The kitchen is said to be the heart of the home – and that’s why so many buyers focus on it when searching for property.
A great kitchen can reward you with a higher sale price and reduce the time your home stays on the market.
As a rule, it’s the first room owners consider renovating when thinking how they might maximise the value of their home before selling it.
The investment required in a rip-and-replace strategy can be $30,000 and more, depending on the size of the kitchen and the quality of appliances and fittings you wish to install.
And while that’s a lot of money, buyers will often respond positively and you have a great chance of gaining a significant return on your investment.
If you are thinking about a kitchen remake, budget for stylish appliances from the same manufacturer – that’s a big plus right now.
One thing to remember about any renovation however is that its value diminishes over time. New work will impress prospective buyers but those that are older tend to lose their sparkle.
Here are some kitchen hacks that clients have shared with me over the years. I hope you find them useful.
- Stop scratches – Those plastic mesh bags that you get when you buy oranges and lemons has a cool, second use. They’re a great non-scratch scourer for cleaning non-stick surfaces without risk of wrecking the Teflon on your prized pans.
- Rack it up – Use your bathtub to clean oven racks – it’s a messy job at the best of times and few sinks or buckets are big enough to handle the job. Let them soak overnight. Clean up thoroughly afterwards.
- Pipe cleaner – After you’ve just cleaned your oven racks in the bath, pour a cup of baking soda and lemon juice down the pipe to get rid of any oil and grime. You’ll hear the concoction fizz as it hits the bad stuff down there.
- What’s cooking? – A spray can of cooking oil will do a great job of removing dirt and scum around all the taps. Wipe them down with a paper towel that you can throw away. If you use a micro fibre cloth, you’ll have to clean it in hot water before you can reuse it.
- Exhausting but important – Use warm soapy water to clean the mould, grime and dust that builds up on your stove exhaust fan. It’s not a fun job, but it needs to be done.
- Cabinet tops – It’s unbelievable how an icky, waxy dirt accumulates on the tops of our kitchen cabinets, especially when they are so close to ceiling level. Avoid a huge cleaning job here by laying wax paper over the tops of the cabinets. Replace them every three or four months.
- Unlucky break – Cups and glasses break all the time in the kitchen. If you’ve got shards and tiny pieces of china or glass on the floor, wipe the area with a slice of bread. The fragments stick to the dough. Caution: apply only minimal pressure to avoid cutting yourself.
- Hair-raising – If animal hair in the kitchen is a constant source of annoyance, you’ll find that rather than trying to pick it up with a cloth, you’ll have better luck by using rubber gloves.
- Coffee caper – Coffee cups that have done loyal a service are often blemished by brown stains. Rather than throw out your favourite mugs, rub baking soda over the inside surface to bring them back to near-new condition.
- Blender tip – Don’t run a cloth over your blender blades and risk cutting your finger. Fill the cup half-full with warm water, put the top and blades back on, and run it for 20 seconds. Job done.