We finally pulled the trigger on a smallish kitchen and laundry renovation. They'll start work next month and it is expected to take 4-5 weeks. I was wondering if anyone has any tips about how to manage life with little kids without a fully functioning kitchen or laundry room. We have family nearby we can probably use for laundry so my biggest worry is meals. Anyone done this and have advice? Meal ideas?
-
If you will have access to a chest freezer or something, say in your garage, you could precook and freeze in individual portions for easy microwave reheating.
-
Can you grill? And also go to nearby family for dinner?
Is there a laundry place that will do full service (wash/dry/fold) that you can swing for a while?
-
@JennyPenny: Second vote for grilling. We also did pizza/take out pretty regularly when our kitchen was under construction, which I'm sure kiddos would love. Try to have a plan for washing dishes if you'll be without a sink, that was probably the hardest part, doing the dishes in the tub. Good luck! It's hard, but so worth it in the end.
-
We grilled a lot. Microwave versions of stuff also especially for the kids like Mac and cheese. Second the frozen meals if you will have access to your oven. We set our dining room up as the staging area for all the new cabinets and appliances so our dining table was set up in the garage which worked great for all the nights we grilled. And we did dishes in the tub and it really sucked. We did disposable plates and silverware but still what needs to be washed it really sucked bending over in the tub. It was worth it but still very frustrating during the process!
-
Yep, we can definitely grill when it's nice out. Great call on the disposable stuff. I didn't really think about not having a sink. But I suspect we can prepare some freezer meals and some grill items that make almost no dishes.
-
Use the grill, paper plates, red solo cups. And get those metal tins from the grocery store that you cook lasagna in, and cook everything in them on the grill. Like, potatoes and such. And, take out, take out, and more take out. Congrats on the reno!
-
Grill! I used to buy the premade kebabs or marinated chicken at the grocery store so no prep. Disposable plates and cutlery. Have a setup with a microwave, toaster oven and cooler. You can do a lot with those things! It’s totally temporary and everyone survives eating takeout for multiple meals a week.
-
We set up a folding table in our family room w a microwave, toaster oven and electric skillet. That covered lots of food prep actually! Using a bathroom sink for the dishes/bottles was the most annoying part
Went way better than I expected -
We set up most of our kitchen stuff in the dining room. Majority of meals were take out or microwave. Hopefully they finish quicker then the estimate but I know how general contractors work and that’s never the case. We self managed our kitchen remodel (total gut job) and it only took 3.5 weeks.
-
I thought going into our kitchen reno that we’d do a ton of take out, etc. But between themicrowave, and instant pot (using the pressure cooker and sauté function) it wasn’t too hard to cook. We put our dining room table against the wall, set up the “kitchen” on it along the wall and then we’d eat on the other half of the table! We also plugged in our new stove once the electrical was done and I cooked on it before the kitchen was fully done...
Washing stuff in the bathroom was the biggest pain so I was really mindful of not making more dishes than necessary and we ate off paper plates and bowls mostly.
-
We set up our little kitchen up in the guest bedroom when our main ground floor remodeling happened (kitchen, living room, everything). They sealed off the whole first floor with plastic with zippers, and we lived upstairs during the whole renovation.
We had a small college-dorm-room-sized fridge set up for the basics: milk, cheese, yogurt, frozen waffles...etc. Since our living room was remodeled at the same time, we moved our coffee table upstairs and it was like a small Japanese-style dining area where we sat on the floor and eat. We put a rug or something underneath it. Back then our guest room was carpeted so we didn't want food stains. We also had a small magnetic stove top and we cooked very basic things like plain pasta or boiled eggs, corn, green beans or broccoli. I forgot if we brought the whole toaster oven upstairs or just the toaster. We used an old dresser for all these things lol
We planned to use the grill but it ended up really didn't happen because our backyard was connected to the kitchen. Our kitchen was completely gutted, so it was quite dusty at the deck anyway for us to contemplate grilling and eating anywhere around there.
That was really it. It took care of breakfast and that was really what mattered for us. Dinners were mostly take outs. We could just get a protein from outside, and we cooked our veggies, or sometimes a little bit of carbs (pasta and such) with it. We did minimize our cooking because we had no way to wash our dishes, and we didn't want to risk clogging up the guest bathroom. If we needed to wash dishes, we used a big tin basin and then if there were residue we poured the soapy water into the toilet and flush it out.
Oh, and funny we had to open the window when cooking with the magnetic stove top because we had no ventilation! haha! Another reason why we couldn't cook protein.
-
Honestly....it was horrible! We have a fixer-upper with no garage, so I did all my cooking and dishes in our un-renovated second bathroom. Doing dishes in the tub killed my back and clogged the tub-- make sure you have a good tub strainer! Coffee grinds are such bastards. At first I attempted to make everything in the instant pot, but washing dishes became a bigger problem than actually cooking..the IP insert is a pain to clean in a bathtub! Things got better once I borrowed a skillet and didn't have to do dishes every day. I'd get at least two cooking appliances...if I were to do it all again I'd get a convection burner. Or two IP inserts so you can cook multiple thing in the IP in the same meal. Microwave and uncooked meals became common (sandwiches, salads). We ate a lot more processed foods and I bought so much more Starbucks. I also found it difficult to have the contractors around so often. I had two kids at home and we would go to the Y in the morning and I'd shower there. They got to our house pretty early so it was either that or wake up super early. It was very hard to have the kids at home while they were there because the noise kept the kids from taking good afternoon naps. Overall, it was just a really difficult, chaotic time!
We also planned to grill a lot, but that became so time-consuming on weeknights, plus it was so hot in the summer. Also dealing with raw meat in the bathroom was disgusting and it became less worth it over time. So we just ate increasingly simple meals, or pre-cooked meat (like those boil-in-bag meats from Aldi-- carnitas and curry chicken etc.)
I admit, I gained weight during our renovation! And my kids developed a taste for the finer things in life (Hamburger Helper).
We also used far more disposable products because washing dishes was just so difficult in the bathroom! I felt awful about that. But as an upside, we made our pre-war home more modern and livable and we didn't change the footprint of our house, so I feel like we ultimately used fewer resources vs. a gut job, or a new build, etc.
-
OTOH, doing laundry at the laundromat was awesome! Expensive, but so nice to do laundry in the big tub washers and then fold everything before I left (I know I"m not the only person who never seems to get around to folding everything when I'm doing washing at home). I still occasionally go over there when I have big stuff to wash (sleeping bags, etc.).
-
@Mrs. Sketchbook: OMG! Ditto on the weight gain! hahaha! I was going to say something but thought it could be just me. All those daily take outs and processed food does pile on, unfortunately. And good point about renovation with young kids (you have 2!). Thank goodness DS was pretty big (3) when we did the big reno, and he went to daycare.
-
Thanks everyone! I started making a list of stuff I need to get to prepare and gave myself a timeline, and of course once I finished I get a note that they're pushing back the start time. Ugh, delayed already. The new timeframe has my whole family out of the house one week and two 4-day work trips for me in the middle. That's going to make it more interesting but it works in a way too because DH is way happier with fast food every day than I am
-
I'm sure you know this already... but if they say 4 weeks, assume it will be 8. Nothing ever goes as planned. I agree with others - set up another little mini-kitchen in another room with a toaster, coffee maker, and the fridge.
Reply
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
16 comments