It’s Sunday night. The cabinets come out tomorrow, the old fridge is still humming in the corner, and nobody has worked out where breakfast will come from. We see this often, because most planning goes into the new kitchen rather than the weeks without one. Without a plan, a few weeks of renovation can easily turn into a few weeks of takeaway and short tempers.

A proper temporary kitchen setup fixes that. This guide covers when to build it, where to put it, what goes in it, how to plan meals and which jobs need a licensed tradie. It draws on what our crews see on removal day across Sydney, when the old kitchen goes and family life still has to carry on. If your home is tight on space, our small kitchen ideas for apartments include tricks that work just as well for a makeshift station.

Get your temporary kitchen running before demolition day

The order you do things in matters more than most people think. First, clear the kitchen of your belongings and furniture. Then set up your temporary station somewhere else in the house. Do it the other way round and you’ll be packing boxes around a microwave you still need.

In most cases your kitchen is out of action from removal day right through the plumbing, electrical and structural work. Ask your renovator for the stage schedule, which is simply the list of dates for each part of the job. Then circle the day the old cabinets go. If you’ve booked professional kitchen removal, that date is your deadline.

What we’d do first: set up the temporary kitchen a weekend early and cook one real dinner in it. That’s when you’ll notice the missing tin opener, while the old kitchen is still there to borrow from.

Pick the right spot: water, power and distance from the dust

In most Sydney homes the laundry wins easily. It already has hot and cold water, drainage and at least one power point. Put a dining table just outside the laundry door and you have a place to prep.

The garage is our second choice. You’ll usually find power there but rarely water, so pair it with the laundry tub for washing up. Before you commit, walk the path the trades will take from the street to the kitchen, as if you were carrying a cabinet. If your setup sits on that path, move it, because our crews need a clear run on removal day.

Keep your station well away from the demolition too. Plaster dust is fine and light, so it drifts through the house and settles on everything, including your food. A closed door between the two areas helps more than you’d expect.

Most households stay home through a kitchen renovation, as long as the temporary kitchen is out of the trades’ way. If bathrooms or floors are being redone at the same time, weigh up whether the disruption is worth it before you decide.

The temporary kitchen setup checklist we give every household

A temporary kitchen during a renovation needs five things: power, a fridge, a sink, a clear bench and a bin. Everything beyond that is optional. In our experience, most of the extras people pack end up staying in the box.

Power and a few useful appliances

Bring the kettle, toaster, microwave and one cooking appliance. An electric frypan, slow cooker, air fryer or portable induction cooktop will each handle most dinners. Pick the one you already know how to use, and leave the stand mixer packed.

Count the power points you actually have before you plug anything in. Kettles and microwaves draw a lot of power, so spread them across separate points. Never plug one power board into another, because stacking them makes it easy to overload a single socket.

Fridge and food storage

If your old fridge is staying, move it to the new spot and plug it straight into a wall socket. Measure the doorways before anyone tries to lift it, and keep it upright if you can. If it has to travel on its side, check the manual for how long it should stand before you switch it back on.

Keep dry goods in lidded tubs on a single shelf so the dust stays out. An esky handles the overflow on shopping day.

A sink and a washing up routine

If you’re wondering where to wash dishes during a kitchen renovation, use the laundry tub. It’s deep, it has hot water and it drains properly. Put a dish rack and tea towels right beside it. We’d skip the bathroom basin, which is small and shared with everyone’s toothbrushes.

Compostable plates, cups and cutlery keep the pile down on busy nights. We also suggest washing up once a day after dinner, rather than on and off all day.

Bins, recycling and a clear bench

Put a general waste bin and a recycling bin right beside the prep area. A folding trestle table with a wipeable cover makes a solid bench. Keep it clear, because the moment it becomes the spot for mail and keys, you’ve lost your only prep space.

Plan meals around the kitchen you don’t have

Cooking without a kitchen gets tiring fast when every night is a fresh decision. Write a rotation of five or six dinners that need one appliance and very little washing up, then repeat it. Frozen microwave meals, slow cooker stews, toasted sandwiches and barbecue nights all earn their place on that list.

What we’d do first: batch cook and freeze meals in your old kitchen the week before it’s removed. Honestly, that freezer stash will do more for your sanity than any gadget you could buy.

Living without a kitchen does wear thin eventually, even for the most organised family. When it does, the finished kitchens in our gallery are a good reminder of what all the dust is building towards.

What you can set up yourself and when to call a licensed tradie

You can safely move a fridge to an existing power point, set up tables and shelving, plug in benchtop appliances and sort out your storage. That covers most of the job, and none of it needs a tradie.

Anything that changes wiring, water or gas is a different story. In NSW, electrical wiring, plumbing, drainage and gasfitting count as specialist work under the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW), so they must be done by a licensed tradie. That includes adding a power point, connecting a temporary sink to water and drainage, or moving a gas appliance. You can check a tradie’s licence with NSW Fair Trading for free before they start, and we’d encourage every household to do it.

Plenty of makeshift kitchen ideas online involve garden hoses, jury rigged taps and extension leads run under doors. Skip them. An extension lead stretched across a doorway for weeks is a trip hazard, and a lead pinched under a door can wear through its cover. Give the temporary kitchen its own line on your kitchen renovation checklist, so it gets planned properly instead of improvised on the day.

Frequently asked questions

How do you survive a kitchen renovation without a kitchen?Set up a small station in another room before the old kitchen comes out, with power, a fridge, water and a bin. Keep meals simple and washing up to a minimum, so the weeks feel like a routine rather than a crisis.

How long will I be without a kitchen?That depends on the scope of your job, so we won’t guess. Ask your renovator which stages leave the kitchen out of action. Removal, plumbing, electrical and structural work are the usual ones, so plan around those dates.

Can I stay in my house during a kitchen renovation?Most households can, as long as there’s a separate spot for meals away from the trades. If other rooms are being renovated at the same time, weigh up whether the disruption is worth it.

Where do you wash dishes during a kitchen renovation?In most Sydney homes the laundry tub is the best option, because it has hot and cold water and proper drainage. Keep a rack beside it and use compostable plates on busy days.

Can I move my fridge into the garage or laundry myself?Yes, if there’s a standard power point nearby. Plug it straight into the wall. If there isn’t one, have a licensed electrician install a point rather than running extension leads for weeks.

Your next step before the old kitchen comes out

A good temporary kitchen setup comes down to timing. Get the stage schedule, pick your spot and have everything running a weekend before removal day. Do that and the weeks without a kitchen feel manageable rather than miserable.

Your next step is to find out the exact date your old kitchen comes out. Talk to our team and we’ll walk you through each stage, so you’re ready well ahead of time.

Want to know how other households found the process? Read what our clients say across our 249 Google reviews at 5.0 star rating.

About the author

Written by the Sydney Style Kitchens team. We design and build kitchens across Sydney, from shadowline designs to compact apartment layouts. Our crews also handle kitchen removal in areas such as Penrith and Rouse Hill. That means the advice here comes from the stage of the job where the old kitchen goes and daily life has to carry on. We currently hold 249 Google reviews at 5.0.