If you've decided to create a slick new kitchen and dining extension on your home, then there will be a period when your kitchen is unusable. As your old kitchen is ripped out, you'll lose appliances and you may find it hard to do everyday tasks that keep your family ticking over.

To make things go smoothly, it's worth planning ahead for those days when you don't have normal kitchen access. What should you do?

Create a Temporary Kitchen Space

At some point, your contractors will remove or disconnect your key kitchen appliances. Before work starts, it's worth creating a space for essential items that you'll need to use.

For example, you could put your fridge, microwave and kettle in a corner of your living room. You could also set up a table to work on. This allows you to store food and to cook basic meals when your appliances come out of the kitchen shell.

Consider Batch Cooking

You can live on cold foods, ready meals and takeaway food while your kitchen is out of action. However, you may prefer to keep your family on their regular diet, especially if you'll be without an oven or stove for more than a few days.

In this case, consider batch cooking some meals and popping them in your freezer. You can then defrost the meals as you need them and warm them up in your microwave.

Work Out Where to Wash up

Once your dishwasher is disconnected and you lose your kitchen sink, then you will have to work out how you wash up dishes. You can take a washing up bowl into your bathroom and use that as a temporary kitchen sink. Or, if you don't want the hassle of doing that, you could use disposable plates, cutlery and cups for a few days.

Tackle Your Laundry

If your renovation affects your laundry area, then you may lose your washing machine and dryer for a while. It's worth catching up on all your laundry before this happens.

If your washer and dryer will be out of commission for more than a few days, then you may need to find other ways to get your washing sorted during the renovation work. Family and friends may let you use their machines, or you may have a local laundry that you can use.

To get more tips on how to manage without your kitchen during your extension build, talk to your home renovations contractor. They can tell you when you're likely to lose access to appliances and how long you need to use alternatives.  

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