Try to set up a full-size sink in your temporary kitchen, unless you have a big laundry sink nearby. You DO NOT want to wash dishes in a bathroom sink.

We kept our sink base and installed it about 2 feet away from the wall where the new plumbing was located. This allowed us to have a sink (incl. garbage disposal!) while leaving enough room around for drywalling & plastering, upgrading the electrical, cleaning around, etc.

We are located in Canada, and I'm glad we are remodeling in the summer because we can cook on the barbecue and eat outside.

Good luck with your remodel!

Best advise I got for packing up the old kitchen was to empty out the linen closet and store dishes in there. I tossed my towels and sheets on the floor in the guest bedroom and, instead of spending hours packing china and dishes in boxes, just moved them into the linen closet. Fabulous suggestion and saved me hours! Once the remodel was done, unpacking was just as easy as was sticking those sheets and towels back in the closet.

I cooked most meals during the remodel. We barely ate out. Survived with an electric frying pan, rice cooker, crock pot and microwave. Searched for crock pot recipes online and ended up finding some recipes that my family loved and I still make to this day. I found I could adapt a lot of recipes to work in the electric frying pan.

My old fridge was a Sub-Zero that went to the family who took my entire old kitchen. Ended up renting a fridge for the remodel and kept it in the garage. Took one whole day to realize the dorm fridge we already had wouldn't cut it.

Here's another link I found.

Here is a link that might be useful: Any tips for preparing for demolition survival?

We were somewhat lucky in that we have a basement bar that became my 2nd kitchen during all of this. It does have a dishwasher a microwave and a full size refrigerator but having to use a small bar sink or the laundry room sink has been terrible. We've been eating out, grilling and using the crock pot quite a bit.

I would add to the useful appliances, a George Foreman grill. I just had a small one, enough for 2 people. My biggest problem was lack of prep space.

I was using the dining table for prep, microwave, and grill. I had a sheet of cardboard, some newspaper and all covered with a vinyl picnic tablecloth. I had a bit of heat damage to the table finish despite the layers.

Now that I have had an Insta-Pot style cooker, I think that it would have been very useful also and could serve in place of several other cooking appliances. If you have the other appliances I wouldn't necessarily go out and buy one just for the remodel, though.

Really I found it not difficult at all -- our meals were simplified, but we managed quite well with the toaster oven, Foreman grill, microwave, and slow cooker. I bought an extra toaster oven sized baking pan. I got a plastic dish tub and carted dishes down to the laundry sink to wash, set the dish drainer on the dryer, and really didn't depend a lot on disposables (tried to minimize using them intentionally).

Don't forget something thick enough to protect any temporary working/cooking surfaces that need protection, especially under hot appliances, and plastic painter's dropcloths to protect the floor around your temporary cooking area.

Not having a sink was the worst part of this 3-month experience. We don't even have a 1st floor bathroom. Instead of washing dishes in a bathroom sink, or bathtub (my back couldn't take it), I had a small plastic tub on top of the washing machine. It was the perfect height. Our new countertop oven also came in very handy. So did the large hand sanitizer pump in the makeshift kitchen, compostable Chinette plates, and all the premade cold brew coffee that is in every grocery store now. Shout out to vanilla Chameleon Cold Brew!

I agree with the sink being the biggest issue, because it is almost impossible to prep or clean up. I had my fridge in the dining room, moved the dining table against the opposite wall, on there I had coffee maker, some utensils, toaster oven, knife block. On the sun porch I had my microwave. Took a small end table with a shelf below and stocked with paper plates and bowls, disposable cups and silverware, napkins and paper towels. I didn’t use any non disposable dishes because clean up was really difficult. I cooked simple things that required little to no prep, grilled chicken and corn on the cob. Steak and baked potato. Salad in a bag. I also bought prepared foods that you just heat up, and we went out probably 2-3 times/week. It was not actually quite as bad as expected, but we had to get creative. Luckily it was spring/summer, so we could grill, which is great for no clean up.

By the end, I had rearranged the whole makeshift kitchen several times to accommodate electric and fridge and also probably mostly because nothing ever felt quite right so I tried different configuratiosn. The “pantry” holding the microwave was the best change. We had trouble using the appliances because any 2 at the same time would trip a breaker. Go figure...the circuit on the dining room wasn’t intended to hold a whole kitchen worth of small appliances. The microwave on the opposite wall got plugged in in the living room.

We used a lot of paper plates, we spent a fortune eating out, and we eventually got an instant pot, which was more portable, and plugged it in the kitchen after the electric was finished.

And OMG was I so happy when I was finally able to paint those walls around 18 months after we started demo!

Oh. And we never ate at the table. It just took up space or was used for prep. We ate in the living room.

Oh - baby wipes too! We had a roll of paper towels, but we couldn't wet them without going upstairs or downstairs, so baby wipes were great for anytime we would have used a wet paper towel or rag.

We are starting in a week...well, the whole house remodel starts in a week. We'll have limited access to the kitchen initially, then at some point (in a month??) we'll lose the kitchen. We have two bathrooms in our temporary living quarters. We'll use one bathroom for washing dishes. We have a small fridge in our temporary kitchen and a microwave that we will use primarily for the occasional tv dinner. But we really don't plan on cooking much because of lack of ventilation - those rooms could easily get smelly from cooking...and with outside temperatures about 10-20 degrees, opening a window doesn't have much appeal! We expect to eat our main meal out - probably at the YMCA, where we expect to spend a fair amount of time during construction.