Skip the Scurryfunge
On our drive home last night from our annual Thanks-getaway, we were passing the time in the car with some holiday podcasts. While listening to A Cozy Christmas Podcast, we learned from guest Grace Tierney about the word scurryfunge. It’s from the 1700s and originally had something to do with deep cleaning (and I think something about fish… or the sea…. I zoned out a bit), but by the 1950s it had shifted to describe a very specific moment. You know that feeling before guests come over and nothing is clean or ready yet? That is what inspires a scurryfunge: the frantic moment when you scurry to get everything tidied up real quick.
Scurryfunge is a delightful word to say (which is why I will use it 5 times in this one short post), and it’s a word we can all relate to; stuffing laundry into closets, wiping counters at lightning speed, or lighting a candle to make sure your house never actually smells like a house. My closets have definitely been filled with bags of stuff that were the outcome of a good scurryfunge, but as we step into the holiday season this year, I hope we can do away with the need for it altogether.
The people who matter most shouldn’t be coming to see our spotless kitchens or perfectly fluffed pillows, they should be coming to see us. When we get together it should be for laughter around the table, for stories that spill into the night, and for the comfort of being welcomed just as we are. When I think about the best holiday moments over the years none of them have anything to do with perfection. We remember the years where the pie crust cracked but everyone still asked for seconds, or when the living room was cluttered with wrapping paper but no one noticed over the sounds of Christmas joy.
So maybe this year, instead of scurrying to hide the mess, we let the mess be part of the memory. Let’s skip the scurryfunge and let the imperfections remind us that life is lived here, in this space, with these people and we want to make the most of every messy moment of it.
