Last-Minute Cleaning

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, it’s Vivian Lewin.

Hi, Vivian, where are you calling from?

Montreal, Canada.

Welcome to the program.

What can we do for you?

I just found out that some of my friends have specific words for something that for me was just a concept.

And the concept is this: somebody’s coming to the house and there’s junk all over the place, so you throw it in the closet or in the drawer or something.

And I was talking to my friend Donna, and she said, oh, yeah, I make a lot of lasagnas.

And I said, like, what?

And she called it making a lasagna.

Oh, really?

Because you end up with a bunch of unrelated things in layers.

Right.

And later on you have to, like, yeah.

All piled up.

That’s good.

Yeah.

And then it turned out that I know at least two other people who have different words for this.

Oh, good.

Tell us.

Tanya, who’s originally Ukrainian, in their family, she said, oh, we call it mummification because only mommy is allowed to do it.

Oh, I see.

Mummification.

But it also gets the idea of preserving something in layers.

And then I have another friend whose husband’s an actor.

They’re both actors.

And she said, oh, we call it comedy closet.

Like a Fibber McGee closet, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You open it up and everything comes pouring out.

Bowling balls and xylophones and everything.

That’s great.

But I guess there’s no real word for that.

But I’ve done other people who have words for it.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Definitely.

We’ve talked about Fibber McGee Closet on the show before.

You remember that old radio show?

Right, right.

Yeah.

Well, no.

I’m too young for that.

Oh, come on.

Well, as a 22-year-old, you should have encountered it by now.

We’re at the Fibber McGee Radio Show.

Remember, Martha?

Yeah, it was a running gag.

Yeah, it was a running gag.

Like, he’d tell his wife, he’s like, oh, I’ll go get the wrench.

And she’s like, no, McGee, no.

And he’d open the door and you’d hear this loud clattering noise.

The Foley man would be having a ball with all this racket.

And there’d always be one last little bead of glass bouncing on the pavement.

The sound effects guy must have had a good time.

Yeah.

Vivian, I have friends who call it shame cleaning.

Ooh.

You know how you get more cleaning done in those 10 minutes before somebody comes home or comes to your house than the whole week before?

Because it’s like, yeah, but that might be even real cleaning.

Like, they might be running the vacuum.

Yeah.

And you have to actually have shame for that to work.

Yeah.

You even invite people over so that you can clean.

Well, exactly.

Isn’t there something that just happens when you know somebody’s coming over and all of a sudden you see those cobwebs?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It’s just like, and you want your space to be the way you would really like it to be for you, but somehow you’re not as important as them, or what is it?

Oh, that’s perfectly put.

Yeah, maybe it’s aspirational cleaning.

Of course, that could also be with the vacuum cleaner, you know, aspirational.

I have a term myself for it.

I call it going to camp.

And that’s because when I was little, I was always given dolls and I didn’t like playing with dolls.

And so I just always threw them in the closet and said, dolls, you’re going to camp.

I did.

And so now I say that to stuff around the house, you’re going to camp.

Maybe never in a nose in your closets.

You don’t want to do that.

Well, Vivian, I think you’re probably right.

Our listeners probably do have a term for that kind of quick cleaning you do when somebody’s going to come over or for the stacks that you make where you take a mess and at least make it orderly around the edges.

Yeah.

If you’ve got a word for that in your house, let us know, 877-929-9673, or tell us an email, words@waywordradio.org.

Hey, Vivian, thanks.

You’re welcome.

Happy cleaning.

Thanks for calling. Bye-bye.

Thank you. Bye.

Bye-bye.

877-929-9673. Call us.