I’m about to Reno my whole first floor and asked on local message boards if people had extra moving boxes they were looking to offload. Got a ton of boxes that way.

Kept a toaster, electric water kettle, crockpot and coffee maker on a small table in laundry room or other living space, along with microwave or toaster oven, if you have. It’s amazing how you’ll get into a new routine. Good luck!

We turned our laundry room into a mini kitchen. Coffee maker, toaster and we used our garage frig to refrigerate food. Outside we had a grill and table that helped to food prep. But in all honesty we left our home for a month during the demo and the first part of the reno. That project took a good three months. In a past reno we also used the laundry room and went out to eat as much as possible. That reno was a minor one and we were only without a kitchen for a month.

One thing I found was I packed away 75% of our kitchen stuff. It was hard to guess what we would need and sure enough I would remember something going through boxes to find that cheese grater or ladle that I needed. It was not always fun but so worth it all in the end. You will do great and keep telling yourself your kitchen is going to be better all worth it.

I dismantled my dining room table and took over the dining room. My old kitchen was unfitted, so the work tables moved wholesale into the DR, along with the fridge. The work table shelves were filled with the stuff I would need during the reno. I had an induction burner, crockpot, and rice cooker. One wall was stacked with moving boxes full of all the stuff I could do without during the reno, plus the stuff I wanted to donate but couldn't at the time because COVID. I was without a kitchen for 9 or 10 weeks. I didn't use disposable plate; stuff got washed in the bathroom sink and the drain rack went in the bathtub. Doing dishes was the worst part.

We packed away 90% of our kitchen stuff and made improvised kitchens during our two kitchen renos (two different houses). In the first house, our reno occurred in winter (it gets below freezing here) so we put our fridge in our dining room, along with a toaster oven and microwave. We used mostly paper plates and bowls, and any dishes were done in a laundry/utility sink.

For our last reno, we used an unused bay in our garage. We set up a fridge, toaster oven, an inexpensive induction hob, and a dishwashing station (we used our camping setup). It was surprisingly functional - having that extra outdoor space made the reno less disruptive. Oh yeah, and we put our coffeemaker in our en suite bath during the reno - not sure why we didn't just leave it there, LOL.

I used a garage organizer on wheels. My renovation was much more than the kitchen, so I had to move my stuff out of the way multiple times...all over the place. This holds a lot, is easy to push, and can be reused in the garage later.

https://www.amazon.com/Shelving-Commercial-Storage-Adjustable-Capacity/dp/B00EZEN2KW/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=large+metal+cart+with+wheels+48%22&qid=1615057999&sr=8-11

In my 1200 square foot house:

I used the dining table and buffet in my DR (both well protected from heat and spills); had a coffeemaker, microwave, George Foreman grill (very useful!, sometimes took it out to the covered porch to use), slow cooker, toaster oven, and water dispenser set up. I would sub a multi-cooker (instant pot type) now for the slow cooker, as would be able to do more with it, and perhaps add an induction hot plate. Still, with this set up we were able to prepare most of our typical meals - burgers and meats, pasta & rice, veggies, baked items.

I moved the fridge into the DR as well, and a freestanding cabinet that I already had into the FR to store the dishes, utensils and food that we would need. I avoided using disposables; had a sturdy plastic bin to take the dishes either to the basement to be washed - set up a drying space on top of the dryer. (just 2 of us here so we didn't produce a lot of dirty dishes at a time and I didn't find carrying them up or down to be difficult).

Excess kitchen dishes, food etc were packed in boxes or bins and stored in the basement and the third "extra" bedroom. Stuff that I culled when packing went to the thrift store.

My reno unfortunately lasted 8 months because of supply/worker delays but we didn't find this setup terribly onerous. The counter was the longest, and once all the work except that was done we put some boards on the cabs and moved back into the kitchen - could have had a temporary sink set up then, but didn't bother. We also avoided ordering takeout or eating out - the reno was done on a tight budget and we didn't need the extra expense.

I am just finishing a four month reno that affected nearly my whole first floor (and half the second) and left me with no kitchen or eating area the whole time. I have a fridge in the garage but the fridge portion was no good to me bc it’s winter and everything froze in there.

I set up one end of my living room with a long folding table. I had some very lightweight thin sheets of wood cut to fit it at Home Depot and laid that down for heat protection, then put a table cloth over it that hung down to the floor. I put a dorm fridge at one end of the table, and on the table I put a toaster, microwave, and toaster oven. At the other end was the trash and recycling bins.

I kept one plate, one cup, one bowl, two knives, two spoons, and two forks in the house, along with salt and pepper, a spatula, some tongs, and several disposable food storage containers that could either store leftovers or act as additional bowls if needed. All of it went in a basket under the folding table, behind the tablecloth, which gave me some sense of neatness and order. Another basket under the table held food basics - bread, pb&j, cereal. Almost every single other thing in my kitchen was packed up and put into storage. I cooked tons of stuff ahead of time and froze them in individual serving sizes and put them in the garage freezer.

My best advice is to get the stuff you will not need out of your house. ALL of it - put it in storage. I put a lot in storage, but there were some misc hard to pack things (like bottles of liquor, and a large wall mirror, and a clock) that I decided I could just stick in my living room or office. I also didn’t want to put any sort of pantry food in a storage facility so anything I hadn’t used up before the reno I put in boxes and set it in other rooms. I regretted these decisions big time. I’ve spent four months tripping over that stuff or shuffling it from place to place - I should have just found a way to pack it and store the possessions and given the food to a food bank. It seems like every available surface had stuff piled on it that I should have stored. I hated that way more than not having a kitchen. And remove any excess stuff from the room you’ll be living in - pare it down to only what you need. Otherwise it will just feel cramped and overwhelming. I just found it’s super important to create some order and visual calmness in the spaces you are living in.

Other advice - take everything off the walls, even in rooms adjoining the work area, otherwise it may fall during work that vibrates. Buy extra filters for your HVAC and change them frequently during the work. And absolutely do not use your garage as storage for what is normally in your house. The very best advice I saw on Houzz before my remodel was to ruthlessly purge and organize my garage ahead of time. I did it, and thank goodness I did - both the house and garage would have been sheer chaos if I hadn’t, because the garage was used to stage materials and set up saws and other tools.
Even though I had completely cleared both bays, this stuff completely filled the garage at times, leaving only a narrow aisle up the middle, so thank god I didn’t try to also use it to store stuff from the house.

One of the big surprises to me was the amount of money it costs to deal with the reno but is not being paid to the contractor or designer. Examples include: movers to move things in and out of storage, storage fees, post-reno deep cleaning, post-reno duct cleaning, area rug and carpet cleaning, service charges from my home security company to come and put sensors on my new windows, appliance delivery and installation fees, packing supplies, etc. It adds up. BUT it will all be worth it!! Good luck!

My contractor told me they would need a good part of my garage for cabs and other materials. Every year I go through and reorganize that garage, but somehow I find myself doing it each and every year! We’re supposed to have a nice ‘heatwave’ here in the northeast next week (up into the 40s and 50s, lol) so that will be my priority. Next up, purging the cabs and clearing space on my 3 season porch, which is where I will likely be spending an awful lot of time in a few weeks. All of this in the midst of making final design decisions. Overwhelming, stressful and exciting all at the same time!

Yes for sure!! You are way ahead of me in terms of the garage - mine was a nightmare, but the clean out was worth it and is a bonus benefit from having done the remodel :). The preparation for it all is SO much work - more than I expected. And now I’m two days from being done and three from having the movers bring everything back. Not looking forward to unpacking and putting it all away 🤦🏻‍♀️. And of course now that it’s all redone, the powder room is looking a little old school - I think there’s another project in my future hahaha!!

Xnay to the plastic bins. Use cardboard moving boxes, used if you can find them, or from Home Depot or Lowe;s. At least they are recyclable. Plastic is forever.

When you pack and clean out the kitchen, you should be tossing things you have not used for years. Be ruthless, stick to the plan!

I got rid of every pot, pan, serving dish, etc that I hadn't used in at least 2 years. I took a lot of things to our local thrift store.

You will really appreciate not adding all that clutter to your new kitchen.

Something to also consider...when you move your appliances around, try to put them on separate circuits. We used a corner of our Family Room as our temporary Kitchen. We discovered that we could not run the MW and the refrigerator at the same time. We ended up putting a slow cooker in the Foyer, the refrigerator & MW in the Family Room (we just had to be careful that the refrigerator wasn't "on" when we ran the MW), and the hob in the gutted Dining Room. We did not use a range or DW (in fact, we had no water on the first floor for 3 months and then a temporary sink in the gutted Powder Room for the next 3 months).

I suggest disposable dishes -- paper plates, plastic silverware, plastic cups, etc., especially if, like us, you have no water on the main floor.

We also did not use our garage -- it was full of cabinets, fixtures, and appliances. We rented a Pod for the duration. We re-did our Kitchen, Dining Room, Powder Room, and Foyer, so we had more than just Kitchen stuff.

If you have time, definitely go through and get rid of things you don't use. We did not have time as we were told our cabinets would be at least 8 weeks and everything arrived in 3 or 4 weeks -- and they wanted to start immediately. (We did push back for a few days, but we had no time to thoughtfully go through everything prior to packing it up. We did most of that when we unpacked.)

Really like the idea of going vertical, leaning heavily in that direction. And thanks to Sushipup for pointing out the folly of the plastic bins - duh, forehead slap! Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the whole project that I don’t think the little (but important) things through!

We took down and stored our dining table to free up space and then set up several smallish folding tables for work surfaces around the perimeter of the dining area and in the living room. As old cabinets were removed, we placed many of them in nearby living areas to store stuff that had been previously been stored in boxes. As the remodeling progressed, countless reorganizations of storage and supplies took place to make everything more livable and to increasingly free up space.

Get small sized boxes from Lowes or HD. I made the mistake of packing kitchen stuff in Med boxes and they were too heavy to lift.

I would sort things out by category and if you’re keeping for the new kitchen, possibly keeping and definitely donating. For example, dishes will have 3 boxes and drink ware will have 3 boxes. Take pictures of everything or label the boxes before you pack. That will help you recall what’s in them.

It will be overwhelming but you can store the boxes until you’re ready to make a decision on what to do with everything.