Kitchen renovating: how to still eat in

You know it's coming. The kitchen is being gutted, or at least majorly incapacitated for awhile. Does that mean dry cereal and take-out for the next 3-6 months? Not necessarily. You can create a "temporary kitchen" where you can cook modest (or even semi-elaborate) meals, depending on your imagination and tolerances.

To get started, here are some basics that worked for me. No doubt you'll discover your own.

1. Choose a room for your temporary kitchen.

Ideally, this room should have a sink in it--or one close by. But, if you get yourself a dish basin and don't mind schlepping to the closest sink (ours was in the basement), the temporary kitchen can be set up almost anywhere that is convenient for you. Some people choose the basement. We chose the dining room (functioning as temporary office), adjacent to the kitchen, with two layers of ZipWalls between it and the work going on in the kitchen. (For more information on ZipWalls, read my first post: It gets worse before it gets better.)

2. Move your refrigerator into that room.

That's one reason we chose the dining room/office. It was a short distance to move the fridge! Hopefully, yours has wheels.

3. Get a good "toaster oven" if you don't already have one.

By "toaster oven," I mean the new ones that toast, roast, bake, have a convection feature--basically, do it all but on a small scale. You pay but you will be sooooo glad you have this and will likely use it long after the kitchen is done. I still use mine regularly. It's a Delonghi.

4. Set up a one or two burner hot plate for simple "stove top" cooking or just boiling water.

NOTE: MAKE SURE you have all this stuff (#3 and #4 above) set up safely and don't leave it unattended. You don't want to burn your place down before it's even renovated!

5. Find a suitable place for basic pots/pans/cooking utensils.

6. Get a stash of disposable cups, plates and eating utensils.

I hated this part because of the waste. But it made things much less stressful to just toss the plates after meals. There's only so much that dish basin can hold in one shot.

7. Make the room as comfortable as possible.

If, in order to make your temporary eat-in kitchen livable, you have to take stuff out that used to be in there when the room was something else (e.g., in our case, a dining room/office), do it. The more comfortable and normalized you can make it, the more tolerable your unpleasant situation will be. Of course, as I said in my first post, if you can relocate during renovation, do it! But if you're reading this post about setting up a temporary kitchen, the likelihood is you're roughing it on site. Ain't it FUN?!

Setting up a temporary kitchen helps make living through a renovation feel a notch above holding out in a semi-demolished hotel. At least you can cook a casserole. Bon appétit!