Redneck Farmhouse Sink (How to wash dishes during a kitchen remodel)

We are 1 week (really? only 1 week? It feels sooo much longer!) into our kitchen remodel. My refusal to wash dishes in the bathtub during our kitchen remodel lasted all of 4 days...sigh...

First-it is seriously gross for me to think about dishes and the bathroom in the same space. yuck!  Second-I really have no other place to wash them. I keep the shower curtain closed where my dish washing station is set up. No-one is allowed to use the downstairs bathroom if at any point I have dishes on the drying rack. It doesn't matter if the curtain closed. It completely skeeves me out!! What can I say I have issues, haha

I suppose my other two option would be to move the "dish wash station" outside but then I would  need to haul hot water and quite frankly it is getting a little nippy outside. Or set something up in the creepy dungeon/cellar/ basement but there are spiders, an occasional mouse or two and usually a snake down there...so that would be a big fat NO!  Icky bathroom it is, bleh

Brittany from Pretty Handy Girl blog had a very cool idea on using a cooler as a farmhouse sink, so I can't claim it as my idea. And you know what? It is an AWESOME idea. I have my cooler/ redneck farmhouse sink sitting on a plastic step stool to raise the height, so there isn't as much hunching over the tub and the dish drainer is on a metal table, also elevated to avoid the tub hunch.

To avoid any junk clogging the cooler or worse-my tub- the dishes are scraped and pre-rinsed outside with the hose. Any accumulated dirty dishes get tossed in the cooler and lid closed until I can deal with them which is usually before I go to bed.  I like having use of the shower sprayer and when you are done just open the drain spout on the cooler. It is genius I say!

  The water stays nice and toasty for quite a while since the cooler holds heat  being insulated and all.  Which is good because I am only washing dishes once a day. I usually soak the dishes for about an 30-40 minutes while I take the dogs out, take the garbage out and usually work on some laundry at the same time. I am really trying to limit the amount of dishes we are using (it is primarily pots/ pans since we are using paper/ disposable plastic for the dishes and cutlery) because I don't  like hand washing dishes anyway,  especially hunched over the bath tub...

Ain't nobody got time for that!

I am REALLY regretting not remodelling the bathroom/ laundry room area first. I had planned on installing a utility sink and small laundry folding counter. Which in hindsight would have been perfect for a dish wash station. And a cheaper remodel project. oops. Oh well, live and learn. I will know better if we ever do this type of thing again.  Which is most likely never!

Anyone have any good tips for managing the chores while living through a kitchen remodel?