a cutting knife!!! it's been horrible trying to cut fruits, veggies etc. with plastic knives - they pretty much shred everything! And sadly, it takes about 3 seconds to wash a knife in whatever sink/bucket you're using... and I'm too cheap to spend the $5 to buy a temporary one... mind you, I bought a $700 faucet... lol

I'd highly recommend figuring out how to get a microwave... we just bought our new one a bit early and it has saved our lives...

good luck :) We're in week 4 and not minding it too much!

Cheryl

The absolutely best item that I had in my temp kitchen was an electric tea kettle. It's great for tea of course, but we ate a TON of soup during the remodel. Boil some water, pour it into bowls - add some boullion, add in fresh veggies, or some pre-cooked meatballs and ta-da you have a really good hearty meal.

PlanningNut,

You have permission to buy a $5 knife. Or even a $10 knife, if you'd like. ;)

how well packed away is this stuff? i had a bunch of stuff that i decided i needed early on, so i just went down the basement and opened the box. what, did you guys put stuff in storage or something?

I am baffled by the challenge folks have without a kitchen, especially if there is space available elsewhere in the house. I may find a very different reality than I anticipate because this is like giving advice on raising children without having any of one's own, LOL.

We have several rooms in the house that may be used for a temporary kitchen and eating area. For the past year I've been making meals without appliances that are attached. For example, a countertop oven, single induction unit, electric skillet, rice cooker, electric kettle, MW and likely a few things I can not recall. We have eaten so well, DH may question why I need a new kitchen. He already sees no need to eat out; what we eat at home is better. Aside from the sink and DW I expect to have the same 'kitchen' I have now, just in a different location. Most of the cupboards, work surfaces (table) etc. are also 'unfitted'. They will be moved into the temp kitchen, too. I have gotten rid of anything I don't need or use, especially dishes. And, I do not expect to buy lots of new stuff when the new kitchen is finally complete.

When reality hits, I'll be back to eat my words!

I had a nervous breakdown when I couldn't find the corkscrew:) Okay, here's my serious list for a temp kitchen:
1. A strainer for the laundry sink (didn't have but wish I had).
2. I did buy some cheap ($3.00 and worth every penny) washable cotton rugs from HD so I didn't have to be quite so neurotic about stuff falling on my good hdwd floors.
3. I kept my good knives, all my BBQ tools and spices (we're grilling a lot), and the Cuisinart mini chopper. I also kept some really junky plastic plates & glasses, on the theory that I might have a high breakage rate (hasn't really happened). One wine glass. That's a medical necessity, folks.
4. I never appreciated the term "landing space" until the fridge was parked in the middle of the FR and the nearest landing space was a sofa arm. Learn from that mistake, o little grasshopper.
5. In your case, I strongly recommend thick knee pads (like the ones gardeners use) for washing dishes in the bathtub. They might help on knees and back.
6. Dust (drywall dust is the worst) has a tendency to get everywhere, so you're better off putting your dustcatcher tchotkes in boxes than simply shoving them off into another room.

I would encourage you to have as much of a functional kitchen as you can, without totally cluttering the rest of your house. We turned our dining area into a "kitchen" and had a microwave, toaster oven, rice cooker, electric skillet, electric burners (little 2 burner unit, saw it for $40 new at target, but found one on Craig's list for $10.)We kept out a few basic cooking vessels, and a few sets of eating dishes. After a few days, I realized it was pretty easy to cook simple things, and we had little desire to eat out all the time. By the 4th month, we ate out more, but it was still great to be able to keep 75% of our meals homecooked.

The most limiting thing was electricity......

Do you have enough room on your bathroom counter for the electric kettle and a plastic dishpan (dishtub) for washing the dishes? I would suggest heating water in the kettle and pouring it in the dishpan--you can use a glass to add cold water from the sink faucet to cool down the water a bit. Use the sink for rinsing. I was fortunate in our temp kitchen set up but I have fond memories from childhood when we used to visit our Maine summer cottage during winter school vacations. The plumbing was all drained so we used to heat snow on the stove for dishwater. This is the same idea, only a little easier.

We learned about all sorts of wonderful frozen foods during our remodel--toaster oven is fine but adding a mw would be even better.

Is it possible you could have a temporary sink in the kitchen? That's what I miss the most. I'm using paper plates, etc. as much as possible to avoid having to wash things in the bathroom sink or tub. Other than that, I'm sorry I packed up the wine glasses, LOL!

Knives. I finally had to dig them out. And plastic containers. You'll need those.

I bought massive amounts of papers plates and plastic knives and forks and paper cups from Costco. Very little dishwashing.

We've actually not had a bad time at all with our temporary kitchen. If there is a place where you can move furniture so you can set up an actual kitchen table and chairs, I highly recommend it. We have our kitchen table in a small library on our second floor, away from the noise and dust. I moved books off some shelves, and set up our paper plates, etc., and some food items. Our fireplace mantel is also a handy shelf. We have a convection toaster oven, microwave, small fridge, and two burners set up. We have a full size fridge downstairs. We also have a rice cooker. Set yourself up. It might end up taking longer than six weeks. Ours is going way over schedule.

Wine/bottle opener, can opener, sharp knife, ice cream scoop. That should just about do it. Adults get to be on a, fun liquid diet and there isplenty of ice cream to fulfill the kiddies :)
Good luck, relax and enjoy the ride...it will be over eventually! H

Gotta admit I'm just not a microwave person - I hardly use the thing. Getting ready for my kitchen reno - glad I have a nice big BBQ. Otherwise relying on a small induction unit and have an electric kettle for boiling water. Live in an area with lots of good restaurants though, so going to be eating out a lot I expect. Our local pub in particular does good food at a reasonable price.

I just have to join in with my best temp kitchen advice: Lsst year we bought a folding table (about 6 feet x 30 inches or so) from Costco for some big family event where we needed extra seating. At some point we discovered that it can actually be set at different heights, regular table height and counter height.

Having a counter-height table is the best thing about our temp kitchen. If I had to lean down to a regular height table while trying to prepare meals I would be much grumpier about not having my kitchen.

We have the toaster/convection oven and coffee maker on the folding table plus a microwave on a repurposed shelving unit from the old kitchen. We also have one of those instant hot-water/tea kettle things which I've used to make couscous. I like the soup idea. I'll have to try it.

I kept most of my knives out, cutting boards, a few bowls, the salad spinner (salads are easy and not too messy so we've been doing a lot of big, substantial salads), our regular silverware, coffee cups and a couple of wine glasses (I refuse to drink coffee or wine out of plastic). We're using paper plates and some kind of cool biodegradeable bowls made of corn or something. Other than washing in the bathroom sink it's working out well (we're only two weeks in though so this early attitude may change!).

Can & bottle openers, wine glasses, storage bowls, cutting board, knives, serving utensils, measuring cup for water. We are using an old microwave from a friend who redid her kitchen and passed it on to us (we'll pass it on to another friend next). We have the table like 'sw in austin' that is our new 'kitchen central' with a few kitchen boxes underneath of stuff I might need. We are basically doing frozen meals and using plastic utensils and paper plates/bowls/cups. It has been a long five months, but DH says by the end of next week we will have a 'functional' kitchen!! Yea!! But our 'temp. kitchen central' has worked out great!

I'll share my MacGyver way of opening a (cork) wine bottle, just in case you pack your corkscrew away:

1 pair vice grips
1 wood screw
1 screwdriver for said wood screw

Screw wood screw into cork, leaving enough above cork to be able to grip with vice grips. Pull.

(My husband was quite impressed when he saw the evidence of this maneuver. He was away at the time, with the only working corkscrew in his pocket - on his swiss army knife)

love the cork-removing idea - brilliant. This would be impressive, and quite sexy, to many men!!!

I agree about the sink - that is critical... we're using the little tiny pedestal sink in the powder room and I'm ready to kill myself. Everything else has been pretty good - I love using disposable everything (so lazy!!!) and living out of a bar fridge. It's the lack of sink that's killing me...

I highly recommend doing anything you can to find a way to get or keep a sink, at least temporarily... we were able to keep our stove and dishwasher (at least until we start laying hardwood in a few weeks) and that's been a life saver - we just move them around as needed...

It doesn't have to be a complete nightmare... I made my tiny main floor laundry into my kitchen and it's great. I used a tower of sliding drawers for everything - this was a stroke of genius! love it.

Good luck! And I just can't bring myself to buy that knife :) Still paying off the faucet :)

cheryl

I love reading I'm not the only one that puts such high importance on a cork screw!
I moved a lot of my essentials out to my patio and now it has inspired my husband to do an outside kitchen since we are out there so much!

On a thread a few weeks ago (which of course I can't find now) I saw a genius idea that involved a set of plastic shelves in a bathtub (to raise the dish drainer to counter height) and a hose running off the bathtub faucet with a sprayer on the end. I've been trying to convince my husband of what a great idea it would be but he's the dishwasher and he says it's too much trouble so we haven't done it. But it looked really great. And much better than the bathroom sink (oh they put some kind of strainer in the drain to catch crumbs and food bits).

We are currently in week 5. Unfortunately, not only did we have to move out of our kitchen, but also out of the living room and dining room. This resulted in all of us living, eating, cooking, and working downstairs in quite a small rec room. Next door to the rec room is the laundry room, so what few dishes we have are washed in the set tub. Unfortunately, the washing machine has to serve as the only counter space in there, and that poses a conflict regularly.

We did remember to keep out a few coffee cups, two wine glasses, and a corkscrew, although DH broke his wine glass on day 2. I have since bought him a plastic wine glass. We also kept out a few cutting boards and knifes. Unfortunately, our "kitchen countertop" is approximately 6 inches deep and 12 inches long - I have little to work with.

The worst moment, though, was when I discovered someone packed the ICE CREAM SCOOP! That was bad - very bad.

Hopefully we only have another week of this. We bought paper plates at Costco, and we have about 1-1/2 inches of plates left in the bag, so that's hopefully how long the rest of this will take.

Priorities: Corkscrew, knives, cutting boards, coffee cups, wine glasses, ice cream scoop.

We had the luxury of creating a temp kitchen in a former bedroom. Had to buy an apartment size fridge cause the old one was too big to fit through interior doorways. Also bought my first microwave. It was a Godsend! The 2 other must haves were the coffee maker and toaster oven. The only thing I didn't have was a sink. Fortunately, the bathroom was the next room down the hall. I had 2 bus bins. One I filled with dirty dishes (I gave up on paper plates after the first week) and it went into the bathtub to become my sink. The second was placed on the floor next to me to hold clean dishes as I washed the dirty ones. That's the way I washed dishes for a year! It just became part of the routine. Not pleasant, but necessary.

We bought 2 folding tables. One to hold appliances, the other for prep. Two cabinets from Target to hold dry goods and dishes. Two 3 bin drawers from Target to hold silverware, dish towels, and other dry goods.

Here is a link that might be useful: my temp kitchen

Sailinggal, that has got to be the greatest idea since sliced bread! I'm almost afraid to tell men because then they'll all want to open wine bottles the manly way -- who needs a fancy schmancy wine gizmo when you can use a screwdriver and pliers? All it needs is duct tape!

I've actually impressed the guys on my sailing "team" with that maneuver. The night I first did it, I'd broke the handles on the 'home' corkscrew. It had been a particularly rough day at the office, and I don't think we had any beer in the fridge. I didn't think just smashing the top of the bottle was a good idea (although I had already figured I'd pour the wine through a coffee filter to make sure I removed any glass shards).

Now, of course, not only do we have a nice selection of good screw-top wine, but we also have 4 corkscrews.

Thank you all for your great suggestions. I just got home after a long day at work and then out to dinner with my sweetie and his DD who just came home from college for the summer.

I think I will have to set up my kitchen on a small dresser in my bedroom. I can't use the other bathroom as I am sure the workers will use it. I will be at work when they are here. I can wash whatever in my bathroom sink or the tub in the other bath. I have no laundry room sink and the laundry room is pretty much where they will be entering with things from the garage. The bedroom is bound to be the cleanest area.

I have a small 2 bedroom single story home (no basement as I live in CA). No micro either. My micro-hood combo is too big to fit on my dresser and too heavy. My new over the counter micro isn't here yet and again will be too big and I am not sure it would be OK sitting on something since it is supposed to hang from the cab.

Electric tea kettle sounds great. Will have to get one of those and I have a mini food processer. I will definately keep out knives, wine glass (although my passion is Chai tea at the moment), ice cream scoop, can opener, some serving spoons, etc.

I love the pictures of the temp kitchen. Great idea. Will have to stock up on paper goods. So much for the ecology.

Appreciate the tips and all of you as well. Keep them coming!

We actually used two of the base cabinets (with the counters) that we removed from the "old" kitchen. Moved everything in my dining room against the far wall so we still have a table and chairs. The dining room shares a wall with the stove side of the kitchen, so we took off the baseboard in the dining room and cut a small hole in the drywall behind there for the stove cord to run thru, and plugged the stove cord into its outlet in the kitchen! When we put the baseboard back up we won't be able to see the hole (or, yes, we SHOULD patch it). We have a microwave sitting on the counter, and a 4-tier plastic shelf (about 36" wide) for all of our "pantry" items. The drawers in the base cabinets have worked great for plastic flatware and paper plates. I also bought one of those tall plastic drawer units (Rubbermaid or Sterilite) to house all of the other drawer stuff that we removed from the old kitchen.

This weekend it will be a year since we officially began demo. I suppose we made it a little too easy to drag our feet on this project!

The only issues we've had - the fridge had to sit in the family room for about 6 months while we were trying to get around to laying the tile floor. It probably could have gone back into the kitchen and sat on the subfloor but it took so much work to rearrange the family room, I didn't want to have to do it twice. And, we only have a pedestal sink in our main floor bathroom, so we've had to truck laundry baskets full of dishes upstairs to the bathtub a couple of times. Luckily, we aren't big cooks, and we use paper goods (recycled though!) so we haven't had a huge amount of dishes.

Wish I had a pic, but I'm a little too embarassed to take one. =>

I had my contractor install the old sink on a 2 X 4 frame in the shower adjacent to the makeshift kitchen. I installed one of those plastic shower by-pass handsprays and, voila! I can stand and do dishes! He put a small shelf behind, just big enough for a drain board. I did have to tape a black garbage bag across the front legs to reduce the splashing from the open sink drain.