Sitting Down
- Jul, 11, 2016
- Adrienne
- Books, cleaning schedule, Environmental Issues, household management, housekeeping, Organisation and clean up, Sorting and Cleaning
- 2 Comments.
Sitting Down
I am sitting in my lounge right now looking at my old stained carpet and all the collected junk and
wondering how we have lived like this for so long.
Every home has that one area that seems to collect everything. Sadly, I have three such areas. My
bedroom, the TV room and the worst is what is meant to be a home office ( which is actually part of
my lounge) so there is a screen which we put up to hide the collection of clutter.
It is definitely going to take more than 15 minutes to declutter my lounge.

Serving a purpose
Let’s start with the name – we call it the lounge and we have a TV room, we had a play room when
the kids where younger (now my bead room) but this room has many names in different homes It
can be the family room, the sitting room, the great room, but by whatever name you call it the room
definitely needs to have its purpose defined.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have this space, so defining areas of a room for a specific purpose
will help you declutter your space.
Get out of my house
I decided to start with getting rid of anything that is broken or damaged. Sadly this is not a 15 minute
task for me. Part of my lounge was designated a study for my husband but over the years has
become the place where things go when no one knows what to do with them.

Sweep South
In December 2015, I hired Sweep South to help me clean. The ladies they sent did the most amazing
job and then I let them down by not getting rid of the boxes of old books that we packed for
donation. It is out there!

I am using the opportunity of having my floors redone and the roof/ceiling fixed to try again. I have
already got rid of 3 non-functioning laptops and 2 printers and an old box shape computer screen!
The curtains are being washed in preparation for the completed work. My aunt does project
management and her builder has come in at the most reasonable amount.

Already my lounge has taken shape and will be where we keep our many books, which are currently
scattered all over the house.
The newly finished floors look incredible and my lounge is once again a place in which to sit
comfortably. I am looking forward to being able to hang up my curtains again as it is a little cold right
now without them.
Resolution
This time I am definitely not keeping the donation box. I have made a declaration to my family, ‘If it
doesn’t work, or you are too old for it, or it is just plain ugly, it may not come back into my house!’ It
is a good thing that it is winter and there is no rain as all of this is outside in the garden.
I have included a small cleaning schedule to help keep your lounge looking lived in but not untidy.
DAILY
Sweep and/ or mop the floors.
Give a quick wipe to dining room chairs, tables and couches and clean up spills and daily
living that happens
WEEKLY
Vacuum your carpets and if you have fabric furniture do the furniture as well
Dust any pictures, paintings and mirrors, wall units and bookshelves you have in these
rooms.
Every 2 weeks polish your leather or wood furniture, polishing too often allows a buildup of
oil on your furniture making it harder to clean marks off. Sometimes you will find black build
up in the joints of wood furniture from polishing it too often.
MONTHLY
Wipe down the TV screen and any computer screens.
Clean the outside of your DVD player.
QUARTERLY
Damp dust all the skirting boards
Wash the windows
Polish any silverware
BI ANUALLY
Clean light switches, door handles and light covers
Lift the couch cushions and deep clean. Also move the lounge suite and clean behind and
under it
ANUALLY
Wash the walls, doors and ceilings
Clean the grouting between the tiles, if you have tiles or wash the carpets.
What do you use your lounge for?
- accident prevention
- App reviews
- babies in cars
- Books
- Braai
- Bread Recipes
- budget gifts
- Budgeting
- Budgeting in South Africa
- calendar
- Celebrations
- Cellphone safety
- Chanuakah
- Chicken recipes
- Child safety
- Children
- Chrismukah
- Christmas gifts
- Daily budgeting for South Africans
- Debt
- distracted driving
- driver safety
- drowning
- Environmental Issues
- Family
- Family Calendar
- Finance
- food
- Food for toddlers
- Food Myths
- Freedom Day
- frugal gifts
- grocery shopping
- Health
- heat exhaustion
- Heat wave
- Heritage Day
- household management
- I -Plan
- I-cook
- Jewish food
- JOFR
- Johannesburg
- Kosher
- Lockdown
- Managing your household
- Meal Planning
- Meat Recipes
- monthly shopping
- Nurses Day
- Obesity
- online shopping
- Organisation and clean up
- Parenting
- personal finance
- Personal safety
- pets in cars
- Public Holidays
- Quick meals
- Random Ruminating
- Recipes
- Religious holidays
- Reviews
- saving money
- School
- slow cooker
- Slow cooker recipes
- Soup
- South African
- Specifically Jewish
- Summer
- Teenagers
- textbooks
- texting
- Tu B Av
- Uncategorized
- Vegetarian Recipes
- Winter
- Workers Day
- workshop
- Xmas gifts
- November 2023
- October 2022
- August 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- November 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- June 2020
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