Set up a temporary kitchen and you’ll find it much easier to survive a kitchen renovation. Here are tips and tricks for setting up a temporary kitchen in another room in your house.
Not having a kitchen can be tough. I already miss all the things I used to take for granted — a sink big enough to wash dishes, a bit of counter space to chop apples for smoothies, and filtered water and ice from our refrigerator. But we’ve come up with a system that’s working for us in the short-term, and I thought I’d share, just in case you’re looking setting up a temporary kitchen of your own.
Not that I’d like to live like this forever. Come on new kitchen!
Set-Up
We are doing this kitchen renovation without kids. If you are doing a kitchen redo while raising kids, you’ll definitely have more of a challenge with the number of things you need to make food preparation possible for your entire family.
I think it would be more important to have a specific space for your temporary kitchen — a dining room, den, or some other room where you could also set up a table for eating. Our house is very small and our dining room is part of the reno, so our temporary kitchen is literally in front of our fireplace and TV — it’s the only spot for it! We eat on our laps on the sofa. This would be a difficulty with children.
Our dining room sideboard is our temporary kitchen. We took out most of the drawers and used them to pack up some of our kitchen things, which we stored in our guest room along with everything else that was non-essential. On the treadmill, of course.
The one drawer left in our sideboard has all of our kitchen utensils, like spatulas, serving spoons, and, of course, the ice cream scoop. The knives and paper towels also sit out on the sideboard for easy access (and a super fun time when your friends with toddlers top by!), with the trash can at the end. The trash can lid ends up serving as a bit of extra counter when needed.
When we’re actually doing construction, we cover it with a sheet of plastic to help control the dust (the demo-ed kitchen is about three feet to the right of the below photo). It doesn’t do a perfect job, but it helps.
We only kept out two each of plates, bowls, cups, mugs, and silverware — one for each of us. I’m not one to use disposable plates, etc. — it’s easy enough for the two of us to wash our dishes after each meal. You might want to try disposable if you have a big family, though — washing a dozen dishes in the bathroom sink is not any fun.
For now we’re using the guest bath (guess what’s getting renovated next!) for dishes, but we’re setting up a utility sink in the garage which will make things a lot easier. The big stuff, like the crock pot, get washed in the tub for now.
We put pantry food and supplies (including our all-important French press) in the sideboard. We’re lucky because our dog doesn’t get into it. We also have, well, a bed-full of food that we pick through if we need something. It’s rare, since we’re not cooking or baking all that much.
The fridge is sort of floating out in the dining room and gets moved as necessary. We may end up relocating the fridge to the garage as the renovation progresses — especially when it comes time to do the floors. But even if I have to move it into the master bedroom, I’m not doing this without the fridge!
Cooking
We have several ways to cook in our temporary kitchen. We use the microwave more than anything — it’s just easier to heat up food rather than dirty pots and pans which are difficult to wash.
We also have a crock pot, a toaster, and an electric skillet. Oh, and a Nutribullet, for our delicious morning smoothies.
Food
Most of our food is fresh or frozen, so we don’t have a lot to keep in our sideboard and on the bed in the guest room. With our fridge currently in the dining room, it’s still easily accessible. We also have two month’s worth of freezer meals that we’ve been working through — we use the microwave, crock pot, and skillet to cook them.
And there’s the G’Day Deli around the corner that we’re keeping in business!
Overall, it’s more of an inconvenience for us than a total hardship. We are both thankful that we’ve decided to do this renovation before we start a family — keeping kids out of the mess and the hassle of feeding a family would be a lot to take on.
But with a little creativity and quite a bit of going with the flow, it’s possible to survive without a fully functioning kitchen without going crazy!
Comments & Reviews
Ashley Brooks says
I love these tips! Luckily we were able to renovate our kitchen and bathroom BEFORE we moved in–otherwise my temporary kitchen would never have been this organized. But if we ever need to do something like this in the future, I’m totally stealing your freezer recipes idea. Pure gold.
Cori George says
The freezer recipes are our saving grace right now! If not, we’d be eating take out every night.
Meg says
Whew, y’all are brave — and doing so well! I can see it being more of an inconvenience than a hardship, but that’s still no fun. I’m sure the thought of your gorgeous kitchen is seeing you through, though! :) Can’t wait to see the final results! (And I’m sure you can’t, either!)
Cori George says
I’m so excited! Hopefully we’ll be ready to install cabinets when they are delivered on Monday (of course, we need to BUILD them since they are all from IKEA. Going to be quite the process!)
Ashley says
What a great idea! I bet it’s super helpful and stops you from losing your mind. Plus it looks super cute. Good luck on the reno.
Cori George says
Thanks Ashley! I can definitely see how people might go nuts without a system.
Jessica Leigh says
WOW girl – this is nuts! I’m so impressed with your management of having no kitchen. Great job! :)
Cori George says
Thanks! I don’t really have a choice, lol. Being stuck at home because of my surgery means I need to eat at home most of the time! :)
diane stanley says
We have done three kitchen remodels, 2 with 4 of our boys still living in the house. I set up a temporary kitchen with crockpot, microwave and an electric frying pan in the garage, next to our extra fridge and a utitlity sink. It worked out great and the neighbors loved smelling what I was cooking each day. It’s totally doable and actually fun. ALmost like camping. I did not like washing the dishes in the low sink. Looks like your project is coming along nicely.
Cori George says
That’s awesome! It’s really impossible to do it without a temporary kitchen.
Janie says
Oh my goodness! I love this post…but I really love your mugs!!!! :)
Cori George says
Aren’t they great?! My grandma got them for us for Christmas :)
Chad Pfeffer says
This is an amazing idea for me to pass along to my clients while working in their kitchens. I feel that a kitchen remodel is often the most inconvenient job for a homeowner to endure. Having these essentials available is a great idea and can save on the eating out budget! Thanks for sharing!
Fukuda says
I like what you did with your temporary kitchen. Everything seems to be in a neat and organized shelf. I commend your organizing and management skills!
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Bound for Style says
What a great idea Cori! Love this post! It’s 2016 but these are still helpful.
Adrienne says
Friends of mine recently did a complete kitchen overhaul and spent months without a functioning kitchen. Their experience really made me think twice about choosing a remodel company – I am going to make sure I choose a company that works quickly!
Kayla Diaz says
I really liked the way you managed everything during renovation. Every homeowner and their family members face difficulty during these types. They can’t find anything immediately when they want. And that feeling is too frustrating. But, there are a lot of ways by which we can handle the situation conveniently. The foremost solution for this issue is—staying organized. Yes, when your things are untidy, you would not find the things you are searching easily. So find a place in your home that could be suitable for cooking and then place these things appropriately. You could take a photo of the kitchen room before the renovation process, so that it would be easy for you later on.
Holly says
We were lucky to only be doing our kitchen, so we had the dining room to sit in. But I lined our kitchen walls with cardboard tables. I had one of those big electric roaster for the Turkey. we used crockpots and I had ‘ portable burners’ and ‘Salton warming Trays. It was one of our best remembered Christmases. Now this was about 25 years ago, so we used what we had.
Sarah Kite says
Wonderful tips even years later! Thank you for sharing. I want to mention, if it benefits, that if you are looking to get your cabinets done fairly quickly, to check out N-Hance Wood Refinishing. They can get the job done in a couple of days usually!
Trevor Mann says
Refinishing your kitchen can be sooooo inconvenient! Thank you for sharing your tips!
expert says
I perhaps only thirten years vintage but even i respect actual food like this. Different kids at schoolare so into arugula and willted veggies and they dosn’t even herd aboutthe real classics well what about trout amandine hhuh?persian store
Mari says
We are in the process of renovating the whole property. My local concrete contractor
is still working on our driveway outside. We are just waiting for them to get done then we’ll move on to renovating the kitchen. Thanks for the ideas you shared. These are helpful!
CMR Constructions says
Nice content and ideas that home owners can follow through it.