Can I realistically get all my son's university essentials at IKEA?

[Superscared]

Son is off to uni - am I being overly optimistic or is there anything I CANT get at IKEA? I’m planning a single trip, with a list, and hoping to get everything in one go. Is this realistic??

it depends on so many things I suppose. was it very obviously Oxford or Cambridge , Are their friends home for reading week and having a catch up, are the university and home on an easy train line, what age and stage are younger siblings and would they want to see them too … I know both mine came up/down reasonably regularly at first, but then dd2 came home for a good long while in March 2020 anyway …. so that did change things a bit!

I bought a lot over several weeks (vaccuum bags came in very handy), but stopped at Ikea on the way and could have bought everything there. We picked up towels, a kingsize quilt and pillows from a Sainsbury's (Argos) local to DD's accommodation. We had pre-ordered it several days before. The shelves there were stripped of towels and bedding.

I got everything from Asda

Most, although we did get bedding at Dunelm.

Don't go mad though. We sent DD with a full set of cutlery. She has returned with one fork and one teaspoon!

Check the size of the bed before buying fitted sheets! Often they are small doubles. But obvs fine to have a double duvet etc

I wouldn’t get a kettle for his room. Most uni student accommodation has small equipment like that (toaster, kettle) provided, properly PAT tested by the university. Using a kettle in his room could also trip his room’s fire sensor. He won’t be popular if everyone has to evacuate his block because he can’t walk a few metres to the kitchen.

We bought a great pan set at Argos and Habitat crockery in Sainsburys at the weekend for very reasonable prices. Argos do the Habitat dinner sets boxed up but DS1 never used more than 2 plates/bowls in his first year because cupboard space was so limited in his hall’s kitchens. We brought half the set home on moving in day. If you buy in store at Sainsburys you can buy the Habitat crockery items individually.

We went to Ikea at the weekend but didn’t like the duvet sets and some items were not competitive with other stores so we’ll going elsewhere.

I think in theory you could get everything at IKEA. However, when we went some of the shelves were bare as we were beaten to it. There were no clothes racks at all for example. We went to a nearby Dunelm and the shop assistant asked if it was for uni and told us they had 10% off for students so they're worth a try.

I remember the green handled cutlery from my uni days - great choice🫶

So far my eldest wanted to stay at home and commute to college so no experience of any of mine moving away (yet).

Lots of great tips from everyone.

I bought my kids some things from charity shops (crockery and a couple of pans) and a new cutlery set and some towels from Dunelm. I don't remember buying them anything else new particularly. I reckon I was the only parent who didn't make a trip to Ikea!

When my DD went into Halls, after dropping all her stuff off we then went to the local Dunelm and Asda and bought everything she needed in one go.
Be very aware that most students seem to take far too much stuff when they first go to uni, and have nowhere to put it. They might only have one single cupboard in a shared kitchen, a single wardrobe, not be allowed kitchen appliances in their rooms etc.
Less is more!

Check with the university halls. Dd2 went to uni we had purchased her a set of John Lewis pans. As had another guys parents. Turned out that the hobs were induction and none of the IKEA sets most of the other students had would work.

Dd2 and the guys pots became the universal pots for the year though dd2 commented everyone stuck rigid to the clean up straight after use rule.

As the halls had been renovated over the summer there was no mention anywhere about induction hobs we had purchased them as with dd1 we got the basic IKEA pots and they broke within the first year . Dd2,3 and ds due to this got better pots from word go.

I’m sure you could but you might be better off in a massive ASDA

What would he use when he's at home?

I got every from IKEA OP..

Both our dds made lists and then we did an ikea trip. Anything we couldn’t get from the lists was ordered on Amazon.

To be fair, the big blue bags from IKEA are also good for transporting stuff to uni. It seemed that everyone was carrying their stuff in blue IKEA bags when we moved DD in!

I meant the quilt/pillow cases 😂
Thin bits of material you can easily fit in a bag.
Surely he has more than one set at home anyway.

I don't know why people are so keen for this kid not to get any new bedding, or, to be fair, why it's bothering me. But the idea that before any trip home he has to strip his bed in halls and either wash and dry the bedding to bring home or bring it home used, and then on his return on Sunday evening put it all back on just seems so needlessly faffy! Just get the boy a set for halls! Or do you, when you go and visit friends or family, pack up all those 'bits of material you can easily fit in a bag' and take it with you?

Agreed! A single set at ikea can be had for £8-9. Pennies compared with the cost of uni and avoids so much faff when he comes home for a weekend on the train. Not to mention he might well have a double at home and halls will almost certainly be a single.

Sorry 😂
I never realised a quilt cover was such a big deal.
I honestly didn't think uni students went home that much.
Also I kind of assumed (that like my 18 year old) he would already of own half a dozen sets so he'd just take a couple from home and still have spares at home.

It's nice for them to have new things for uni if you can afford it. It makes it special.

That is a good point about the induction hobs - we had the same issue. My daughter had a basket in her room for packaged snacks as she reckoned theu would've been scoffed by others if left in the kitchen. The Raskog trolleys with the wooden lid are really useful storage that take up little floor space and double as a bedside cabinet and toiletries etc storage. My daughter has just finished and has repurposed hers as a drinks trolley in her new flat!

Why not Vinted or British Heart Foundation furniture stores or similar? He’s a skint student, not a professional professional homeowner!

Yes but in all likelihood you buy a ton of stuff he won’t need or ever use. They really don’t need that much. Best is to set them up with the essentials the on the day see what else they need a plan to do a local shop there and then before you come home.

Because if he's the kind of person who'd enjoy it, and OP is, and can afford it, it is quite nice to go round IKEA and do the shop as a kind of fun rite of passage, rather than ordering a second hand pan here and a used set of bedding there and having them all arrive at different times, or combing/scrolling for ages in shops or marketplace websites.

It totally depends what any given parent and child find fun or celebratory - both mine really looked forward to the IKEA trip and we had a nice time picking things up and putting their kit together. Even though they weren't professional professional homeowners. No need for anyone else to enjoy that or prioritise it, but the answer to the question 'can I get everything a new student needs at IKEA' is basically, yes.

What kind of mattress topper? Is it different from a mattress protector?