Tips for surviving new kitchen installation

[HGC2]

I'm replacing my kitchen, extending out and knocking walls down in a few weeks. It’s expected to take about a month in total and as I’ve never gone anything like this, I’m not sure how best to feed everyone during this time, can you give me any tips you might have if you’ve ever gone through anything like this?

We got a standalone hob from Ikea and lived off curries, Thai curries and stews and chilli. Microwave rice in a pouch to go with it. Plus lots of microwave ready meals. Weekend takeaways.

We had the oven for a while even though they were taking out the rest of the kitchen and taking walls down. Maybe a week.

Then a month of ‘camping food’ as above. It was hard, expensive and not the best food, but worth it.

Work out now where your "kitchen" is going to be and have your kettle there. Think about where your fridge will be or see if you can borrow or buy a smallish fridge for milk etc; I'd say that was our biggest issue. We had an instant pot (which is a bit like a hob) and a camping stove as well as an air fryer for stuff that needed ovening. Embrace the ready meal. Try to keep your crockery and cutlery to a minimum - our bathroom sinks certainly were not cut out for large quantities of dishwashing.

I found the washing up the hardest thing. Difficult and sort of disgusting.

We've been 'camping out' with a partially done kitchen for ten months as we've DIY relocated ours into a reception room.

Survival has included -

1. a small temporary fridge which saw us through the first few months from when we moved in (probate house with no appliances except an oven that didn't work, we sold ours with our previous house), but we now have our permanent fridge freezer in situ which is great.

2. a microwave plus the two airfryers that we got ahead of Christmas 2024 and are still reliant on. The airfryers are so good, I've been tempted to ditch the lacanche range we have ready to fit!

3. initially we had a two ring plus grill camping stove, but we now have a two ring electric hob.

4. for washing up we do have our new massive sink - but as it's not plumbed in and has no taps yet, we fill jugs/kettle from a stop tap and wash up in two plastic bowls. The water then has to either be emptied into a drain in the garden or down the toilet. It's a faff and ridiculously impractical, but washing up upstairs would be worse as the previous owner's basin is miniscule and our lootility doesn't have a sink yet. I'm hoping to get the dishwasher plumbed in during January.

We're managing ok, but I'm so done with it now. Fortunately it's only me and DH!

Air fryer, microwave, George Foreman and toaster. Set up in the spare bedroom on 2 camping table. We bought a 2nd hand fridge freezer too - bought loads of the ‘prepped veg’. Used paper plates, jet washed cups etc in the shower.

Laundry went to be service washed / dried. We also had lots of dinner invites. We were about 3 months… it wasn’t easy but we survived!

That sounds rough! Hope it’s all sorted soon!

Thank you @HGC2...me too! And fingers crossed for yours!

Just following as about to embark in the spring but hoping to get uti
ity room kitted out first as a temp kitchen.

I had no kitchen for 6 months and only sink for washing up was the bathroom!!

You’ll need to set up a temporary kitchen in your living room or somewhere - we had a fridge, kettle, toaster, microwave and air fryer.

Some examples of meals we could cook:
Jacket potatoes with beans and cheese
Fish fingers with potatoes and peas
Air fried veg and tofu with noodles/microwave rice

We also prepped a lot of food in advance and stocked up the freezer. And of course ate ready meals and takeaways.

We didn’t have much space and washing up was an issue but if you have more space available then you could do more complex dishes with the air fryer or if you have an instant pot or similar.

We were lucky to have our utility room with a sink. Moved the basics out there for a few weeks. Camping stove & microwave came in handy. Good luck! It’s not a time I think of fondly.

Is your freezer going to be out of action? You could batch cook lots to go in the microwave. Get an air fryer and a slow cooker.

Curry / Stew / Chilli / Bolognaise in the slow cooker. Can cook pasta/ rice / jacket potatoes in the microwave.

Air fry slices of pizza / chicken thighs / chops / sausages /fish etc can also roast veg in it.

For washing up get a couple of washing up bowls the camping ones with handles are good for lugging it up and down the stairs.

We completed the utility room first, and made it into a sort of "mini kitchen" before starting on the main kitchen. Having a sink and a small worktop made a huge difference. There were a lot of salads and microwave meals, but at least we had somewhere to wash up.

What saved me during our kitchen Reno was an air fryer. It was the summer and I did all the washing up outside on a table with a washing up bowl and a drainer. Then set up a little kitchen in the dining room with microwave, kettle, air fryer.

My builders put my dishwasher in the back of the sitting room, with waste pipe connected to the outside drain. I had a microwave, a two-ring electric hob and a full size fridge (not much space to watch the TV!) The dishwasher was honestly the thing that mad the 6 month build bearable, highly recommend if you can find the space to do it.