How to Stay Sane During a Home Renovation (From Someone Who Actually Did It)

Life doesn't pause for plastic sheets and construction dust. Our co-founder and COO, Marissa Hagmeyer, learned this lesson during her recent kitchen and mudroom renovation. But she didn't just survive it, she figured out how to actually function through it.

No Pinterest-perfect temporary setups here. This is the real deal: how to keep your family fed, caffeinated, and organized when your house is basically a construction zone.

The Kitchen That Wasn't

Temporary coffee station on a sideboard with glass canisters filled with coffee pods and mugs arranged on an shelf below

When your kitchen disappears overnight, you get creative fast. Marissa's game plan? Keep it simple and functional.

The Mini Kitchen Setup:

Electric skillet, toaster oven, microwave – the holy trinity of temporary meal prep
Weekly takeout nights (because your sanity is worth more than homemade everything)
Any sideboard or credenza becomes your new coffee station and dry bar

The secret? Canisters and turntables. Same organizing principles, different location. Coffee pods, filters, spirits – everything gets its designated spot, even in chaos.

The Pantry Hack

Temporary pantry set-up displayed on a metal shelving system organized with baskets, canisters and risers.

Here's what Marissa discovered: your temporary pantry doesn't need to be Instagram-ready.

She used a sturdy shelving unit with adjustable shelves - nothing fancy. The beauty? Once the renovation is done, this piece (one of our favorites) is easily repurposed in the garage. No waste, no regret.

The organizing trick: Treat temporary shelving like any other pantry. Same categorized baskets, same canisters, same risers. Function over form, every time.

The Drop Zone Solution

Temporary mudroom setup neatly arranged with rope bins, hooks above and a row of shoes below

The mudroom was another major piece of Marissa’s renovation and she knew they wouldn’t function well without it. Enter the mudroom hall tree – her temporary hero piece.

While contractors built lockers just inside the door to the garage, this simple piece corralled shoes, bags, and jackets right at the front door. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the smartest ones.

Real Talk…

Renovations are messy, stressful, and always take longer than you think they will. But with the right temporary setups, you don't have to live like you're camping in your own home. And with your local NEAT Method team behind you, you can leave the logistics to us.

Our renovation services cover it all:

Consultation on renovation plans – because the best organized spaces start with smart design
Temporary setups – we'll create functional systems that work while you're living in construction chaos
Full organization – when the dust settles, we'll set up your new space perfectly

We know renovation life because we've lived it. And we know how to make it work. Stay tuned for Marissa's kitchen and mudroom reveal. Spoiler alert: the wait was absolutely worth it.

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