Do you scurryfunge?

Scurryfunge- A hasty tidying of the house between the time you see

neighbour and the time he/she knocks on the door.

Taken from John Gould’s Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, and Wazzats,

1975

Are you one of these people? I was, out of necessity, now life is much less

stressful.

I used to run around in my lounge and dinning room, trying to hide the clutter

and mess, just before the visitors arrived! It didn’t actually matter whether I

knew they were coming over or not, my house was untidy up until about 5

seconds before the doorbell rang.

Since decluttering my entrance, dining room, lounge and kitchen, I don’t do

that any more. My house is still not magazine ready but it is no longer an

embarrassment. (As long as no one looks behind the screen into my

husband’s study). I am slowly (very slowly) making headway through the

mess in there but, have to admit that when it comes to the final stages, I will

call in someone to help decide how to organise the space. It is going to be my

office because this blog grows each week and the tiny little desk in my

bedroom is no longer enough.

I think tidying is an inborn instinct; a lot of women do it when they are going

into labour (nesting), and I know many women who suddenly clean everything

when they are going into hospital. One woman once told me she did it

because she knew, if she didn’t, her mother in law would have something to

say when she came over to visit when she was recuperating.

This instinct definitely missed me as I never did any of these things, although

that may be because my first child was 3 weeks early, the second was

induced 2 weeks early, the third, I had 2 small kids and with the fourth I wasn’t

at home when I went into labour. When I did tidy it was usually MY mother in

my head, or she was coming over.

Now while I am still working on decluttering, my biggest rule is not to add to it.

Every time someone in my house brings anything in, it has to be put in the

correct place immediately. For instance, if you take your shoes off and leave

them anywhere but in your room, you lose computer time.

Then we added a Friday box. I read about this in an article called the Sunday

box. Mine is a Friday box because I want my house tidy for Shabbat. What

happens is, if I find anything lying around in the wrong place (especially,

presently, stikeez) then it gets put into the box and they may not get it back till

Friday. Anything not taken out and put away is put into either the donate box

or the jumble sale box.

So, in my opinion, the first step to stop having to scurryfunge is to stop further

mess, even before you tackle the mess you already have.

Do you scurryfunge or are you naturally tidy?