how to live without your kitchen

Your kitchen is the heart of your home—it’s where everyone meets and meals are prepared. Renovating and altering your kitchen is a rewarding process, but it can come with challenges when you’re temporarily without a fully functional kitchen. 

Eating out isn’t a sustainable solution and living off microwavable meals isn’t a healthy option for the duration of your renovation. We’ve come up with some solutions to help prepare you for life without that kitchen you once had while you await your new and improved kitchen! 

Plan ahead

Before you rip out your existing kitchen you should create a plan based off the times your professional contractors have given you. These dates will be the delivery of your new kitchen, as well as the reconnection of plumbing and electricity by professionals. Creating a plan with these dates and steps will give you a fairly accurate base to work with when making other plans. 

Create a make-shift kitchen 

While your new kitchen is under construction, you’ll need to create a make-shift space for a temporary kitchen. This can be anywhere from your garage to your living room. Your temporary kitchen is going to need two things to get it up and running—access to power outlets and running water. The first thing you need to do is plug your fridge into a power outlet—you’re always going to need food so this is a step you can’t skip. Having access to running water and a sink area is crucial, but don’t fret if you don’t have this in your temporary kitchen space, you can use your bathroom or laundry sink!

Next you should create a work station. Move your dining table or a trestle table into your makeshift kitchen space. Be sure to limit the number of appliances used in your space. You don’t need all of the fancy appliances that take up space, try to limit your appliances to a maximum of 4. All you need is a BBQ/grill (or portable convection oven), microwave, toaster and a kettle. As long as you’ve got those essentials—as well as your refrigerator—you can still eat like champions!

Plan meals

Meal prep is going to become a key part of your new lifestyle. While takeaway seems like the easy option it’s not going to be a sustainable solution and the costs will add up quickly. Keep your cooking simple, but keep in mind—simple doesn’t have to mean boring. There are many easy recipes out there that require little time and effort that also taste amazing! Some ideas might be:

• Roast vegetables with seasoning in a portable convection oven

• Cook meat on a BBQ and combine with a fresh salad

• Microwave some greens along with your roasted veggies

• If time gets away from you microwave a prepackaged meal

Another tip would be to make more than you need for one meal, you can freeze the leftovers and reheat them to save yourself cooking each day.

Reap the rewards

Designing and building your own kitchen will give you a sense of accomplishment, and gives you bragging rights to anyone who sets foot in your house. A well designed and composed kitchen will not only add to the value of your home, but it will contribute to your happiness. Keep this in mind when you’re sitting in the dusty debris of your soon-to-be kitchen as it can and will only get better from there!