Kitchen stuff for self catering students

[MandyMiceDavies]

DS has an accommodation offer in a flat of 12. He needs to take all his kitchen stuff with him- plates, cutlery, cooking stuff etc.

He likes to cook so will probably actually use the things rather than living on pot noodle. Does anyone have a list of suggested things to take? In particular he’s not sure how many of each item eg plates- presumably students still cook for friends etc?

(Side point but what a daft system for 12 students sharing a kitchen all having to bring a separate colander, frying pan etc.)

Don’t know anyone who had an induction hob in halls or rental flats. Mostly cheap solid rings or halogen hobs. Took my DC a bit to get used to the delayed response of a solid ring compared to gas at home.

In defence of cheap frying pans - expensive ones are more expensive to go missing. Agree that cheap ones don’t last though.

As PPs have said cupboard space is often the limiting factor.

In DCs fact of 12 they all had I cupboard, which sounds fine but it was nearly full with basics of plates/bowls/mugs/glass/pan etc. so not much room for food. DC had a a plastic crate under their bed for dry food stuffs, so that's not a bad idea.

Flat not fact !

Best to keep any snack type foods (and alcohol) in your room anyway - ownership of such items becomes ‘blurred’ when your flatmates and friends come back from the pub late at night.

Re frying pans, our local Tesco Extra had nice solid ones (can't remember brand) ridiculously cheap on 'Clubcard price' the last time I was (odd replacement bits of) student house equipment shopping for DD a couple of years ago. Something like £6 for 28 or 30cm diameter.

We also provided a starter pack of spices (pic of DS2's - yes, that is a shoebox) attached.

We decanted some herbs and spices into small plastic sealable bags. Took up less space and obviously cost saving for DC

@KielderWater every student hall DS looked at had induction hobs and his second year student house does too. Also has the obligatory airfryer.

Walk through your own kitchen now and work out what he uses to cook what he wants. For Ds that was 1 frying pan, 1 saucepan with a draining lid so no need for a colander or sieve. No cheese grater, bought grated cheese, no garlic press bought tubes of garlic instead. Sharp knife, chopping board, baking tray plus one teeny one for doing one portion salmon etc. So work out what your son needs now to cook and write it down. Each person will be different. Ds originally took a teeny slow cooker, this was then upgraded to an Instant Pot (also has slow cooker mode) as he cooked from scratch. He took 2 dinner plates, 1 pasta bowl, 1 cereal sized bowl. 1 microwavable Sistema bowl with handle for soups or porridge.

One of those sponges on a stick (Dishmatic) Ds stored his in a cup in his cupboard as if you left it out someone would use it, he had lots of replacement heads. Tea towels too.

Cupboard space is incredibly limited in uni kitchens. It has to contain their crockery, utensils, pans, baking tray, food, condiments, spices, tin foil, oven gloves etc. Think about how big your own kitchen is and imagine everything in one base unit 50cm wide and one wall cupboard 50cm wide. That is it. We used a command hook on the inside of the cupboard door for his tea towel. Ds also had a plastic mat to put down on the work surface so he at least had somewhere clean to prepare food. I completely agree with @S0CKPUPPET about there always being at least one arsehole who never cleans up. I have photos of mouldy tins with half the unused contents festering in the fridge that Ds sent me and the uni was all you are adults you need to sort this out yourselves and 7 of them were trying to live with this arsehole who lived like this. It was very stressful.

No cheese grater, bought grated cheese, no garlic press bought tubes of garlic instead.

Again, it depends how much they cook, but both mine use both of these frequently. It's much cheaper than buying prepared stuff to. Grater is used for all sorts - grated veg for soups and sauces and then it cooks quicker too.

All the halls at my son's uni have induction hobs as does his second year student house.this year.

You can use induction hob- suitable pans on gas and normal electric hobs so it makes sense to buy them anyway, it's not like they cost more.

I've been trying to look at the sample photos of DD's accommodation, but they all look like there will not be any under bed storage - it looks a fairly solid base.

I have today though managed to pick up 2 x dinner plates, 2 x side plates and a cereal bowl from the charity shop for 50p each. It is one of those that sells everything all higgedly piggedly - which is probably a better bet then the chain ones that end up looking too organised. (clothes colour coloured for example)

What university is it op?

DS had an electric hob but not induction. I suspect private halls might have induction but halls on a campus are less likely to,

@ShamblesRock it isn't a bed where you have to pull up the mattress and the board that it is resting on to access the storage, perhaps? DD was in a Unite hall with that arrangement. 4ft bed with quite good quality, heavyish mattress, to boot, so I'm not sure how much she actually used the storage.

DS room in halls had the mattress you lift up to access under-bed storage. The accommodation page on website confirmed there was under-bed storage and an induction hob in the kitchen

All newer or recently refurbished halls have induction whether private or uni in my experience

But unless you have a significant number of children or you have had numerous jobs in multiple cities as a cleaner, your pool of experience will be very limited.

OP just wait until you know. same with bulky appliances like air fryers. dc last year had a kitchen for 12 (Lancaster). The worktop space was very limited once they all had their food bits in there and there was no way it could also accommodate multiple appliances, particularly since they all cooked at similar times. Their hobs were ceramic electric but not induction. They had two cookers, two microwaves and three fridge freezers between them.

Some universities will also have eco sales in freshers weeks. Lancaster has eco sales all week as part of the freshers market and also has a permanent eco shop where they sell things no longer needed by other students ranging from kitchen stuff, to decorative things, to dressing up items

💯 this. I’ve put two through uni and the advice from both is take one plate, glass and mug, one knife and fork and spoon, and one good knife and spatula for cooking. One pan.

wash up after you’ve eaten and keep your plate and stuff in your room.

no one washes up and all your clean stuff will be used by lazy fuckers.

Whenever stuff went missing for DD it was in one particular persons cupboard. They simply didn’t wash up or clean or tidy so just took other peoples stuff.
Take minimal items

That is really useful to know. Any other good tips about Lancaster?

Having now read some more, it does seem there is underbed storage user is it like the others have said? It is really useable?

Get one of those saucepans with a lip on it and draining holes then they don't need a colander to drain pasta.

I sent my 'loves to cook' DD to uni with her own collection of spices and they all came back again. Once the kitchen becomes a grimey cluttered state - she just wanted to get in and out as fast as she could to make a meal.

A small wok was really useful.

4 kids a ward and a niece, 5 unis, looked at multiple halls on endless open days in probably another 8 unis.