Top tips for living on site during renovations?

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Other than don't...! We did actually move out for 3 months while the worst was done, but having to move back in with around another 2 months of building work to go... I have heard a couple of good tips, eg use cold water not hot for builders dust / only unpack absolute essentials to save additional dusting... Anything else? We are having kitchen, bathroom renovations plus attic conversion (re-plumbing, re-wiring and new windows done). Thank you!

Be flexible and always have a plan b. If you come home and e.g. the floor is unexpectedly up, take the kids and yourselves upstairs or out.

I had a friends' house we legged it to a couple of times!

If the work is internal, maybe eat and cook outside when you can to avoid the dust.

Keep one room sacred - always have the door shut to minimise dust invasion and try and store most of your stuff in another room. So we moved my youngest in with my oldest and turned his room into a storage room. We also got a storage room at Big Yellow and stored a lot of things off site (soft furnishings, all of the kitchen boxes, furniture from rooms not in use) and it did make me much less stressed as I knew I had a room to 'hide' things in. Get a Henry for the dust, plaster dust kills normal hoovers.

Do bathroom last! Dont want anybody tempted to wash out their dirty tools in your nice new bath!

I think talk it through with the builder so you can make best use of finished spaces as they become available but don't get in his way and slow him down. Half a day for the plumber to rig you up a temporary sink if your kitchen's not fitted might be money well spent.

Nail some old curtains or polythene over doors to keep the "working" and "living" areas separate can help with dust.

Sorry for delayed reply - thanks all! Going to chat to builder tomorrow...

Reading with interest - we are nearing maximum dust and disruption time. (side return extension with kitchen/diner internal walls coming down). I would advise being as flexible as possible in terms of being away from the house to let them work without you around. It helps that we're all at school/work between 8.30-3.45 so nearly all the time that they're here, but sometimes we stayed out longer to avoid the dustiest bits. I've batch-cooked a lot so I can just reheat stuff quickly when we don't have a working oven. I've borrowed an electric stove and slow cooker too so I think I'll be alright. You do have to stock up on teabags and milk though - our builders drink one an hour!

I have done this twice. I spent three months last autumn living and sleeping in our dining room while walls were demolished in our hallway and our entire upstairs was gutted. We had doors sealed up inches away from entire walls being demolished. YOU CAN KEEP DUST OUT!

1. Stuff folded paper in crack all around door.
2. Tape over the crack with at least 3 layers of masking tape. Take extra precaution at corners, around hinges etc. Stuff keyhole with paper and tape over. Tape round the bit whee door handle joins door.
3. During the worst cover entire door and frame with a layer or two of bubble wrap / plastic sheeting held down with masking tape.
4. Check every day and plan to make repairs to the tape at least every week (it dries out and looses its stick over time).

We had one day where a tiny line of dust blew in under the skirting board just next to the door frame. No one believes me that we were 100% dust free other than that!

We even used a variation of this method to seal a fireplace when the chimney breast above it was demolished. My bed and all my possessions were inches away from said fireplace. It worked!

You will need a LOT of masking tape.

Oh, and buy a Henry for the clean up.

We had kitchen extension and bathroom done (and downstairs loo put in). It was a bit of a nightmare, with a 5yo and 2yo twins.

Converted living room into a 'kitchen'. Kids had their food (microwaved or take awayed!) on trays. There was a TV there. It was a very important room (though not dust free).
Get bathroom done first. I think it's more important to be able to wash all the yucky dust off and go to the toilet than to cook and wash up (wash up in bath).
Get builder to finish things before starting other things, as PP said. Ours decided to demolish bathroom and then start on the extension foundations . So there we were without a bathroom or indeed, any progress on a bathroom, washing in a plastic bowl on a plastic mat (the kids).