New kitchen

It's a pain in the ass but a pretty standard pain in the ass if you're having a new kitchen.

2 or 3 Washington up bowls. One for dirty, one for washing up in and one for clean, although for clean a laundry basket also works if you have one spare. Tables! Make sure you’ve got at least some prep space or it’ll drive you mad. Check any ready meals carefully. It’s really annoying when you get something and then find its oven cook only.

Cooked chicken and micro chips (salad if you can get away with it) is vaguely reminiscent of actual food. Tinned potatoes in the air fryer are a tasty carb alternative and cous cous is fab.
Do anything you can to reduce washing up, it’s way more of a pita than the cooking!

And don’t feel guilty about take aways. It’s fine for a short time.

Make sure you know exactly where you want plug sockets, light switches and light fittings or you’ll be making snap decisions constantly.

make sure you have a bin and plenty of bin bags and decide where you’re putting recycling

I cooked almost a fortnight's worth of Hello Fresh meals in the air fryer, including a curry (with micro rice). None of it was my finest cooking but we managed more than I expected using the silicon liners and a bit of a 'give it a go and if all else fails we'll get a takeaway' attitude.

We ripped out our kitchen and then various issues (DC illness, snow impacting supply etc) delayed installation. Managed for several weeks on camping stove, microwave etc but would definitely recommend a plug in induction hob. In the middle of another renovation just now and have the induction hob, microwave and an air fryer and are able to cook as usual - we do have access to the fridge and a sink/dishwasher though. Hello fresh meals maybe if you are stuck for inspiration. And can you put the fridge somewhere you can easily access and keep a sink as long as possible?

I’m going through this at the moment I’m 2 weeks in and the fitter said he should be finished by Tuesday! It’s been really, really hard. Much harder than I anticipated, washing up in the bath, nowhere to dry things, the kitchen table full of microwave and air fryer so can’t sit at it to eat. I seriously would consider going on holiday for two weeks. The upheaval has made me really anxious and upset, it’s the mess everywhere. Remember you need a room to put your new kitchen when it arrives as it’s in boxes and can’t go in the kitchen…. It’s something I didn’t factor in.

Been there done that, for about 6 weeks. It was not as bad as I was anticipating? It just takes some planning.

temporary kitchen set up in the corner of the living room, we borrowed a one ring electric hob, and had toastie maker, kettle, air fryer, toaster, microwave, small prep area. We had a small stainless steel industrial type prep station from
amazon.

i also brought in metal shelves from the garage and put all the food stocks and plates, cups, utensils etc on

Stock of bottles water and drinks

We have a small fridge in the garage that we used.
asian pot noodle type meals
cook ready meals stash in the freezer (not all are microwave - do check)
some takeaways of course

washing up in the bath
laundry in the bath/ neighbours did the odd load and service wash at the laundrette

Ours was always meant to take longer. Tho I would strategically tell yourself it will be 4-5 weeks then you can be pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t.

We had our kitchen ripped out for support beams and new units when lockdown happened. Lived with holes in the floor and a two ring electric burner for six months, washed up in the bathroom. Total nightmare. Also had a lot of takeaways.

Literally just done this for 2 weeks. We had a few takeaways but ready meals were easier because single serving ones can be eaten from the container and the only washing up is the cutlery.
Everyone can choose what they fancy and you'll all survive for a couple or three weeks.
I love my new kitchen and it was worth the inconvenience.

@BarnacleBeasley's set up reminded me we asked our kitchen fitter to leave us with a working washing machine at weekends if poss. They did every weekend, which was v helpful.

just had our kitchen done & it took weeks & weeks. We survived mostly on jacket potatoes & eating out

We were without a kitchen for a few months, and our DC are little, plus there are no decent takeaways in our village unless you want fish & chips every night. Luckily the plumbers were able to temporarily move our old sink, dishwasher and washing machine and plumb them all in together in a temporary location, so we only actually had to wash up in the bath for two nights (and drain pasta into the drain outside the back door!). It's worth asking if they can rig you up something temporary downstairs, as the lack of water is the most annoying part. I would also say definitely move the fridge into the room you're using. We had a portable induction hob, instant pot, rice cooker and microwave, and pretty much cooked as normal.

Survived for 2 months during refit with Microwave, Air Fryer and one of these
Aobosi Induction Hob,Single Induction Cooker with Portable Ultra-thin Body(32 26 4.2),20 Power and Temperature levels,Booster Function 2000W,Safety Lock,10H Timer : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen
We were lucky in that we had a downstairs sink we could still use
Cleaning up is the pain.
You would not be unreasonable to have takeaways but paper plates would not be unreasonable either
Batch cook some things that can be microwaved in advance.

A bag of salad or some carrot sticks with the microwave lasagne counts as veggies! ;)

We lived on ready meals and takeaways when we did our kitchen.

We had this a few years ago. Also for around 3 weeks. In our case though it was just DH and I because DD was at Uni.

All we had was kettle, microwave and toaster though we did have access to the freezer as it lives in the garage. Beforehand I tried to plan it out by having some things in the freezer that we could just reheat in the microwave and also getting ready meals. This was OK to begin with but by half way in we were getting fed up and started to eat out a lot or get takeaways!

Hardest thing was having to do the washing up in the bath and do all the washing at the launderette.

Anyway, I am sure it will be worth it when you get your lovely new kitchen.

YANBU, I'd buy some paper plates for days where you really can't be bothered washing up in the bath! If the weather stays dry, BBQ could be another option to mix things up a bit. I'd probably eat a lot of toasted sandwiches for lunches, assuming you already have a toastie maker.

When we had our extension we were without a kitchen for about three months. We ate about 40% microwave meals (a combination of bought-in dishes and things we'd made and frozen in advance), 50% newly cooked dishes, and 10% takeaways.

For cooking we mostly used a slow cooker (great for cooking meats like chicken wings, ribs and pork belly as well as the obvious soups and stews - oh, and jacket potatoes!), a rice cooker (also good for cooking pasta, and you can make approximations of various rice dishes like pilaf, risotto - at the risk of upsetting any Italians in the vicinity), and a large George Foreman contact grill (for toasted sandwiches as well as grilled meat and vegetables, including finishing off the meat from the slow cooker), as well as the microwave for simple stuff like veg.

Cous cous was a godsend - just pour boiling water over it and leave to stand.