So I’m living in a building site at the moment – literally dust and holes EVERYWHERE!

Having a kitchen refitted can be quite a stressful and, sometimes, uncomfortable situation for a household to go through.

I’ve touched on how to declutter your kitchen in my previous blog, which will really help you out if you are about go through the process of having a new kitchen.

I thought now is a great time to go through how to prep.

It’s taken a bit of adjusting to get it right and what works for us – but below are my top tips on what to do/organise/prep/arrange to make the process as easy for you as possible!

List

You should have, by now, gone through your kitchen and decluttered any unnecessary items.

From what is left, I’d suggest making  list of what you use on a daily basis. We literally kept a plate/bowl/knife, fork, spoon and cup for each family member and that’s it for crockery.

This is the time to be really ruthless with what you need out

This goes for pots. pans, glasses etc.

The weeks before the build – take some time to think about what you are using the most and what can be stored away.

Planning

Depending on what size of home you have, most of us will be living with some sort of kitchen in a living space you normally don’t cook in!

This can get “QUITE” stressful at times, so making sure that the space works for you and is big enough is key!

We have utilised our living room for the main items.

We are fortunate enough to have a garage so just about everything else is in there! (We are having 4 rooms renovated at once, so as you can imagine our garage is now a VERY tight squeeze!)

Ensuring that you know you have a place to put items is quite essential if you want to retain any sort of organised life during a build/renovation. As long as there is room for your essential items you are good to go!

It could be a spare room, corner of a bedroom – whatever works for you and your space – just make sure that it is designated fo that and that alone – otherwise things could get messy! (and REALLY cultured and confusing!)

Storage

Yes, I do think of myself as bit of a storage queen.

So having scoured the market (mostly The Range, Ikea and Dunelm) I bought a number of sturdy storage containers. Each of these were then labelled with what I was putting in them.

These were filled with basically the entire contents of my kitchen, dining room, conservatory and Mr Darlings’ “Man Cave”!

They have then been stacked onto of each other, in my garage.

To do this, I would definitely suggest putting the not so needed items at the bottom!

Having clear and labelled containers can definitely help that panic of “oh crap! I forgot to keep the cheese grater out! (Which indeed happened to me last week when my eldest darling requested a grated cheese sandwich and wouldn’t settle for anything else! Grrr!)

If purchasing storage is not an option for you – go and speak with your local corner shop/deli/supermarket/farm shop/garden centre – they always have lots of sturdy cardboard boxes you can start to store away for this.

You don’t need to spend money if you don’t want to!

Be organised!!!

Please do keep in mind that your home is not going to be “homely” for the next few weeks.

A diary or calendar (if you have the room to put it up somewhere!) can show you straight away the full time scale of what is happening and when.

Plotting each part fo your build on this can show you, visually and quickly where you are at.

Whilst you are prepping and emptying your kitchen start sounding out friends and relatives that can help you out in any way.

Book in dates with them for lunches, BBQ’s, child teas, children’s play dates etc to make the most fo being out of the house with no kitchen around!

Also, think about your washing! (I didn’t! Doh!) See if you have a friend (or two, or three!) nearby that wouldn’t mind putting load on for you once  a week. Or contact a nearby laundrette to see if they can do you a deal!

Planning is the key here to keep yourself and your family as organised and as calm as possible!

I hope that this has helped give you an overview of planning for your build!

In my next blog I’ll cover what it’s really like living with that temporary kitchen you’ve planned out!

Rachel x