How to Survive a Kitchen Renovation

As a homeowner, one of the most effective ways to upgrade your home is by renovating the kitchen. By changing cabinets, floors, countertops, and more, you upgrade your home’s look, making it significantly more efficient for cooking and prep work. Knowing what renovations to make is essential, and you should plan with help from our designers at B&F Cabinet Stone & Floor, but deciding on the project’s specifics is only the first step. Once the plans are laid out, you must make it through the renovation process, which is more complex than it seems! Even when you have a skilled crew handling all the building for you, you must learn how to live without a kitchen during the renovation process. That’s difficult and requires some thoughtful preparation. Learn how to survive a kitchen renovation using these straightforward tips to help you through the process. 

Build Your Temporary Kitchen

One of the best tricks to surviving a kitchen remodel is to construct a temporary kitchen you can rely on while the work is being performed. This space should be away from your standard kitchen so you can access it when the crew works in your home. Rely on small appliances such as an air fryer, crock pot, toaster oven, microwave, and perhaps a single electric burner to create your cooking surface. Add a few folding tables for your prep surface, and give yourself access to a water supply. You have a makeshift kitchen you can rely on to prepare food while waiting for your kitchen to be completed. 

Stock Kitchen Essentials

In preparation for your kitchen renovation, you’ll likely be tasked with clearing out most of the items in your kitchen. While cleaning out spices, foils, plastic wraps, cookware, and more, consider which basics you can use in your kitchen setup. Store away these essentials in a bin or tote, so they’re ready for you when you need them. Just be careful to prepare sparingly, keep only the essentials such as a single frying pan and pot, and keep your complete cookware set handy because you will only use some of them. Most of knowing how to survive a kitchen renovation is understanding how to do with fewer items and to have more basic meals, so think of your time without a kitchen as camping in your home and packing light. 

Prep Meals Ahead of Time

If you know your carefully planned kitchen remodel with our home improvement suppliers is set to start soon, take this time to prepare as many meals as you can ahead of time. Make stews, chilis, breakfast burritos, and other foods that can be frozen and reheated later. The more ready-to-eat meals you make at home now, the less you will have to eat out or scramble to create meals without a full kitchen to do the work. Put in some hard work this weekend and get together a few week’s worth of prepped meals to rely on. 

Rely on Disposable Cutlery and Dishes

While many people avoid using disposable dishware regularly because of environmental concerns, relying on it briefly during your remodel can make your life significantly easier. Stock up on disposable wooden utensils and paper plates, and you can eat without worrying about how you’ll wash all the dishes afterward. 

Block the Dust

While it’s ideal to leave your home during your kitchen remodel and stay in a hotel or a friend’s or relative’s home, many people need more time or a budget. If you’ll be staying in your home while your kitchen is being remodeled, it’s essential to block dust and debris from tracking throughout your home as much as possible. Consider laying plastic down on the floor where the crew will come through your home if they have to walk through a finished section of your home before reaching your kitchen. Also, think about hanging a curtain or plastic sheeting to seal off your kitchen from the rest of your home to help trap dust and keep it from moving throughout your house. You should also close any vent returns in your kitchen, if there are any, to keep from sucking the dusty air into your HVAC system. So many people wonder how to survive a kitchen renovation when they must remain in the home receiving the work. Taking time to seal off the room from the rest of the home is one of the most helpful tips to avoid unnecessary cleanup and work as your kitchen is transformed. 

Keep Your Home Safe for Children or Pets

While you likely know the dangers of construction work, young children and pets often have a different level of awareness. Part of surviving a kitchen remodel is keeping your home safe. Add child locks or gates that prevent unwanted access to the construction area. During the process, dangerous tools, building materials, broken objects, and more will lie around. Keeping little ones and pets out of the space is necessary and will prove exhausting without child-safety measures. Get the gates and locks and reduce your workload. 

Designate Storage Space for the Crew

Clear away a section of your garage, an enclosed porch, or another section of your home for cabinetry, flooring, and storage of other construction materials. Try to create a weather-proof space for materials for the construction crew to keep the rest of your home tidy. Designating a convenient storage location for all the construction materials gives you control over where these items end up and makes things easier for the builders. If you don’t create space for these items, the construction crew will make space somewhere less convenient than your chosen area. Save yourself the trouble and choose the space for them, or talk with the crew and decide on a location that works for both of you. 

You can easily survive the process if you carefully prepare for your upcoming kitchen renovation. Take steps to prepare meals, protect your home, and safeguard any little ones in your space to get through this renovation process unscathed.