When buying a new home, or renovating an old one, the kitchen is one place that is likely to get some attention. It is among the most expensive rooms of the house to remodel, but you can gain considerable value for your investment if done properly.

Once the kitchen has been given new life, the question remains of what to do with the old stuff that you replaced. While some materials will no doubt be pitched, other items can live on while being reused in other places of the house. We will look at some alternative places you can use any cabinetry removed from an old kitchen.

The age, type, and condition of your old cabinetry, the size and style of your home, as well as the needs of your household will determine the exact options you have. Some overhead cabinets and counters will be mounted to the wall in such a way that they are almost unsalvageable when removed. Newer kitchen can be custom made to fit the room, or put together out of modular sections that are easily removed from the wall. Others, especially in older homes, can be completely free standing and moved easily in sections. Kitchen cabinetry has been made from wood, steel, glass, aluminium, laminates, composites, and any combination thereof. Many modern kitchen cabinets have faces that are made from real wood, but the underlying structure is put together using chipboard or MDF (medium density fiberboard). Whatever you have to work with, use your imagination and some common sense to find the best situation for reuse.

Possible Locations for Reuse:

1. Laundry/Utility room - This is a room that always seems to collect items that have no other home. Soaps, detergents, cleaning supplies, paper towels, clothes irons, and all sorts of other little things find their way to the laundry room. But the laundry room is a place few people see, so it is less likely to get money spent on a proper storage setup. By adding a little counter space, and possibly the sink section from an old kitchen, along with some overhead storage, the laundry room can finally become a presentable space in the house for very little additional money.

2. Garage/Workshop - If you have adequate space in your garage or workshop, old kitchen cabinetry can make a great additional workbench with the right preparation. Generally high use workbenches do not require the same attention to detail as something used inside the house. Delicate finishes can be covered over with a harder polyurethane, or painted to match the area with any number durable paints available. Depending on the countertop, it can be used as is, removed and replaced with a more solid material, or covered over with additional layers of plywood or metal to add more mass and stability to the structure. When deciding where to locate the benches, add or remove material below the countertop to place the bench at a comfortable height. Cabinets and drawers make great places to store tools, supplies, manuals, and even some stock materials.

3. Second Kitchen - Sometimes it is convenient to use old cabinetry to construct a second kitchen in the basement or other area of the home. Many times this is smaller than the primary kitchen, but still fully functional. An additional kitchen in a home can be used for entertaining, for the kids, or to create an apartment for parents, loved ones, or house staff. A second kitchen can range from a sink, mini fridge, and microwave to a fully equipped, full size kitchen.

4. Wet Bar/Back Bar - Certain entertaining rooms in the house might benefit from a small wet bar, or back bar if a larger bar is already in place. Less extensive than adding a whole kitchen, some cabinets, a small section of countertop, and a small sink can add a lot of functionality to a family room, den, or basement. These are best suited for new construction, or places where water pipes and drains are easily accessible.

5. Storage Room/Closet - In a lot of homes, there's a room somewhere or a big closet that becomes the 'catch-all' for everything. It becomes a storage room of old toys, games, seasonal clothes, holiday decorations, and anything else that doesn't need to be on display. If planned well, drawers, cabinets, and countertops can add valuable storage space to these often forgotten rooms.

6. Mud Room - Not everyone has a mud room or breezeway area, but given the right location, some added counterspace and a couple drawers out of the kitchen can make the mud room a great place to store seasonal items, such as flashlights, gloves, hats, umbrellas, and boots. Car cleaning supplies and small gardening utensils can also be hidden away here, for those without the space of a garage or workshop.

7. Cabin/Pool House - While having a cabin in the woods or a cabana by the pool might be out of range of many people's pocket books, careful planning to reuse cabinets, doors, windows, and furniture from your main home in an additional, smaller residence can make the addition much more affordable. Keep in mind the way your current cabinets fit your kitchen, and plan your smaller cabin or pool house accordingly. Use colors in the new location that match your existing cabinets, or find a way to color your cabinets to suit the new location. Plan water pipes and drain pipe locations ahead of time so there will be less need for adjustment when the cabinets are installed.

8. Donate It - Before you decide that you have no use for that old kitchen hardware, make arrangements to sell or donate it to someone that can use it. You can advertise it on CraigsList.com at no cost to you. Or you can offer to give it away at FreeCycle.com, or at any local construction material recycling center.

We hope this list gives you a glimpse of the options available for old cabinetry and countertops, rather than throwing them in a dumpster. The more use we can get out of currently constructed products, the less energy, money, and resources we use in making new ones.