Updating your kitchen this spring? Top tips to survive the process

For a quick kitchen update why not try replacement kitchen doors?

One of the things that puts many people off doing a kitchen update is all the upheaval that is involved in the process. Not to mention the cost of course!

But there are ways that you can get around both of these issues…

In this article we take a look at how to survive a major kitchen update, and also suggest an alternative way of updating your kitchen that will cause less hassle as well as being considerably cheaper.

How to survive a major kitchen update

The kitchen is such an important part of the home that the thought of managing without it is very stressful. Here are five tips to help you make things run as smoothly as possible:

• Be realistic about the timings

One of the first difficulties you may find when having a kitchen update is getting a clear picture of when the work will take place and how long it is all going to take. 

It’s only when you have a definite installation date that it will start becoming a reality and you need to get on with preparing your home for the work to take place. And of course you want to minimise the time that you will be without a kitchen so you need to leave some of the clearing out until the very last minute.

So before any work starts, make sure you have a realistic idea about the timings to enable you to plan accordingly and minimise disruption to your home.

• Do a drastic declutter

One thing that you can get on with before work starts is a drastic declutter of your kitchen. Why pay a lot of money to get a fantastic brand new kitchen then fill it up with clutter? 

So as you empty your old kitchen cabinets ready for the work to start, be absolutely ruthless and get rid of anything that you don’t like or don’t use. 

A declutter will also make it much easier to store your kitchen goods temporarily while the work takes place. And it means that, when the work is finished, you can start afresh with a beautifully uncluttered new kitchen.

• Protect your home against dust

The amount of dust involved in installing a new kitchen will always be way more than anticipated. It seems to spread throughout your home, and if you’re not careful you can end up finding it for months afterwards. So it’s worth taking time and effort to protect your home against this dust. 

Keep all doors closed in your home during the kitchen work, and put away as much stuff as you can in cupboards or drawers. Anything that can’t be put away needs to be covered up, particularly in rooms immediately adjoining the kitchen. This includes furniture, TVs and other gadgets, office equipment and anything else on surfaces. Use dust sheets, plastic furniture covers, bubble wrap or large sheets and towels to cover everything as completely as you can.

It’s also worth doing a thorough vacuum of all affected areas every day, and if you take coverings off items, make sure they are shaken out, laundered or wiped down so that they are completely clean before going back onto your items again.

This can all seem like a hassle but could save you a lot of time and trouble for months to come.

• Create a temporary kitchen

It’s important to set up a specific area of your home to be a temporary kitchen whilst work is going on. If you don’t have one designated place, things can quickly descend into chaos. It may be in a dining room, conservatory, hallway, garage or other outbuilding. The key thing is to ensure that it is as clean and organised as possible during this time.

Keep your temporary kitchen as minimalistic as possible. In terms of equipment, all you need is ideally a kettle, toaster, microwave, mini fridge plus a few items of cutlery and crockery. If you don’t have washing up facilities near at hand, a few disposable items will also be useful.

Also have some basic food items available, such as tea, coffee, bread, milk etc. But realistically, you are unlikely to be able to do much proper cooking in your temporary kitchen, so keep supplies to the bare necessities.

• Make fun meals the new norm

Given that you can’t really cook a proper meal in a temporary kitchen, you are going to have to find other ways of feeding your family during this time. But rather than see it all as a great big hassle, be inventive about where and how you eat, and try to get everyone to see it as fun. It’s hopefully not for long, so make the most of this enforced opportunity.

A few ideas for fun meals are:

• Takeaway meals;
• Eating out;
• Going to family or friends;
• A BBQ in the garden;
• A family picnic, either inside or outside.

If you do various combinations of the above, hopefully the time will soon pass before you are able to cook in your own kitchen again.

An alternative way to update your kitchen

Hopefully the above tips will help ease the impact of a major kitchen update on you and your family. But if it all seems a bit too daunting, there is an alternative to consider. 

If your kitchen cabinets are still in reasonable condition, why not update them with replacement kitchen doors instead of getting them ripped out completely? The advantage of this is that you can get a brand new look for your kitchen at a fraction of the cost of replacing everything new, and also with much less time and hassle during the process.

Replacement kitchen doors can make your kitchen cabinets look brand new and totally transform the feel of your kitchen. There is great flexibility of choice over colours and styles, and you could also supplement your replacement kitchen doors with new kitchen worktops to complete your kitchen update.

For the perfect finishing touch, all you need to do is repaint your kitchen – either mixing or matching your replacement kitchen doors – for a totally different look.

The net result is a kitchen you will love and that will give you many more years of service, but without all the expense and stress of completely ripping out your old kitchen.

To find out more about replacement kitchen doors, take a look at DIY Homefit’s Kitchen Doors and Drawer Fronts page. Our stylish ranges include Bella Vinyl Wrapped, Flat Slab and Budget kitchen doors, all available in a wide choice of colours and finishes.

We hope that this article provides some helpful information about how to survive a complete kitchen update and another alternative to consider. For further ideas and inspiration, why not take a browse through DIY Homefit’s gallery of kitchen pictures to see what kind of styles and colours would work in your new kitchen.

And do visit us again soon here at DIY Homefit for more home and lifestyle tips.