A Great Idea for Moving Rooms

It's that time of the year again.

The time
when in Northern Ireland
we get much colder and wetter weather
and
in our house we move

from  relaxing in the Sun Room

to 

living in the Lounge.

I love being in the Sun Room but I also really like my lounge since we got it decorated a year ago and got the new suite.


We try to get as long as we can out of the Sun Room but by now it means the heating on a lot to keep it warm however we did manage to use it from May to middle of November so that's not bad.

There is one thing I got this year that has made the move from the Sun Room to the Lounge with us and that's what this blog post is all about.

I saw a Slim Cabinet Wagon  (which I prefer to call a caddy) on a website I had found in early springtime and I just knew it would be ideal for the lazy person I become once I sit down.
You know - I don't want to have to get up again to get my book or puzzle magazine or crochet or nail file etc.


One of the really enticing features was the fact that it was on castors and I knew straight away that it would be great to take from room to room.

So I treated myself to an early birthday present and ordered the caddy.

I knew I wouldn't need any help in putting it together even though I'm not a great fan of DIY because it would have few pieces and there would be nothing difficult about it and anyway I can read instructions (even when the men in this family don't think that's a necessary task).


It only consisted of two tubular sides, some rods, 2 metal plates, 4 castors, the cover and a smaller thin tubular part  -  no problem!


Yes no problem until I see that the instructions on the back of the box are in Japanese or Chinese or Korean or something but certainly not in English.

However I couldn't go far wrong with the few parts that had to be assembled!


The box came in handy for resting the sides on to join them with the rods to form the frame.

Very simple to do - just slot the rods through the holes and then use a screwdriver.


A bit wobbly to work with with the first few rods

but very steady when all the rods were fitted.

I then put the castors on the base plate ready to attach it to the bottom of the frame.


That was my only mistake.

I had to remove the castors as it was easier to attach the base to the bottom of the frame as each castor was was tightened in.

With the base and four castors attached I was only left with the smaller metal piece to be placed.

It screwed into the base plate and formed a divider for the central bottom part of the caddy.


All that was left was the cover

It fitted down the outside of the caddy but had a centre section into which a thin metal plate was slotted and this would form a shelf about halfway up the caddy.

Then the cover was fitted on securely using velcro strips along the bottom of each side of the frame

and the top of each side.



The finished Caddy

The two sides have slightly different sizes and arrangement of pockets.


The profile view clearly shows the shelf and the divider within the caddy.


There is plenty of room for anything you might want to have at hand when you are sitting watching TV or relaxing reading a book etc.


Because it is a slimline trolley it will fit in nicely beside chairs or a couch.

Just one little idea that makes it that bit simpler & easier for organising our home.

Here it is in the Sun Room beside the chair

What do I keep in it?

• Books
• Bible
• Puzzle books
• Crochet
• Hand cream
• Nail file, scissors etc.
• Hair clip
• Bookmark
• Pens, Pencils
• Glasses
• etc.

Oh yes and all the remote controls


Last year in the lounge I had this basket but it was getting too full.

Now  I can have the caddy instead of the basket and even have more things than I had before

or in a better position for me right beside my usual seat on the couch

It fits there really well and can easily be rolled out when I need to get at the lower  parts.

But below you can see that when it is in it's place it isn't even noticeable as you walk into the room.

Just one little idea that makes it that bit simpler & easier for organising our home. 

Of course this one was more Funwork than Housework because I got to but something, put it together (and that was't difficult)  and put my stuff into it  -  real Organising!

5 Things To Remember when Spring Cleaning

The painters were coming to paint the Lounge and a few other rooms this month so my overhaul plans for the house were changed and I decided to Spring Clean the Lounge even though it is not Spring time.

When we were working on the Lounge I thought about 5 things not to forget for next year  PLUS  a Bonus Tip.

All of these of course could refer to practically any room in the house but because I was working on the Lounge my examples are based there.

1.  Furniture Pads

When you buy a new piece of furniture you should fit felt pads to the furniture feet or legs;  especially if you have wooden floors..

If you haven't got ones fitted then do this while you are Spring Cleaning.

If you have fitted them then check each time you are Spring Cleaning to see if any need replaced or any have come off and put new ones on.
In this case the pads had been on since we bought the Nesting tables 10 years ago and were still doing fine BUT note they always catch all the hairs and fluff so need to be hoovered well regularly too (see pic on right & this was after I had pulled off some of the hairs) .

The best thing to do is to buy more pads than you need to start with so that if one gets dislodged or has worn very thin and needs replaced then you have one of the same type and thickness to put on because you do not want to end up with a difference in those chair legs  -  no wobbling.

New suite - Furniture pads were added




2.  Scratches and Scrapes

No matter how careful we are the longer we have an item the more scratches and scrapes will appear on it.

When you see them during your very detailed Spring cleaning either write down a note about each of them or take a picture of them.

This is to remind you later what you have to go back to touch up and what colour it is because at the time you find the scratch you probably will not have the right product to do the touch up.

You know you will forget about this later when you are not seeing it each day.

I have to get black scratch touch up colour for the bottom of our Clavinova (electric piano) and a dark reddish brown for the piano stool.




3.  The Grooves in Furniture

I love to damp dust rather than ordinary dusting because it doesn't just displace the dust (and annoy my nose).

But even with that some items with grooves and ridges still hold that dust unless we take that extra bit of effort.

I have two items like this in my lounge - The Roll Top Desk and the Clavinova.

They don't look bad from these angles.
(Also reminds me of the fact that we need to remember to dust all sides and backs of items - you never know know who will have a different view of your furniture etc. depending on where they are sitting or standing in the room).

We even think they are dusted ok because we went along each one with the cloth but later sitting to the side of them the dust can still be rather noticeable.

The only solution for me is to get a small thin brush, put a furniture cleaning wipe over the bristles and use this in between the ridges.

I use a wipe and not the cloth as the cloth is just that bit thicker and then the brush doesn't seem to get right in to the depth of the grooves.

See the difference even after just a few grooves are cleaned with the wipe on the brush.




4.  Vertical Blinds and Roller Blinds

We tend to remember to take down the curtains and get them cleaned but quite often we just dust over the blinds.

Not always good enough because if we let them go too long they can be really hard to get cleaned and I know all about that from when I moved into this house 4 years ago.

This time I saw two parts of the blinds that needed my attention, one on the left of the window and one on the right.

So out comes one of my favourite gadgets talked about in a previous blog post  

My 5 Essential Items to make the Housework Easier

Yes my Steamer and this is the result even looking in closer.

5.  Candle Wax.

More and more we are all bringing candles into various rooms and setting them in different places.

The more candles we burn the more chance of candle wax dripping and staining items and if this goes unnoticed for too long we just may not be able to get rid of the marks.

As you can see I have marks on the logs in my grate but I don't mind that too much.
In front of the grate in plain view I had no drips and if I had they would have been noticed and cleaned up shortly afterwards but we had never checked in under the grate until now and that could have meant the Sandstone fireplace being stained and I may have had great difficulty getting rid of that but fortunately the wax had only dripped on the logs.

Oh does anyone know how to get candle wax off logs - in case I do decide to try it?



Well that covers my 5 Things to Remember when Spring Cleaning.




And I haven't forgotten

 The Bonus Tip. 

DON'T FORGET  -  The Things Dropped Down between Seats of the Sofa

We don't see them but they are there or rather they may even be on the floor under the sofa which you haven't moved for months.

Yes folks we lost the remote control of our DVD player in the lounge.

It was a DVD player which did not have all the necessary buttons on the player itself so it really needed the remote to be suitable for our family who are lazy when we sit down to watch dvds together.
No doubt you can guess what had happened after several months - because we watch a lot of dvds.

Yes we went out and 

bought 

another DVD player

Then this month we sell our suite and there is the remote control lying on the floor where the sofa had been.