A friend of mine mentioned on facebook that he was getting rid of 75% of all of his personal possessions. There must be something in the air because we have been cleaning out this weekend in our house as well. Sometimes I get stressed out just looking around at all of the stuff that we seem to accumulate. Actually, I blame it on school as the kids seems to bring stuff home every single day. We recycle about everything and paper is one of our biggest loads each week as we haul it out.
So, anyhow, the junk-induced stress hit a peak on Friday night so I started piles…a pile to donate, a pile to keep and a pile to throw in the can. I am honestly not sure which pile was bigger. It was excellent therapy at any rate. The kids sort of avoided the whole process until, in my hoeing-out frenzy, I strongly urged them to make piles with their stuff. Isaac fussed a little until I started into his stuff making the piles for him. His ideas did not match mine and I think he caught on.
I remember a family in my home town when I was growing up. They seemed to let things just completely go for awhile and then they would clean in a frenzy, pitching every thing in sight. It was pretty hilarious but their place went from one extreme to the other in the course of a day. I remember the mother of the house saying that she was going to “red up the house” Is that Pennsylvania phrase? I think most people know what I mean when I say we are hoeing out so that must be pretty common…but redding up the place?
Things are calmer at our house and my blood pressure is much better. I know most people like the therapy of redding up the house. I am not sure why collecting stuff is so easy yet causes so much stress. You would think that we would be better at avoiding the stress of junk but it just doesn’t seem natural. Maybe it’s called redding up because when your face finally gets red with stress, you gotta de-junk!
Redding up or out is Pennsylvania Dutch as is outen the light and many more I can’t think of right now. Oh I thought of another one…instead of saying the store is closed they say shut like open and shut. Anyway that’s your ancestory talking.
I’m very good at what I call “purging” some spaces (garage, fridge, closets) but lousy at paper stuff. I get completely overwhelmed at even the thought of going through all the paper stuff we’ve accumulated. I think the job is so enormous that I don’t even start.
Never heard of either of those two terms, but it’s the same thing we call “Spring cleaning”, which can happen at anytime not just in the Spring.
I like to do this purging now and then in our house. It makes me feel so much better when it is done. If it was up to me, my house would be one of those with maybe three or four things per room and that was it. Unfortunately my wife conspires against me by buying more stuff.
We have areas that still need purging, but the biggest contributor to piles around here were things not being put where they belonged, not HAVING a place to belong, or junk brought in from the outside…like mail and things from work or the back and forth stuff from out of the truck. I created a few zones where things can be corraled, but the junk mail goes into the outside garbage/recycle bin before ever making it into the house. My husband’s crapola has its own bookcase where his little squirrel piles (my term, ha) that get left all over the house get put by me when I found them here and there coating all possible surfaces before. His clothes for this and that have their own chair beside his bed where they get hung/placed by me when I find them here and there in the house. And I do that big purge once or twice a year, for my own sanity!
Definitely a PA phrase. I had never heard it until I moved to Western PA.
I share your thoughts on the stuff—way too much stuff. Sometimes it feels suffocating, and that’s when I know it’s time to make a trip to Salvation Army.
I have seen that phrase in Amish books. It means to make the house ready, like for its close up!
I definately get the urge to purge around here. I don’t enjoy clutter. Butch says Mousey and The Boy’s rooms could be featured on an episode of Hoarders!
I have never heard redding the house before, but I’ve certainly done it! I watched an episode of hoarders and whew, did that ever get me motivated! I dumped all sorts of stuff.
I’ve never heard the phrase hoeing out but I have heard redding up around here. My mother used to say she was giving the house “a good clean” and that suits the activity pretty well too. We seem to get inundated, esp with paper. And now that I’m selling on eBay, I’m piled in even deeper with all kinds of resale stuff. Good luck on keeping your place hoed out! It’s an ongoing challenge, isn’t it?