The kitchen is the beating heart of the home. It’s where families come together in their morning rush and prepare a relaxing evening meal together. It’s where we energise ourselves for the day ahead, whether it’s taking the time to enjoy a big breakfast or scoffing down a piece of toast and instant coffee. It’s where we rush through brekky and take the time to create a fabulous feast for friends!
With all this in mind, living at home through a kitchen renovation can be a pretty stressful experience. This is because, as hard as we try, there are always going to be some inconveniences. You may go a week without your cooktop there to make your favourite meals. Or, you may be replacing the dishwasher and go without a proper place for washing up.
But don’t stress, as we are here to provide a few helpful hints on how to live at home throughout this exciting-albeit-stressful process:
1.First, pack up the non-essentials
One of the main elements of any kitchen renovation is creating new storage space. When you’re installing those beautiful new cabinets with elegant drawer knobs you are going to go a few days without your usual storage space. Therefore, you will need to pack up all non-essentials to ensure that you will reduce clutter and have space for your new cabinets. Furthermore, packing all your non-essentials ensures more room for renovation deliveries to be made, further freeing up the space and making the job much easier.
So, the first thing to do is pack up all non-essentials, saving only the things you need on an everyday basis. You will soon realise that this is the perfect time to throw out any old appliances, utensils or expired food. Not only will you create plenty of space for your renovations, but you will also create a clutter-free space that will further amplify the renovation’s awesome results!
2.Create a temporary kitchen (if possible)
Can you foresee losing some of your essential appliances? If so, why not consider relocating them to create a temporary kitchen? For example, you might be able to relocate your cooktop and fridge to another room, especially if you can see yourself losing them for months at a time. After all, you don’t want to be spending hundreds of dollars a week on takeaway if you can help it – this could be an unnecessary expense to add on top of the renovation itself!
You can ask your renovations experts for advice if you are unsure about how to safely relocate your appliances throughout the process. They should be able to give you a good idea on how to safely relocate your essential cookware so that you can still prepare food at home through the renovation.
3.Plan your meals
Naturally, you won’t be able to cook epic gourmet feasts throughout renovations, but this is partly why we undertake renovations in the first place. Therefore, it’s important to be practical about what you can cook, considering basic, healthy ingredients to cook the most delicious food possible with the limited cooking space you have.
There are many cookbooks and websites out there that focus on creating maximum taste and nutrition with as few steps and ingredients as possible – simply have a Google search for them and you will be able to continue the quality cooking throughout your renovation!
