New kitchen - survival hints and tips needed

[Towerofjoyless]

I'm having a new kitchen put in at the end of September and feeling anxious about it. We have a 6 year old and a 10 year old and live in a small house (two bedrooms, no dining area, study or conservatory). The kitchen isn't big si hopefully shouldn't take too long to refurbish but wondering about storage meantime. We have a large Understair cupboard which is crammed mostly with junk atm, no spare rooms to keep things. We're getting the kitchen delivered the night before installation and it will be stored in the living area as nowhere else for it to go.

Anyone got any tips on surviving those few days other than packing a bag and running away from it all?

I left DH at home and went to my parents for a few days when we had intrusive work done. Made the experience all the better. DH went to friends or a pub dinner.

Move out if you can. Kids on sleepovers. 3 nights in a premier inn…

Pub
Cinema or theater
House of a friend
Garden center
Shops
Library
A popular tea room or cafe etc
A night in a hotel or at a friend's place

I would go through the junk cupboard as soon as possible and get rid of as much as possible, and stack everything that's left as efficiently as possible giving as much space as you can to store everything from your kitchen cupboards. Then do a thorough declutter of your kitchen cupboards, and box up whatever you wont use in the next month and leave yourselves with the basics.
Maybe you could set up a kettle and microwave in one of the bedrooms? Then wash up in the bathroom sink? That might get you through, with the odd meal out.
We are having a new kitchen in September too, but we're moving the kitchen to a new extension so we can keep the old kitchen until the new one is sorted. Thank God!

I'd say packing up and going elsewhere isn't an option as much as I'd love to! No relatives we can stay with and with the kids at school and this being my first week back at uni, it would just be equally stressful to go to a hotel.

chickensafari I think we will have be ruthless with kitchen items - some of them have sat unused for years. I'll get DH to board out a bit more of the loft space so we can punt the cupboard stuff up there and give us more room. Good shout on takeaways, will maybe do that for a couple of nights too. Lucky you to get a kitchen fitted while having the old one still insitu!

Years ago, pre-kids, our kitchen fitter friend put in a kitchen for us as a wedding present. This was a secret to me, he did this when we were on honeymoon so it was all done when we were away and we never even emptied a single cupboard or anything for it!

Get a storage unit for all your bits if you have no where to put them. If it’s just a kitchen then it takes just a few days, and can use paper plates etc though I know not very environmentally friendly. If getting a stone worktop that needs templating it will take longer.