a Brave Mission

Isn't it funny when you think you've come up with a Brand New, Awesome and Original Idea that you want to share with everyone, then you look around and it's already being done? Like, by lots of people, everywhere (at least in BlogLand), and as lovely as it is, it's certainly not YOUR Idea.

Bummer!

So, I'll join the gang (who are all brilliant for coming up with this idea collectively) and say, Hey, Lookit!

I'm cleaning/organising/tidying my house! From Top to Bottom (or something to that effect) for the Month of January!

Yeah!

It must be the New Year vibe running through our veins, because it seems like everyone's cleaning, clearing the clutter, finding space.

It's a really great idea, I think. And now I'm sharing it, for anyone who hasn't caught the bug :)


I actually wrote about it on the blog of my wise (and funny) friend Deb (who is also seeking to simplify). I have decided to repost my comment here, because a) I can and b) I made myself laugh writing it. Two good reasons!

I wrote:

"Deb, I think it’s something about the new year—all of us walking about in our homes saying, Something's Gotta Go!!! Or, EVERYTHING’S Gotta Go!

I’m right in the middle of the same decluttering, de”stuffing”, de”stuff coming in at me from all sides and all floors and all surfaces-ing” voyage too. It’s going okay… I’m doing one thing a day. And as I do my one thing, it looks WAY worse just for a bit (so then you have to keep going, right? You can’t stop there!), but then I get a space like your laundry (which rocks!). Or perhaps I get a space like ONE, single, cleared table (Yeah, it’s going to be a long road. My home was starting to look like one of those houses they mention in the paper where some little old lady has died and people go in and find there’s just the path for walking from the bed to the toilet. Everything else—random debris. And about a hundred cats mewling about looking for scraps. Hmmm. Is that too much information?)

Hope you’re getting through your Stuff with your sanity intact, Deb! I’m cheering for you!"

The thing is, I'm not just cheering for Deb, I'm cheering for everyone who is bravely going into this netherworld of sorting, fixing, clearing, discarding, scrubbing, finding, losing and keeping. We start the year with such hope. Such energy. Such a Mission! 

And we all want that simplicity, don't we? The sweet sense of things not falling in on you like a cave-in. That sense that when you look around, there will be some corners of your home/life/world that are in some kind of order. Maybe even…dare I say it?… Just. So. 

It's a wonderful Mission. 

And even if things go pear-shaped and chaos returns (or never quite leaves?) I think, No matter, because I just love HOPE. 

I love the eagerness we have when we start on something like this. The almost child-like sense of "Yeah, I'm going to ride that bike without training wheels/become a rockstar/fly off that roof with just my cape for comfort! I am doing it, Right Now!" I love carrying the feeling close that our dreams will sustain themselves in the light of day. 

I think Hope is one of the finest, if not THE finest, feeling we can carry. It's filled with the Positive and I keep it close. Always.

So in that vein, I propose a Joint Mission. Not unlike the mighty NaNoWriMo (National Write a Novel in a Month) quest. I suggest we all do it and link up and have this awesome linky button that I have no idea how to make (but Deb knows. Deb, how do you make one of those buttons?)

I suggest we call it something AMAZING. Like, oh,

PerCleMyHouMo!! 

Which stands for…wait for it… "Personal Clean My House in a Month!"

What do you all think? 

…

Yeah?

Really?

…

Huh.

All right. 

Well then, howabout this:

CleUpYoCluMo!  

(which we'd pronounce, Clee Up Yo Cloo Mo!

and stands for "Clear Up Your Clutter Month!")

Righteous!

Or,

howabout this

I'mGonnaCleanThisHouseOrDieTryingMo!

Catchy, no?

Anyway. I'll leave you with those name ideas, let them percolate, and we'll have a meeting on this soon to come up with a decision. I think that's called Tabling It, am I right? Or, like in the movie Bolt, we're putting a Pin In It, until we decide. 

Right? 

Good meeting everyone. I'm going to go put away some of the 300 things I put on the floor when I decided to swap bookcases, sort all our art junk into drawers and clear the coffee table. I'll see you in December, ready for the first, official,

FiPaWaFroRooRooMo!

(Oh, you know what it stands for. But I'll tell you anyway.

It's "Find a Path to Walk from Room to Room Month!" 

Yeah. That one's totally getting my vote).