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01/03/22
5 Unexpected Ways to Use Coffee to Clean Your Kitchen
Tap Warehouse
Tap Warehouse have put together their ultimate tips for cleaning the kitchen with the nation’s favourite waker-upper: coffee.
Polly Shearer, interiors expert at Tap Warehouse claims “We’ve all heard about lemon juice and vinegar acting as great natural cleaning products for the home, but coffee also has multiple benefits to keep your kitchen spick and span.”
By reusing old coffee grounds from a coffee machine, or even a few teaspoons of instant coffee, you’ll be left with a sparkling kitchen that smells great, a method that will also save you splashing out on expensive cleaning products!
1.Scrubbing Pans
Cleaning stubborn food stuck to your pots and pans is a long, frustrating task, and can also damage the finish of your pans if you use abrasive sponges. Instead, combine 2 to 3 teaspoons of coffee grounds with warm, soapy water and scrub the pans with a soft sponge or brush to remove stuck-on food in half the time. Coffee is a natural degreaser due to its acidity levels so works perfectly for this task.
2.Cleaning the Grill
The grill & oven are notoriously difficult to clean, getting tougher and tougher the longer you leave them. Soak your grill grates in the sink for about 45 minutes in a solution of warm water and a few spoonfuls of coffee, (even instant coffee will do), and you’ll find the tough stains will melt off, leaving you with a grill that’s as good as new. This also works just as well for barbeque grills.
3.Banish Fridge & Bin Smells
There’s nothing worse than opening the fridge and being greeted to a flood of unpleasant smells but not being able to work out where they’re coming from! Coffee is a great absorber of odours so can be used to keep your fridge smelling fresh. By placing coffee grounds or a few beans in a cup in your fridge, you’ll banish these smells for good. This method can also save you up to £8 by using coffee grounds instead of a standard fridge freshener.
Similarly, placing a couple of teaspoons of coffee at the bottom of your bin before putting in a bin bag will reduce bin smells, keeping your kitchen fresher for longer.
4.Cleaning Surfaces
Coffee is also great for removing hard-to-clean stains from tiles - mix a few teaspoons of instant coffee or used grounds with soapy water and you’ll have your very own surface cleanser. This method can also be used on wooden surfaces that have scratches - soak a spoonful of coffee with warm water and gently rub on the surface. This will minimise the appearance of scratches and stains.
5.Unblocking The Sink
Coffee can also defeat blocked drains without the need for harsh chemicals. Simply pour coffee grounds into the sink followed by liquid soap and boiling water, and this should clear the blockage and leave your sink odour free. This is much easier than using various acidic products and is a great way to use up your old coffee grounds that would otherwise be disposed of
21/02/22
Couple Quadruple Van Value with Luxurious Interior Transformation
Tap Warehouse
Liv & Lewis, the couple behind @2bags1van on TikTok, quadrupled the value of a Mercedes Sprinter van from £11K to £45K by transforming it into a chic mobile home fit with a toilet, shower and projector. Tap Warehouse spoke to the couple, both 28, to find out a bit more about the costs, DIY and some hacks they carried out to save money.
In 2019, the couple made the decision to leave their home and quit their jobs in London to travel around Asia. However, the pandemic struck which brought their travel plans to a halt. February 2021 saw the couple spending £11K on a van and renovating the blank canvas into their very own mobile home. They spent a total of 7 months on the project and £13K on the interiors of the van, which included all the furnishing, solar panels, electric and plumbing. It’s safe to say that they would gain a hefty profit if they were to sell the van, but first want to use it to travel the world.
Tap Warehouse asked the couple about the price for furnishing the van, and how they saved on extra costs. Liv continued, “We did the entire build, plumbing and electrics ourselves with the expertise and help from Lewis’s Grandad John who is a retired joiner. As we worked on it full time for 3 months, we saved huge costs in comparison to getting someone else to do the work for us.”
They managed to save money throughout the project by teaching themselves DIY, for example when making the seats and cushions. They cut some wood to size, found some cheap foam and fabric, then used a staple gun to attach the cushions to the wood.
Another example of how they saved money was with the headboard. Liv was inspired by a £250/metre fabric but made her own for just £8.
Instead of getting a custom made mattress cut to the perfect size of the bed, they bought a bog standard size from Argos and cut with an electric carving knife to fit the bed perfectly.
The worktops were £50 from IKEA, the pull-out table was £9 from IKEA and they built their kitchen and hanging cabinets themselves so they saved on even more costs.
Lewis states “lots of campervan converters think that these things need to be bespoke made or cut from wood and really you can buy off the shelf and cut it to the size you need, it just takes a little thinking outside of the box.”
They admitted that they’ve never had a better night’s sleep!
Tap Warehouse asked Liv & Lew which processes were the most expensive and what their biggest challenges were in converting this van into a mobile home and it’s not what you’d expect!
“Everything in the van conversion felt like a learning curve and nothing ever went to plan the first time! The trickiest thing throughout the entire build was building in a van that's curved. There are no straight lines, the walls are curved, and the ceiling and floor are different widths - it was a real mind boggler!”
Once they got around the tricky shape of the van, it was time to freshen up the furnishings.
The finished look is glorious boho style with a contemporary edge, including sleek finishes and gold detailing.
On how they decided the design direction, Lewis stated:
“Liv loves gold so every detail down to sockets and visible screws have a gold finish! We wanted it to feel warm and cosy so our main pops of colour are pinks and oranges, however we kept in lots of white to make the small space feel larger. We also added elements of exposed wood and rattan to add to the warmth of the space and create more character.”
As for the most expensive process, Liv explains “The item we spent the
most money on was definitely our solar panels and electrical system, and we have the max amount of power for a van of our size so this cost us around £2.2K.”
Get the Look
Tiles - Topps Tiles UK (£40/metre)
Worktops - IKEA (£50)
Fridge - Inlander Low Voltage (£450)
Tap - Tap Warehouse (£119.99)
Sink - Olif Design (£375)
Cushions H&M & Dunelm (approx £12 each)
Bed Sheets - Piglet in Bed (£392)
Outside chairs - Zara Home (£89.99)
Outside table - SKLUM (£39.95)
Wall light - IKEA (£13)
Faux plants - Sainsbury’s (£8-£12 each)
Gold cutlery - Wilko (£20)
You have to applaud the couple for their money saving hacks and savvy storage that’s helped them to create one of the most glamorous vans out there. It’s amazing what you can do yourself with a few tools, cheap materials and a keen eye for DIY.
ENDS
PR Contact:
Polly Shearer
polly.shearer@beyondretail.co.uk
Please contact me for more high-res imagery and any other requests & if you could provide a link to Tap Warehouse that would be great.
