There is a huge gap between the costs of marble and stone versus laminate, and even with the less expensive materials, having new countertops cut and installed is an expensive proposition. That’s not to say you’re stuck with what you’ve got, either. These homeowners (and some renters!) found clever ways to refresh their existing countertops — without spending a fortune. Get inspired by these DIY kitchen countertop transformations that will blow your mind.

Give him an awesome (budget-friendly) gift to thank him for working so hard to raise some great kids.

While you might not have the means to overhaul the space, there are a few small changes you can make in order to dramatically improve your space without much effort.

Ina Garten learned her craft the way many of us did: by reading cookbooks, trying out the dishes that sounded good, and refining her techniques and making recipes her own along the way. So after she built the studio and test kitchen called The Barn at her East Hampton, NY, residence, it only made sense that she’d want to include an addition to hold her library of cookbooks. Before she had this amazing space, she says, the cookbooks were “piled in stacks.

It might not be the pantry of your dreams, but there are still things you can do to make it work.

These storage ideas are all totally temporary and sure to help you get your security deposit back at the end of your lease.

Lots of people believe in spring cleaning, but I think it’s just as important to clean as you head into fall. Why? Because you’re phasing out the summer stuff (Popsicle molds, melamine dinnerware, etc.) and getting ready for a nesting period, during which you’re more likely to entertain at home, cook heartier meals, and generally be inside more — only to be annoyed by clutter and messes.

We talk about the dishwasher a lot in our household. I have strong opinions on how it should be loaded (back to front, with the plates lined up just so), my husband has some strong opinions on how everything should be prewashed before it goes in (super-well, with nary a food smear in site).

It’s amazing to me how quickly my kitchen gets cluttered. Even though I tend to use the same things every day — the same pots and pans, same dishes, same glasses — my cabinets are totally full. Part of it is that we love to entertain, so in addition to the everyday stuff, we need the party stuff, like the big salad bowl, and the serving tray, and the cool brass-plated silverware I found on eBay that lives in its own special, enormous box. Part of it is the kids’ stuff.

Cleaning the kitchen is a chore — literally. Actually, it’s a bunch of little annoying chores that add up to one big annoying chore! Most of these little tasks are totally thankless (see: emptying the trash, cleaning grout), while others give you a lot of satisfaction for not so much effort. These are the five kitchen cleanups that will make you the happiest. Empty counter space can be very soothing.

If you have good organizing systems and maintain them regularly, clutter is less likely to build up. Or so I’m told, by organizing and lifestyle expert Lorie Marrero, creator of The Clutter Diet. “What if you decided not to brush your teeth all month, and on the last day of the month brushed them 30 times? That clearly would not work — some things need to be done regularly to be effective,” says Marrero. Like, for example, your kitchen.

It’s hard to get motivated to clean the kitchen. There’s Netflix to be watched, and Instagram to be checked, and honestly has anyone ever felt truly inspired to scrub the floor? The problem is, if you procrastinate too much on the cleaning, it turns into a really big chore that can take hours to accomplish. So the key is to figure out a happy medium — the least amount of time you can spend on cleaning to be effective and not get burned out either.

Have you ever used Bar Keepers Friend? This hard-surface cleaner has a cult following in some circles. It’s made by a family-owned company that manufactures in Indianapolis, Indiana. The active ingredient is oxalic acid, which you can also find in rhubarb, spinach, and other veggies. Bar Keepers Friend is biodegradable and safe for septic systems, too.

I have a small freezer, and with my family of four it gets jam-packed fairly quickly. Waffles, strawberries, Popsicles, rice, sausage, pesto — you name it, it’s in there. Between the fact that everything’s frozen solid and all that bulky packaging, it can be hard to find what I need or even see what’s in there. That was, until I made this one simple rule: No boxes. Ever. Why? Because there is nothing more frustrating than a container the size of a shoebox with two (two!

You don't have to clean them all that often. But they do need a thorough washing periodically. Here's how to do it.

You might want to pick one or three of these things for yourself, while you're at it.

It was recently officially revealed that Nigella Lawson’s At My Table series is filmed on a set, not in her own kitchen. I hope you aren’t among the few whose illusions have been crushed! While Lawson has never claimed the set kitchen was her own home, some people were disappointed.

Can a pantry be Zen? This one sure is! We reached out to our sister site, Apartment Therapy, for their most-pinned pantry ever and the winner is this beauty. In fact, according to reps at Pinterest, it’s the most-pinned pantry ever. Like, of all time. It’s been saved more than 235,000 times!

When we think about big cleaning seasons, spring usually comes to mind. But winter is actually a pretty good time to do some serious cleaning. I mean, think about it: Soon we’ll be stuck inside, staring at the walls, and we won’t mind working up a sweat. Here are five projects to tackle the next time you’re faced with a gray wintry day. This time of year is peak baking and roasting season.

Baking supplies are tricky to store. Maybe you have a couple dozen types of sprinkles and you’re not sure where to keep them? Or a few cookie cutters that don’t seem to have a home? Or just one whisk that always jams up the drawer? Whether you’re an avid baker or just starting to dabble, we found all sorts of brilliant ideas to help you organize your treat-making supplies.

No, it doesn’t have perfectly styled glass and ceramic canisters — or fun wallpaper, or wacky storage solutions, or everything neat and tidy in a totally unrealistic way. So what makes this pantry our most-pinned pantry of all time? Its brilliant use of space: It’s tucked under a stairwell! This sort of space, which I’ve seen used for coat closets or just random storage, is a little tricky.

Not everyone can have a walk-in pantry, but with the lure of Costco and the convenience of FreshDirect, it’s easy to stock up on stuff you don’t actually have space for. (Whoops!) Cue these ingenious solutions for creating just a little more space from an absurdly small — or even just a normal — pantry. Whether your pantry is a walk-in room, small closet, or cabinet, the door is the perfect place for extra storage.

Did you know that the phrase “Pantry Pests” is actually a real term for bugs that like to feed on packaged goods? The technical term includes all sorts of things like Indian meal moths, sawtooth grain beetles, cigarette beetles, and drugstore beetles. The pros know a ton of things about these pests, but as a homeowner (or renter!), all you really need to know is this: They’re going to eat your food.

The internet is full of ingenious hacks to tackle different areas of the kitchen. Here are our favorite ideas!

I have friends who renovated their home recently, and they put together this gorgeous, open-plan kitchen with The Works: white marble countertops on top of crisp black base cabinets with pull-out drawers, floating open shelves instead of upper cabinets, and an enormous farmhouse sink. Basically everything I’ve ever pinned. Not surprisingly, it looked amazing when it was finished!

The backsplash in your kitchen takes a beating. Here's how you keep that porous grout looking like new.

Dead skin cells, soap scum, random food scraps, human hair, pet hair, and just regular ol’ dirt — these are all the things you regularly wash down your sink or tub’s drain. And if they sound gross now, image how much worse they are once they’ve congealed into a stringy, slimy ball of gunk inside your pipes. Yuck! You want to prevent any of this gunk buildup before it becomes a real problem — especially in homes with older pipes or large families.

Have things been looking a little dim in your kitchen lately? Unless a lightbulb has gone out, it’s likely that your windows are dirty. (Sorry to break the news!) It’s not your fault: Kitchen windows get pretty grimy pretty quickly — grease splatters and steam can launch tiny particles of food throughout the room —creating a thin, gray-ish film on your used-to-be-clear windows.

I don’t have a sink sprayer in my current apartment, but I sure miss the one from my last place. I loved being able to pull out the sprayer to rinse fruit. And I especially loved being able to pull it out to give one final rinse all around my sink at the end of the night. It was so satisfying! But over time — especially if you live someplace with hard water — gunk can build up in the sprayer’s holes, clogging them up to slow down the water stream.

Whether you’re using your cooler to chill drinks on the patio, tote an entire picnic to the park, or feed the hoards after baseball practice, it can get pretty icky after a season of heavy use. And because you’re usually using it on the go (or while you’re just busy doing fun things!), it’s easy to put off cleaning up spills or to forget to empty it until the day after — but doing that can leave dirt, bacteria, mildew, and more on the inside (and outside!

Seriously. It needs to be done.

You should never, ever use soap to clean your moka pot or put it in the dishwasher.

While we tend to clean up grease splatters on and around the stovetop as they happen (paper towels work best to absorb the grease), the real problem is the fine layer of grime that builds up little by little on our kitchen cupboards until the day we look at them and go, “I thought my cabinets were white?” Fortunately, cleaning grease off of cupboards is not particularly tricky — it just requires some elbow grease if you haven’t done it in a while.

A kitchen rail is a super-stylish way to add storage to any kitchen. With roots in commercial and restaurant kitchens, this versatile tool is really limitless, as you can add on S-hooks for utensils or pots and pans, holsters for cutlery, mini shelves, and more. And IKEA’s GRUNDTAL rail system is one of the most versatile and affordable ones out there, available in classic stainless steel with a number of accessories to match.

Unless your evening commute involves a detour through the Flower District, the easiest way to get a bouquet on your table by dinnertime is to hit the grocery store. Most places offer a decent selection of roses (and maybe tulips if they’re in season), but you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck from mixed bouquets, which run $5 to $10. The question is: How to transform your budget flowers into a brag-worthy bouquet?

It’s funny — I thought when my kids stopped drinking out of bottles that I was done with that phase of cleaning all sorts of bits and bobs associated with their drinkware. Alas, they went into straw cups next, then to insulated water bottles that they, to this day, carry with them to school or daycare every day. And then we all realized just how terrible those plastic straws you get at restaurants are for the environment. All of that’s to say: I clean a lot of straws.

It's really not hard — there are just a few key things you need to know.

As busy as they are, kitchens are just about the germiest places in our homes — especially all those handles. You touch food, you open the oven. Your kids come in after touching who-knows-what and head straight to the fridge (or maybe it’s just mine?). With all that touching comes the risk of cross-contamination of foodborne illnesses and the spread of germs (flu season is coming!). But the reality is, many of us don’t think about cleaning our appliance handles.

Whether I’m making an actual casserole or a lasagna, or just baking chicken, this time of year my casserole dishes are in heavy rotation. They usually clean up pretty well, but if I’ve overcooked something or I let something sit too long, they can get stubborn stains or crud that’s hard to remove.