Cleaning Archives - Next Edition Kitchens

How-to: Maintain a compost bin

February 20, 2019/in Blog /by NEK Accounts

Do you have a garden and have been thinking of incorporating a good ole’ compost to the mix? this is such a great idea if you are after a little project to keep you busy and an added bonus is that your garden will thank you with delicious fruit, vegetables and flowers that have been absolutely soaking in all the nutrients from the emptied compost.

What exactly is compost?

Compost is simply decomposed organic waste from mainly food scraps. It is nature’s way of creating an added boost to crops and general gardens. All you need to keep feeding your compost is your kitchen food scraps and even garden waste – how easy? in just 2 – 3 months your supply will be at the stages of an ongoing steady fertilizer that’s packed with nutrients for your garden.

What type of compost bin is best?

A plastic bin in which you can purchase from your local hardware shop is perfect for your smaller compost to scale but if you are wanting a larger to scale bin, go for the wooden ones. You can build a bin yourself from googling a DIY step-by-step guide. You can also just start a heap on the ground but the choice is totally up to you!

Where do i place my bin?

It is a good idea to place the bin in place away from the house. it will need to be sheltered by intense heat and wind.

Making the compost:

Once you’ve decided where you’re going to place your compost bin, it’s time to get started with the fun stuff.

Add your organic material in layers to create a balance of carbon and nitrogen.

Start by doing a layer of carbon – your brown material: dried leaves, twigs, newspaper etc. Next add a nitrogen layer – your green material: plant trimmings,

grass clippings, anything green and leafy.

Adding a product like lime to each layer as you prepare your heap will accelerate the composting and help neutralize acidity, plus it has the added bonus of helping to keep flies away. Keep adding alternate layers, then add water and cover the heap to enable it to decompose quickly. Compost needs to be turned regularly to aerate and help the decomposition process.

What NOT to put in your compost:

-Tea and Coffee Bags: If you are wanting to place Tea and coffee grounds into your compost, that is absolutely fine but please make sure you do not put the bags in aswell – these bags generally contain synthetic fibers that do not break down in a compost pile and can contain some iffy chemicals you do not want in your soil.

–Citrus Peels & Onions: While fruit and vegetable scraps are the main ingredient to making some fantastic fertilizer there are some food scraps you should steer clear from your compost, these include Orange peels & Onions the reason i place these in bold is because it is such an easy food scrap to slip past you and weasel their way into the compost bin, perhaps placing a sign on the compost bin to remind you not to put them in would be beneficial?

Unfortunately, the natural chemicals and acidity in orange peels and onions can kill worms which of course slows the process down as the little worms and other microorganisms actually really con tribute to the outcome of your compost. Plus, unless you take time to cut everything down into smaller pieces – they take longer to decompose which results in a longer wait until you can use your fertilizer.

–Meat & Fish: These will of course, decompose fine and have nutrients that would be a good addition to your soil, it will unfortunately attract rodents like Mice, Rats, Cats, Dogs etc who would carelessly ransack your bin to eat them.

The smell of decaying meat may annoy you and possibly your neighbors as well!

–Coal ash: The ash left from the fireplace should most certainly not be added to your compost pile, it contains quite a significant amount of sulfur as to make the soil excessively acidic, which we can confirm will harm your plants. Wood ash can be added in small amounts but do not add coal ash!

–Sawdust from TREATED wood: While untreated, natural wood sawdust can be a great addition to your compost pile. The reason that treated, polished and vanished wood is not a great addition is because the toxic compounds wont be able to break down in the compost process and can negatively affect the microorganism activity and plant health.

-Large branches: Large branches and twigs will take forever to decompose which in conclusion will slow down the process, it may be a bit of a pain to lengthen the process by cutting them down to be smaller but it will allow you to use the compost for your garden a lot quicker. The smaller the branches, the quicker the breakdown cycle is.

Alternatively, you can start a branch pile at the back of your house where its purely dedicated to branches, twigs etc which will decompose over the course of a couple of years. A branch pile is however, a great habitat for smaller rodents.

Added on tips:

Always keep your pile damp but not saturated.
If you are adding food scraps bury deep in the pile.
Do mix your lawn clippings with your food scraps, grass tends to compact which may prevent the air flow through the pile.
Ensure you compost gets some sunshine but not too much.

Appliances Blast Back To The Past

January 21, 2019/in Blog /by NEK Accounts

As you may know, I am a sucker for a good history throwback and seeing how much we have changed and evolved from back then.
Come the holidays, we always start to spend as much quality time as possible with loved ones, especially in the kitchen preparing the mouth-watering lunch and dinner for all. This year round made me really think about what it was like when my mother was me helping her mother prepare the delicious feast and what sort of appliances and cooking utensils they used.

Upon my conversation while cooking with my mother about what it was like back in the day really got me interested in doing some research and WOW, did the results just become the most interesting find yet?!

While the traditional pavlova recipe or nana’s special fruit cake recipe remains, the appliances they used to use to whip these up have majorly shown such a difference when comparing what we use today VS. what our loved ones used when they were little.
Let’s dive in and explore some exquisite finds that really WOW’d me:

1. The Naxon Beanery – This was every households necessity (no, seriously – this appliance was the bee’s knees, so versatile and easy!) We know this to be the “Crock-Pot” this was developed by Irving Naxon as a means of recreating his Grandmothers bean soup, the Beanery was transformed into a more versatile status appliance which was then seen overall as a slow cooker. In 1971, the Chicago-based manufacturer was bought out Rival, who renamed the plug-in pot the Crock-Pot.

Naxon Beanery

2. The Salad Spinner – As you may have already noticed that you still have one of these in your cupboard and it isn’t quite an out-dated utensil – this one is still such a great invention, my mother advised that this would come in pastel/fanta colours and pastel greens and it would be her or her siblings job to sit on the floor and spin the handle like mad until the lettuce was dry. Not only were the colours fun but also it did resemble a toy as such which made it easier to convince the kids to help out!

Salad Spinner

3. The Ice Crusher – It’s no secret that cocktails where all the rave and at its peak in the 1950s. Here, we have the handiest device that would crush your ice cubes to make a lovely, cool & refreshing slushy-like beverage.

Ice Crusher

4. 2-in-1 Electric Can Opener and Knife Sharpener – First of all, how did these ever go out of fashion? Seriously, how great is this invention. It is super practical and easy to store for when you don’t need it. It did used to have a horrid grinding noise when you would sharpen knives but for the design of this beauty, chuck in a couple of ear plugs and get sharpening your knives and opening your cans with ease & style! (It was even electric!)

Electric Can Opener & Knife Sharpener

5. Elevated Cabinet Fridge – Wait, did you say HANGING FRIDGE? Another design I’m totally in love with for what it used to be, I think this design was a very practical idea to have all food being incorporated into the layout of cabinets opposed to free-standing, you’d have to have some strong screws in there to hold it up!

Elevated Fridge

6. Fridge Wraps – Ever looked at a white fridge and thought “You look a wee bit plain, lets spruce you up!) well, our family living in the older generation hit the nail on the head with a range of patterned designs to stick on the doors of your fridge, retro right?!

Fridge Wrap

The list goes on & on & on for so many cool, older style appliances and even cooking utensils. It really does amaze me of how much we have evolved into what we use today and the style of things, hearing about my mothers childhood cooking stories and all the different things you don’t see so much anymore is truly eye opening so i hope you enjoy this post and it takes you or your elders back in time to reminisce.

*All photos are NOT owned by Next Edition Kitchens.

High Quality Material Is The Best Way To Go

December 12, 2018/in Blog /by NEK Accounts

Do you want to invest in a new kitchen or update your current kitchen that will stand the test of time and keep looking brand spanking new? In our blog today, we are going to go through why using high quality material is the best way to go – this ensures optimal, long lasting performance with style.

Have you ever stepped foot in your friends or families house and felt immediately mesmerized? Chances are that it had something to do with the detail and style of the area. Details are so very important and really tie the knot with your styles and will make any room look and feel captivating, specifically, in the kitchen it is one of the most crucial rooms in the house to really hit the nail on the head in terms of design and quality.

When creating the plans for your project, it is super important to create a truly efficient and functional outcome. The kitchen is the heart of the home – if you are second guessing whether or not to go that extra mile and spend the extra money to ensure you are receiving the best quality products, take our word and just do it! You will not regret the finished products and after all, we spend almost every day in the kitchen, so it is really a great investment and not only that – it also can add significant value to your home.

Any kitchen is going to look absolutely breath taking and just exquisite on it first days, but the tell-tale sign of a really great quality Kitchen is how it holds up, how everything ages and how it feels when you are using it on the daily basis. This is why choosing colours can come to a great, feel-good final and quick choice and happens fairly early in the planning stages, but it is what’s “behind the scenes” you could say, that is the more wandered upon stage of the project that determines the long-lasting and practicality. If or perhaps when the time comes to sell your home, the quality feeling of your kitchen cabinetry could be just the thing to push that potential buyer over the finish line.

With our wonderful suppliers and knowledge our professional Team have gathered over the years, this makes selecting only the best quality for your kitchen, easy. We have more affordable ranges which have very similar qualities and have been proven to stand the test of time also – of course the general wear and tear and how you use the area really has impact on the test of time but seeing as we care just as much as you do for your kitchen, we have provided how to best maintain your darker kitchen cabinetry but this way is also suited for your light, bright and vibrant colours too which you can check out here: Dark and Light cabinetry care blog.

Like our suppliers (Blum, Hettich, Hafele – just to name a few), we understand how important this project is to you, it really is the heart of the home. In our opinion, it should be designed and built to provide a long lasting, efficient, stylish kitchen which requires little maintenance (and by little, I mean your general cleaning and not having to replace things here and there.) This understanding lies behind all the kitchen fittings and accessories we incorporate in the kitchens we design, build and install.

The build quality is crucial, as is the smoothness of the materials which really revolves around doors and drawers and how the function whilst opening and closing them. By choosing the slightly more costly materials it really does ensure the capability these materials have to stand the test of time.

We want to spice up the kitchen or nail the new build once and have it look like a brand new kitchen every day, the key to achievement this is certainly quality material and maintenance.

Here at Next Edition Kitchens, we make sure you walk away with the knowledge on the correct way to maintain your benches and cabinetry, we stock local, great quality materials to suit each and every project at an affordable cost! how can that be? too good to be true? our answer is simple – we care about the future generation of design which we are 100% passionate about, all of our designers are constantly testing materials, researching pros and cons and also just staying up to date with product knowledge.

Being able to provide customers with the project of their dream at a great cost is such a heart warming feeling and it is the reason we do what we do (and a bit of help from our wonderful accounts department who loves to fairly negotiate as well gives us a great kick-start on unbeatable costs!)

Enquire on sales@nexteditionkitchens.com or call our office on 09-430 3074 to get an estimate now!

Install Kitchen Cabinetry Or Flooring First?

August 21, 2018/in Blog /by NEK Accounts

A repetitive, yet relevant question you may be asking yourself could be delaying your first step to renovations and that tricky questions is: “Do I reface my cabinetry first or does the flooring need to be done first?” Google has all sorts of answers which can often lead back to square one of being confused again – although there is no wrong way to do this there is safer, more practical ways of sorting the schedule.

When you replace your cabinetry, your existing flooring does run the basic and obvious risk of damage, although our busy working bee’s take all precautions there can be some un-intentional markings/damage made.

Here’s where you may be getting confused; when you are having a whole new kitchen put in, flooring is best to go in BEFOREHAND as the layout of the new kitchen will most likely be different therefor flooring is required to go in first to guide the layout BUT when you are just refacing the existing units the flooring is suggested to wait until after the refacing is done as the layout is set up already so the workers can update the fronts and the flooring is being updated in the existing layout it already is generally.

One of the benefits to having the kitchen renovated first is that you can be more confident in your flooring selection, matching your cabinet finish to smaller flooring samples and hypothetical finishes is about as helpful as painting a home’s interiors via the colours shows on small paint swatches—a process many of us have pulled our hair out over, by waiting to install your flooring after the kitchen is done, you’ll have some time to contemplate which colours or finishes will look best with your brand-new kitchen.

The only exception – install floating hardwood floors AFTER the cabinets, if you are planning on having a hardwood floating floor (or any floating floor such as cork or laminate) you should consider installing the flooring after, why? Because floating floors are clicked together and not glued down to the floor, the reason for this is that the floating floors tend to move, and they expand and contract. If part of the floor is trapped under the cabinetry (which is quite heavy) it cannot properly move resulting in all sorts of issues including bulging, buckling or even breaking. Having this in BEFORE the cabinetry ensures the cleanest look with the cabinets – you don’t need to worry about cutting some to size to fit around the cabinetry and instead can have a nice, flush floor with no issues.

There we have it! hoping this helped a few head scratches and has helped you move onto the next step.

How to clean your oven naturally

August 15, 2018/in Blog /by NEK Accounts

Today I am inspired to write this blog as my oven is in dire need of some TLC – I did some research on how important this is and the results where mind blowing, I had no idea how regularly you theoretically should be “maintaining” your oven. It seems to be one of those things that “you’ll get around to that tomorrow” and tomorrow turns into the next day, and the day after that and so on but let me remind you how important this is!

My first question I had when I opened my oven last night was “when did I even last clean this?” my answer was struggling to come to mind, it must have been a good 4 months ago (not so bad, right?!) well – WRONG! Here my next question came, how often are you supposed to clean your oven?

Once. Every. Month. HOW BIZARRE! Of all the years I have been in charge of that sort of thing, I never even realized there was actually a time period on how often you should be doing it.

Why is there a time on this? I get the hygiene side of it but what’s the actual history behind this? Simple, your oven can become less efficient at reaching temperatures and eventually may just stop working all together if burnt food/build-up is left unattended.

Crusty build up can also impact the taste of your food and, while high temperatures can kill some bacteria, it’s not a good place to be cooking food (like I said, hygiene)

So, now that I’ve got you itching to go have a look at your ovens – I also have a natural guide on how to clean your oven without even turning it on, this method is super easy and really cost efficient.

What you will need:

Baking Soda (1/2 cup)
Water (to make a paste)
Rubber Gloves (Preferably durable, non-disposable ones)
Damp dishcloth
Spray Bottle
Vinegar (White)

Instructions:

Clear out the oven

Take out all dish-racks (clean those as well) make sure everything is removed so you have access to get deep in the back of the oven to clear that build-up.

Mix the paste

In a small bowl, mix a 1/2 cup of baking soda with a few tablespoons of water. Adjust the ratio of both as needed until you have a spreadable paste.

Coat the oven

Spread the paste all over the interior surfaces of your oven, steering clear of the heating elements. Use gloves for this portion, as the oven may be pretty gunky. The baking soda will turn a brownish colour as you rub it in; it also might be chunkier in some places than others, which is fine. Just try to coat the whole oven to the best of your abilities, paying extra attention to any particularly greasy areas.

Let it sit overnight

Allow the baking soda mixture to rest for at least 12 hours, or overnight.

Wipe the oven out

After 12 hours or overnight, take a damp dish cloth and wipe out as much of the dried baking soda paste as you can. Use a plastic spatula to help scrape off the paste as needed.

Spray a little bit of vinegar

Put a little vinegar in a spray bottle and spritz everywhere you still see baking soda residue in your oven. The vinegar will react with the baking soda and gently foam.

Do a final wipe down

Take your damp cloth and wipe out the remaining foamy vinegar-baking soda mixture. Repeat until all the baking soda residue is gone. Add more water or vinegar as needed while wiping to really get the oven clean and shiny.

Replace your clean oven racks

Replace the oven racks and anything else you keep in your oven, and you’re done!

Go give that oven some TLC – You’ll thank yourself later.

How to maintain those dark colored panels/benchtops

March 27, 2018/in Blog /by NEK Accounts

As gorgeous and elegant as dark colored panels and bench-tops are they can definitely become a challenge when it comes to finger marks, food splatters etc, a lot of people are hesitant to go with these colors as they want to avoid that nightmare as some would call it – but I’m here to tell you that it is not as bad as you think.

Whether it’s a matt, satin, semi-gloss or gloss finish, finger marks and water spills always stand out and can be hard to remove sometimes.

Because of the way the light reflects off a dark surface, the marks are often more obvious than on a lighter colour surface. If the mark is from an oily product, (for example oily fingers from cooking) removing this with a standard household cleaning spray can sometimes be ineffective as it doesn’t break down the oil. The other consideration is the streak marks that can be left behind by the cleaning product itself.

There is so many products out there people will try to upsell to you saying “it works wonders, cleaning will be a breeze” BUT this is not always the case – you’d be amazed to find how easy it is to clean up marks using warm, soapy water (you can even add in a dash of disinfectant to keep it hygienic but don’t use too much!) with a microfibre cloth – most times this will clean the cabinets leaving them nice and shiny with no marks whatsoever but sometimes, it can leave a water marks, the trick to this is actually window cleaner (it’s safe and leaves the clean look you’re going for.) On a laminate door, a mixture of eucalyptus oil and water in a spray works well to break down the grease and won’t leave streak marks.

*Always use a microfiber cloth when wiping your doors as this will avoid fine scratches from appearing (especially important if the door is a gloss finish). The best brand we have come across for this is Norwex as their ultra-fine fibers are incredible gentle yet extremely absorbent. You can find these down at our showroom or even online!

Regardless of the finish you choose, dark cabinets will generally be more work to maintain the cleanliness, however – by sticking to this cleaning guide, I promise you will be at peace with your lovely, clean outcome.

All you need to know about Granite

January 16, 2018/in Blog /by NEK Accounts

Tough, practical, beautiful.. no wonder Granite is the top choice for stone benchtops..

For those who are interested in granite, granite is an igneous rock with between 20% and 60% quartz by volume, and at least 35% of the total feldspar consisting of alkali feldspar, it is a incredible hard-wearing stone (ideal for kitchens) the price ranges from rarity of the stone and where it originates from also the labor involved in manufacturing this to suit any design – makes it more of an investment than a cheap fix.

Granite is produced naturally in a variety of colours this will always depend of the mix of quartz, mica & feldspar. So, a wonderful range to choose from!

To achieve different finishes, the stone’s surface is worked with diamond pads, starting with the roughest and getting finer until the required look is produced. A high-shine, polished finish brings out the brilliant colours and shine which comes from the reflection of the stone’s crystals.

For a contemporary honed finish, polished stone is buffed to create a flat, low-sheen surface. Sandblasted granite gives a raw, textured surface. This is more porous than a polished surface and is not suitable for hardworking areas.

Clean granite with stone soap or a mild dish-washing liquid diluted in warm water. Use a clean, soft cloth, remove the detergent from the surface with a second cloth soaked in cold water, then wipe dry. Blot up any spills before they soak into the surface

Now, you’re probably wondering what the pro’s and con’s are to this magnificent product? well here goes:

PROS:

Granite benchtops don’t depreciate in value.
It’s a one-of-a-kind, natural surface that has an almost luminous look.
Granite adds value to your home.
It’s sanitary — bacterial contamination is not a problem with granite.
Formed by heat and pressure, it can take the heat of a pan.
It’s easy to clean with warm water and a mild detergent.

CONS:

Granite benchtops last forever. If you get tired of the colour, you’ll either need to learn to live with it or rip out the entire counter, because you can’t change the colour.
Each slab of granite is different, so it may not be a good choice if you prefer a completely uniform look.
Granite itself is expensive, and the labor-intensive installation can run three times more than the cost of the material.
Granite can be permanently stained if you seal it with a pre-existing stain.
It can crack when hit by a hard, sharp object like a meat cleaver.
Because it’s so heavy, granite often requires additional structural support, especially in spans and cantilevers.
Once glued onto the cabinets, granite is quite difficult to remove, and may result in damage to the cabinets.

Here’s a link to our main supplier of granite benchtops – here you can browse through the different colours and find out where they are from, there also some finished projects on there too (don’t be afraid to pop down to their showroom and have a chat! they won’t bite!) https://www.stone.co.nz/

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