Decrapification.

While I like words and believe I have a decent vocabulary and also believe that the word "crap" is a cop-out, I have found it useful in the past week or two.

I discovered a lovely blog, Thrifty Decor Chick, in my blogosphere travels. She's a mid-west gal who blogs about decorating and organizing her home. She uses really cool words like "luurve" and "skeered" and my new personal fav (which my best girls already heard all about via email) "decrapify".  She has managed to inspire me to want to decrapify our house, one room at a time. Ok. I won't lie. One room closet cabinet drawer at a time.

I think using the word "decrapify" gives me a better, more objective look at the stuff in our house. When I call it "stuff", it seems to have value. When I call it "crap", it has much LESS value, and thus, is easier to burn. donate.

I sent this email out to my best girls, asking for their help:

Ok, ladies, I just had a pretty brilliant idea. Well, it's really an amalgamation of several ideas....but it's still pretty brilliant.


(Aunt D, I cc'd you b/c I think you'd find this to be humorous. And practical. And I'd call you to come do it if you lived closer!)

 I think it's safe to say we all have a lot of crap in our houses. Or maybe it's just my house? Nah. I've seen you're places ;)


But we hate getting rid of the crap. And the crap is everywhere. And it's hard to throw away the crap because you might NEED the crap eventually. Or the crap was given to us by someone who is now dead. Or by someone who might find out we got rid of it. Or it might be worth something someday. You get my point.

This is where my BRILLIANT idea came in.


What if we volunteered ourselves to each other to help de-crapify a room, or a closet or a whatever. I think if I had (for example) J standing next to me while I dug through my nasty linen closet and she told me to get rid of the floral napkins that I've never used, I might actually get rid of them.



I don't know exactly how this would work. Obviously, if I need my linen closet cleaned out and re-organized, all of us can't fit into to it. So I'm thinking like what if L needed someone to help her with S's room some morning...well, i could go help her. Then, if A needed help with her kitchen, maybe L could help w/that. Or something similar. Maybe it wouldn't be "I help L, L helps me", but "I help L, L helps A, A helps C" or something like that.



Maybe this could included painting? Maybe this could included deep cleaning (scrubbing walls, mouldings, etc). Maybe this could include other people? And obviously, since LG lives far away, she'll have to find her own decrapification buddy down there. (i'm thinking J, LG).



Any thoughts? I have a playroom and a basement that NEED HELP. I have an almost 13 year old who really wants his own bedroom, but he'd need my "office" (codeword for "craphole") as a study space so where would my "office" go? DOWNSTAIRS, into the crappy basement. See the problem?



Sooooo----?????? Who's in?

 D.(who is dying in all of her crap and is begging for your help)
 
So, why post this on the blog? Well, I think that by decrapifying the house, one area at a time, I will improve the quality of our lives. Or cause less fights. Whatever. Also, by posting this on the blog, I think I will be slightly  more accountable than if I just wrote in my diary journal scrap of paper "clean out the house".
 
I'm also hoping to inspire others to decrapify. Because truthfully, we don't need all the stuff crap to be happy.
 
Who's with me? Either at my house--or yours--who's in for DECRAPIFY 2011????