also in how he seemed to feel within it.
Rediscovering a passion for rollerblading
Among the belongings that resurfaced was a reminder of who Mr Lim had once been.
His skating journey began in 1998, when he picked up a pair of rollerblades after quitting smoking and decided to teach himself how to skate. He was immediately hooked. What started as something new to try eventually became a passion that shaped more than two decades of his life.
Mr Lim went on to become a rollerblade instructor, teaching students ranging from a 1.5-year-old toddler to an 82-year-old. As he puts it, “As long as they can walk in a straight line, they can learn how to skate.”
Two months after the clean-up, we visited Mr Lim again. What began as a simple check-in turned into an enthusiastic show-and-tell of his newly rediscovered belongings. He told us about the National Runway Cycling & Skating event his skating school sponsored in 2009, and some of the people who had come through his doors for skating lessons over the years. Among his most treasured discoveries was a hard drive containing about 10 years of videos from those days.
As Mr Lim talked about his time as an instructor, his face seemed to come alive. The memories were still there. So was the passion.
This prompted Mr Lim to offer us a free skating lesson using the equipment recovered from his home, some of which was still brand new. And we gladly took him up on his offer!
Making space to move
For Mr Lim, the transformation was about more than having a cleaner house. A home that had once become difficult to use was once again a space where he could feel comfortable, reconnect with his memories and rediscover an activity that had brought him joy for decades.
“If you go into a house that is clean, you feel better, no matter how. My health hasn't been bad, but if I start taking up my skating again, I'm sure it's gonna be a lot better,” Mr Lim said.
The return of skating was an added benefit: an opportunity for Mr Lim to become more physically active again. But perhaps just as meaningful was what came before it — having a home where he could feel comfortable, find the things that mattered to him and reconnect with a part of himself that had been buried beneath the clutter.
His experience reminds us that a healthy home is not simply a clean home. It is a home that supports our well-being and gives us room to live, move and do the things that matter to us.
Opening the door to healthier homes in Singapore
Mr Lim’s story highlights the connection between housing and health. Through the Let’s Open The Door campaign, Habitat for Humanity Singapore seeks to open doors to better health, education, wealth and sustainability outcomes.
Help us open the door to healthier homes for more people in Singapore. Volunteer with us for Project HomeWorks or donate to support our work.
Watch our full video with Mr Lim on our Instagram.