Disposable tableware and kitchen renovation tips please?

We are in the middle of this. It is taking ages due to various unforeseen circumstances. I’ve got used to it. Just put up with it as the end result will be worth it. Sounds as if you’ve done all the right things.

Thanks Skydancer. I'm trying to take the "it is what it is" attitude, but that's now - try me 3 weeks down the line!

I have had most of the electrical work done in advance, and my kitchen fitters will be able to tile, (plaster if necessary) and plumb without bringing anyone else in. Everything is coming from the same place apart from the tiles, the cooker hood and the under cupboard lights and I'm ordering them this week. Fitter has the skip sorted.

Flooring man is lined up but I won't throw a paddy if that's not done exactly on time.

I'm just hoping my optimism on having everything covered as much as humanly possible is not misplaced!

We’ve just had comprehensive repairs done after a flood to the ground floor of our house and had no sink or water downstairs for a month. I made a kind of mini kitchen in a bedroom, with a ‘breakfast bar’ of cereals and coffee etc.

I bought a washing up bowl with a plug (£4 in Tesco) to use in a bathroom basin and a mix of paper plates and bowls and our usual plates. I also got wooden cutlery, which feels weird in the mouth but it did the job, and paper cups. We ate an awful lot of ready meals and I confess that to make washing up as easy as possible, we ate the ready meals out of their original containers served up on plates for a veneer of civilisation. We also used plastic picnic tumblers for water and other drinks.

We got by somehow and it was wonderful to eat at a proper table again when the work was finished!

Ooh, thanks. The washing up bowl/plug sounds brilliant.

Eating out of the original containers sounds perfectly ok under the circumstances. After all, that's what you do in McDonalds or similar.

I did wonder about wooden cutlery. But given the total cost of the kitchen, buying a pack even I land up not using them is really not going to make much difference in the great scheme.

Great tips, thanks!

Good luck ferry23, the total chaos will be worthwhile. We ‘camped’ on the patio with a gazebo when our new kitchen was installed with a microwave and camping stove, and had a washing up bowl in the upstairs bathroom. We coped! Fortunately, it was in the Summer and the weather was good.

When we had our kitchen and utility room done we packed everything into lidded plastic storage boxes leaving only 2 of everything (more mugs so that the men could have their tea!) which I washed up in the tiny sink in the downstairs cloakroom! Where we had ready meals it was not unknown to eat out of the containers and the village pub also saw a lot of us!

We had work done in our kitchen a few years ago, not a total refit, however, disruptive and no water. I placed a huge bowl on a table in the garden corner (covered area) and did washing up there, kettle hot water. We cooked outside - easy, did meals and washups all in one place.

I froze some meals in advance as well.

We had a new kitchen fitted in January while DH was confined to the ground floor with a broken leg and I decided that if I could cope with that I could cope with anything. Utility room housed a two ring electric hob and a microwave (both borrowed) and I trotted round the outside with meals, drinks etc. Not fun but so worth the effort and nine years on the kitchen still looks great. Good luck!

We had ours gutted and redone in late November 2020, it took about 10 days until the hob, fridge and sink were usable, then the painting was done, then the flooring. Nine days of microwave meals and as we were in semi lockdown some pubs were delivering, we used 2 plates, 2 knives, 2 forks and washed up in the cloakroom. Microwave, kettle, cups etc in the living room, plus the smallest carton of milk was kept outside, it was worth every minute.
We were totally separate from the kitchen crew and I used to bleach down the cloakroom and door handles every night when they’d gone for the day.

We had our new kitchen fitted in the summer months so used our camping equipment outside and DD was away for the week on a Sea Cadet course.

We are still in a muddle as per my previous post but we’re getting there. I’m at the stage of NEVER AGAIN! However I’m beginning to envisage how it will look. Hang on in there, Ferry23.

Skydancer - I think we'll have to swap photos .

I'm sure it will look WONDERFUL. Just think, you're getting towards the end, I'm just starting.

I'm stocking up on disposable wine glasses

We had our kitchen extended and completely revamped. We managed with a tarpaulin up for 2 months with no kitchen sink, used the bathroom. Managed with a microwave, a Cadac and a fuel BBQ. Didn't bother buying plastic ware etc just used normal stuff. Worse things happen in life so don't get stressed out about it.

I used a slow cooker a lot during our kitchen revamp. Good luck it's worth it in the end

Another update. Just as we’d booked someone to fit the worktops we’ve discovered one of them is bowed! So now we have to try to get a replacement. Things were going too well!

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when I had my, kitchen done a couple of years ago, it was before I had a airfryer, I did spend £15 on a single electric hob which meant I could boil potatoes, pasta etc. Over the past couple of years this little hob did similar service at two of my daughter's houses when they were having kitchens done, and it current resting place is with a local charity that teaches disadvanted people cooking.

Neither of us function very well in chaos and we knew that the whole process would take at least three weeks*, we didn’t want to have several rooms in a mess, so we decided to turn our study into a mini kitchen.

Like Franbern we had a microwave and an Airfryer, and like her we found a single electric plug in hob invaluable. The fridge freezer from the “old” kitchen was moved in. We had access to water, but kept washing up ( in plastic bowl) in the study. I used a tray as a draining board. We each had a “set” of plates and cutlery and sufficient mugs ( for ourselves, intrepid visitors and the tradesmen!) we emptied a bookcase to hold supplies.

The only advice I would give is to find a place for everything you will be using and try to replace everything in the same spot. Also don’t be disappointed if the whole process takes longer than anticipated.

Good luck !

* our renovation involved walls being knocked down/blocked up, a boiler being replaced.

We've had ours done twice since we married and both times, though I was worried, it was ok - ish. We put the microwave in the dining room and mostly relied on convenience or pre-prepared by me meals. Washing up was done in the basin in the cloakroom or in the bathroom. The only problem was finding where I'd put everything after clearing out the kitchen ready for the refit. That and the fact that we had somehow acquired SEVEN bottle openers over the years.

If all else fails you have a brilliant reason to justify eating out or eating take away fish'n'chips out of the paper!

Good luck. It will be worth it.

We are thinking of having a new kitchen next year; nothing will need to be moved, it'll just really be like-for-like but modern (kitchen originally fitted in 1992).

Long before I met and married Mr. G I had the kitchen of my old house renovated. I did have a microwave, but it was one of the old-fashioned ones that weighed a ton. I remember I bought two ready-cooked chickens from my local Asda and lived on those, sliced bread, tomatoes and cucumber for most of the time the new kitchen took to do. I think I didn't touch chicken again for some months ...

Well, here I am 5 weeks tomorrow since the fitters walked through the door and ripped me apart!

We've had pull out baskets that don't fit, consumer unit moved, false backs fitted to base cupboard to access meter. Decorators who chipped off the corner of an exceptionally difficult to fit piece of worksurface. A gas leak.

Changes in design. A "helpful" flooring contractor who managed to get the fridge freezer stuck in a doorway.

I could go on...and on.

There doesn't seem to be a horizontal surface that's not covered in dust, as much as I've tried to keep doors closed and keep on top of the dust. More cardboard than I've ever seen in one place.

Over budget (of course). I'm surprised my local Sainsbury's has any tea or milk left with the amount I've been buying.

Cleaner who was due to come in last week and clean the entire kitchen top to bottom who had an accident and hurt her knee so cancelled on me at the last moment.

But I'm almost there. Still just have one box to unpack and put away, and I need to have a cull of all the duplicate cleaning products I seem to have accumulated and then put them away. New blind to be put up on Tuesday and then I'm done.

I never want to see another ready meal.

What about bamboo plates homebargains or tks, can be washed

Interesting thread. I had a new kitchen fitted in my previous house but I don’t remember how inconvenient it was. I was much younger then! We were able to put a new kitchen into this house before we moved in, thankfully. I don’t plan to change it again, apart from maybe new cupboard fronts and worktops if need be.

Well done ferry you’ve survived, our 10 days was bad enough, I hope you enjoy using it now it’s more or less finished.