An Organized Remodel

Our family is in the middle of a kitchen remodel. Now more than ever it helps to be organized. Remodeling can be disruptive; there’s noise, dust and people coming and going. In order to preserve our sanity, we thought it would help to maintain a few routines. One of those routines is eating dinner together. I wanted to continue that routine as much as possible. Because I’m a clutter control freak, I did a little advance planning.

In order to set up a temporary kitchen I salvaged one of the base cabinets from the kitchen and had it moved into the dining room. I brought a metal shelf in from the garage to store plates and the foods we used the most frequently. I already had baskets on the high shelves in our old cabinets, so I just popped them onto the shelves.

I boxed up about sixty percent of our stuff and have found that we are doing pretty well without it! I’ve got a toaster oven, microwave and hot plate and have found I can make just about anything with that combination. I made quite a few meals in advance and froze them for days when I don‘t have a lot of time.

We even have a system for washing dishes. We rotate two baskets. One collects the dirty dishes. We carry that downstairs to the wash tubs. We drain the dishes on top of the washer and put the clean dishes into another basket that rests on top of the dryer. That basket goes upstairs and is stored under the rack and the basket that held the dirty dishes gets rinsed and put back on top of the dryer.

Remodeling can pose some unique challenges (like no running water) but a little planning can help the family adapt through the transition.