Corporate Housing: Home Remodel!
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Published Date: 2014-07-24
Did you know a lot of people move out of their primary residence and live in corporate housing during a major home remodel?
If moving out of your primary residence is not possible for you during a home remodel, especially a kitchen remodel there are some great tips that can make life less stressful and even possibly manageable. Remember, if the dust and noise becomes too much staying in a corporate housing property even for a month may help save the sanity of your family and maybe even some blood sweat and tears :)Here are some great tips from the experts:
Dishwashing Tips During a Kitchen Remodel
Going through a home remodel can be challenging enough without adding the stresses of living in the home during the renovation process. Everything is dirty, disorganized and your entire life can feel like it's been turned upside down.
Take, for example, a kitchen remodel that transforms the hub of the home into a construction zone. Not only do you have limited access (if any) to cooking appliances for making home-cooked meals, but you almost certainly must forego your sink/dishwashing capability.
This was the case for my husband and I last fall when we renovated our fixer-upper kitchen from top to bottom. We replaced all appliances and installed new cabinets, silver gray Silestone quartz countertops and dropped in a new single basin sink with brushed nickel faucet. Due to a back-up with the countertop fabricator, our 3 week wait time was extended to 7-8 weeks, during which we were without running water in the kitchen.
Rather than running for the hills (or more accurately, coming back after I ran for them several times), I took the setback as an opportunity to exercise my adaptability muscles and came up with some efficient tips and tricks for making the most of an uncomfortable situation. Namely, washing dishes in the bathtub, and creating a system to make that as painless as possible.
Establish a New Kitchen Command Center
The last thing you want to do is pack up your entire kitchen, or arrange everything you'll use on a daily basis in a way that prohibits easy access to what you need. Instead, select a centralized location that is out of the way enough that it won't become covered in debris, but that is close enough to not disrupt your lifestyle too much.
For us, I set up a butcher block island right outside of the kitchen in the living room and only kept a few sets of cutlery and dishes out. Everything else I packed into boxes that were unsealed (in case we needed something) but clearly labeled and arranged in a way that made sense.
At the end of each day, I washed the dishes and returned them to the new kitchen command center.
Set Up a System
When it comes to the actual dishwashing, the more prepared you are, the better. This is another place that only washing one load a day is great, because you reduce the amount of back-breaking time spent cleaning in your tub.
First things first, clean your tub like your mother-in-law is coming to visit! The last thing you want to do is clean your eating utensils amidst soap scum and residue. From there, it's time to introduce how you can use your dishwasher in entirely new ways!
Fortunately, our new dishwasher has two removable racks, so we were able to use the top rack for piling all of our dirty dishes in and the bottom rack for drying them post-wash.
Start by pre-wiping all of your dishes with a paper towel in the trash can. Since you don't have access to a disposal (or a dishwasher with a grinder feeding into the disposal), it's imperative that you don't leave bits of food to clog up your tub.
Next, fill the tub with a couple of inches of hot, soapy water and place all of the dishes into the water. I set up a little assembly line that involved moving the dishes from the top rack into the water, scrubbing them and allowing them to sit as I worked on the others, rinsing them all off one by one and transferring them over to the waiting bottom rack that I had placed on top of a towel to absorb the drips.
After washing all of the dishes and rinsing out the tub, I moved the entire bottom rack back into the kitchen command center to dry fully before stacking them again neatly for the next day.
Go With the Flow
My overall best piece of advice is to be as flexible as possible. Any homeowner who has ever updated their property can attest, kitchen construction rarely follows the script, and being prepared for extenuating circumstances beforehand can help you avoid some unnecessary (and unproductive) meltdowns along the way.
What are some other kitchen renovation survival techniques you've developed along the way?
Rheney Williams lives in Charleston, S.C., and writes about her DIY home projects for Home Depot. Rheney's recent renovation of her kitchen has given her plenty of tips to provide to other homeowners struggling to maintain normalcy, including using the dishwasher under somewhat stressful conditions. Home Depot's dishwasher selection, including the style Rheney has in her kitchen, can be viewed here.
If you are interested in your updating your Corporate Housing Rental then take a minute to review some cost saving ideas in The Corporate Housing Handbook.
