Things to take to self catered halls

[HMF1]

DS 1 is off to Edinburgh in September & is staying in self catered halls, I am looking for advice on what he needs to take with him to cater for himself in the flat, he is used to home cooked food & this was one of his reasons for not applying for catered halls. We have some basic info from the website but I am cautious about how helpful this actually is. I want to spread the cost a bit & pick things up as the summer progresses. The one bit of advice I have been given is don't take up the university's offer of bedding, apart from that any advice gratefully received.

Suitcase on wheels. Helps with getting the laundry to the laundrette.

Decent back pack. To carry home groceries. You have to be quite organised to make a shopping delivery work for you, so it's quite normal to have to carry some weighty things like cider, lager, vodka milk or OJ back from the shop with you - carriers don't really work that well over time.
If you are lucky, you might even get a student who wants to carry study books to the library or lectures

BackforGood DDs flat have been really organised this year and do a monthly online shop for heavy stuff like bottled water their tap water is disgusting and booze and they all go to aldi for a weekly flat shop - I wish she'd shared with this group last year.

My DDs flat arranged £1 online shopping deliveries and everyone was doing it! Minimum £25 but they easily did that together. It depends a bit on how well they all get on.

Don't necessarily need to go overboard on the bag to take to the laundry - depends how far away it is. My DD just used a laundry bag which she could then leave there while waiting for it to clean as the laundry was in the block next to her flat. Her longest walk was the stairs down as she was on the fourth floor and a wheeled suitcase would have been the last thing she would have wanted for that trip.

However, a wheeled suitcase can be handy for coming home or staying at mates during the year.

Box to keep it all in in his room if there's trouble with someone borrowing breaking or not washing up!

Students don't take great care of other people's their things. One great tip is to buy yourself new pans, crockery, cutlery etc and give your stock of old / mismatches to the student.

So far he thinks the booze to help getting to know his flatmates is the best idea. He has good rucksacks as he is a keen hillwalker. They have a Laundry on site. I thought one of those blue Ikea bags might be good for lugging his washing about. Loads of ideas on here I/we hadn't thought about, but he is not taking my le Creuset pans to uni 23 years & they are still in good Nick.

He will probably only have a small cupboard (or half a one) to keep all his stuff including food in the kitchen so don't go overboard on too many utensils and one mug/plate/bowl encourages washing up.

He may not know who he is sharing with until he gets there so he might not be able to co-ordinate who brings what beforehand.

DD's must haves included

shopping bags,
a bath mat,
one of those hanging shelf things that you hang over the rail in a wardrobe - she had more "shelf" clothes than "hanger" clothes,
a bedside table and lamp - she couldn't reach the desk and desk lamp from the bed,
her own duvet cover instead of the one provided,
heat-proof mat to leave her hair straighteners on (but presumably your DS won't need that )
a large stock of cleaning materials and toiletries as they are relatively expensive compared to food.

Add something to your shopping basket each week, to build up a small box of "store cupboard" ingredients to help his cooking along when he start off - his budget will allow for that week's food, but not the fact he won't have any of the things like spices or stock cubes or salt or marmite or ketchup etc etc, in that first week.