Any tips for surviving kitchen renovation?

[HipsterRaccoon]

Right, after reading all the kitchen design top tips I'm getting my dream kitchen installed in a couple of weeks. Now the not so nice bit where I have to live with the chaos! Job should take a fortnight in total. Any tips on how to survive with a 5 year old (at school mostly) and toddler? Have never had any work done before

Clear a space in another room for the essentials - kettle, toaster, microwave, a small selection of crockery and cutlery, food storage etc. Move your fridge through to the same space if required/appropriate. Maybe get a portable electric ring/hob to help see you through?

The fitters should make sure you're back up and running with water in your kitchen sink asap - just confirm timing of that so you can plan round it.

Laundry will be the hardest thing - friends/neighbours/laundrette?

Start batch cooking so you have some tasty meals in the freezer which you can just warm up. Think of things like sausage and bean casserole, chilli, spaghetti Bolognese, morrocan chicken which will freeze well. Also if you have a slow cooker now is the time to use it. That makes life easier.

Single ring tefal induction hob for about £30 and a microwave. We used our utility room as our kitchen for 6 months whilst we renovated! We had an integrated fridge freezer in the old kitchen so moved them into the study and put a piece of ply down on a dust sheet to stand them on. Managed fine.

watching with interest - am hoping for paper plates takeaways and my slow cooker when we do ours!

Thanks all, some good ideas. Unfortunately our house is pretty small, so downstairs is literally just sitting room and kitchen. Am hoping to fit everything we need onto the dining table in the sitting room. Did consider a portable induction hob but I think that as it'll all be in one room and the toddler gets into everything it wouldn't be safe. Have slow cooker though so will try to meal plan slow cooker/microwave/toast based meals. Yes washing will be a nightmare, launderette it is! And washing up too... If we do it in the bath will it clog the pipes as they're not designed for food waste or will it be OK?

A fortnight isn't so bad- with a microwave, kettle and toaster plus ready prepped supermarket food you'll be fine. Accept any invitations to dinner or Sunday lunch from family members, just to escape the inevitable mess of building projects.

Maybe drain traps/strainers and a washing up bowl for the trek between bathroom and dining room.

Good luck, I'm sure your new kitchen will be beautiful!

Consider buying disposable plates, cups and cutlery to avoid having to wash up in the bath. We were able to keep our dishwasher operational which was a huge help.

Use a washing up bowl in the bath, we only did this with cups though, as we were having a kitchen extension we knew we would be without a kitchen for about 5 weeks.

We used disposable plates/bowls/cutlery, slow cooker meals, previously batch cooked meals, but we did buy a 2 ring induction hob.

Relocate your fridge freezer to the lounge. We actually had the children share a room (fun for about 3 weeks then the novelty wore off ) but we used Ds1's room to stash everything from inside the kitchen cupboards. Think about all the food stuff and your ovenware, pans, plates, cups, glasses etc.

You just have to acknowledge the chaos, know it will be short lived and work around it.

Washing up bowl in the bath - but empty it down the toilet - no worries about clogged pipes.

As above, really, with a little wash up station permanently set up, what also helped was big bottles of supermarket water for drinks, and paper plates. Laundry was a problem, sometimes laundrettes only exist in towns with lots of students, so ask builders if washing machine could be last off/first on, and call in favours!
All the best Hipster this is the best time of year to do this

Microwave, kettle, fridge in the living room if you can, we put the washing machine in there too. I managed laundry by washing it in the bath and then putting the hose from the machine out of the window so I could spin it(no launderette nearby). Other than that, disposable plates and cutlery were a godsend, hardly any washing up.

We coped for 3 weeks while the kitchen was done with a 2 yr old in the house, but it was such a relief to get back in the kitchen. Good Luck!!

Thanks all! Yes am hoping weather will be like today, not scorching but dry, then we can be out as much as possible and eat more picnicky foods. Great idea to flush washing up water rather than clog bath with it. Right will stock up on paper plates, packet foods and valium, it'll all be fine

Our last project home we did without a kitchen for months (long, painful story) I relied on the BBQ. In the end I even made fish soup in a wok on the BBQ in desperation. It is going to be wonderful weather, so I hope you can take advantage.

We've just finished a total kitchen refit. Fitters said approx 2 weeks, but it turned into 3 weeks and 2 days, due to wrong drawer fronts being delivered and then then the granite man got double booked.

We survived by washing up in the utility room and boiling the kettle for drinks in there. We ate a lot of microwave ready meals (3 or £10 or something in Morrisons). We also went out to the local pub and garden centre a lot.

Never thought I'd get sick of eating out, but I did.