Home at Craft

Monique Hawkins Kitchen’s can be one of the most expensive rooms in the house to remodel and decorate. However, there is a way to do this without spending tons of money. You can decorate your kitchen on a shoestring budget!

With patience, persistence, and a little time, there is one place to find decorative items for mere pennies. Where is this “magic” place? Yard sales! Granted, this will take much more effort than walking into a “Kirkland’s? or “Country Treasues’s” store at the local mall, but the money spent will be so much less. Plus, some really interesting and unique pieces will be added to your house.

It is amazing what items can be found at yard sales that will go with any kitchen décor under the sun. If you love a country style kitchen, search for baskets, pitchers, and pottery. These items can be placed above cabinets, as centerpieces for the kitchen table, or filled with fresh fruit or wildflowers and then placed on the counter.

If you love the retro style kitchen, yard sales are fantastic shopping spots. It is easy to find many kitchen items from the 1960′s-1970′s in good condition. While some are excellent collectible pieces, others can be purchased for sheer fun! Some cool pieces to look for old breadboxes, canister sets, and wall clocks.

If you your taste runs back to the 1940′s era, finding vintage pieces could be a bit more of a challenge. However, once items are found, they turn out to be well worth the time it took to hunt for them! Kitchens from the 1940′s call for vintage linens, which can be used as tablecloths or displayed by hanging from the store. Some of the lines have bright colors and designs which add warmth and cheer to any home’s kitchen décor. Since some of these old tablecloths are really collectible items and can be quite expensive if purchased in an antique shop, finding one at local yard sale for mere pennies would be fantastic!

When it comes to the modern and contemporary style, most yard sales offer almost new items. If you check out the yard sales in the pricey area of your city or town, you can likely find some expensive items at cheap prices.

At times, antique and collectible decorative items can be found at yard sales as well. If you are one who prefers collecting items such as certain types of china, vintage linens, or a hutch, it might help to do some research on the subject. This will help you spot a great piece.

Who knew decorating a kitchen in your home could be done so cheaply? Why not start checking out those yard sales today?

The kitchen, with all its appliances, gadgets and heat, is a real hotspot for potential energy saving. As the oven uses the most energy and creates a vast amount of heat while cooking foods, it is a good place to start.

For instance, when baking cookies use two trays. While one is in the oven baking, the other one is prepped with raw cookies – ready to replace the tray in the oven with no wasted heat and some time saved. When we bake bread we also fill the oven with foil wrapped potatoes. The potatoes can be stored in the fridge without the foil and used throughout the week in a myriad of recipes, or as a side dish. This method can be applied to a menu plan in that if you are baking one dish, try to include a side dish that is baked as well.

By turning off the oven a minute or two before the dish is done, the residual heat will finish the cooking. When done with the oven, open the door to allow any leftover heat to warm the home.

Pasta cooking water can be left out until it has completely cooled – so that the heat and moisture are released back into the air. Before pulling the plug, consider leaving hot dishwater (and bath water) until it cools. Why pay to heat up your sewer pipes? When cooking vegetables, consider steaming instead of boiling. When steamed, more nutrients are retained in the food, and because it requires less water to heat – there is less energy used.

In summer, consider cooking on the barbecue to help keep the house cool. Most barbecues now include side burners that make outdoor cooking all that much easier.

All these methods are relatively easy to adopt and when added up, the savings in energy and time really do make a difference.