How can I turn off 'check out' but allow shopping?

We are not able to take orders for one month but I have customers wanting to 'shop' and save in their carts to purchase in September.... How can I turn off the checkout option but allow them to shop?

A product isn't considered sold until the customer checks out. If you want to set up your store so that customers can put anything they want in their cart, but not check out then at the end of the month you might have issues where an item with 2 or 3 in stock has been placed in 4 or more baskets. These people all go to check out thinking they're so lucky they grabbed that purple polka-dotted blurrfl three weeks ago before it sold out, and then get really upset when they find they can't buy it because someone else put it in their basket, and checked out before them. You'd be getting some real ugly emails. You'd be better off setting the store to showcase, with prices so they can browse, but not allowing any cart action. You can put up a banner on each page explaining that the store will be open for shopping on 1 Sep at a certain time.

Thanks for the suggestion but that is more time consuming than I can spare.
The site is only used by people who know it's there - there are far more items than needed in quantity so the issue which you mention is not an issue at all.

They want to get a 'running total' on their own, knowing they will not be able to submit an order until Sept 1.
It is a cyclical bulk ordering situation.

I just need to keep people from checking out....but allow them to still shop.